What is a “translation unit” in C++

Question

I am reading at the time the \"Effective C++\" written by Meyers and came across the term \"translation unit\".

Could somebody please give me an explanation of:

Answer 1

In addition to the ODR, the translation unit is important in the definition of unnamed namespaces, which replaces one of the old uses of "static".

I guess I still don't have enough points to add a comment under the top answer.

Answer 2

In my view, a "translation unit" is typically a single "post-preprocessing" source file. You can get more details on this MSDN page. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bxss3ska(v=vs.80).aspx

Answer 3

Every cpp/c (implementation) file will be converted into a translation unit (ie.,object file (.obj)) headers in the cpp file will be replaced with the actual text from the header files.

Answer 4

As others have said, a translation unit is basically the contents of a source file after preprocessing. It's the topmost production in the language grammar; you would only need to worry about it if you were writing a C or C++ compiler.

Answer 5

The book makes it clear enough. When Meyers referes to a "translation Unit", he means a source code file.