Is there a way to automatically generate getters and setters if they aren't present in C++?

The C++ Core Guidelines advise against using trivial getters and setters because they’re unnecessary and a symptom of bad object-oriented design. As such, C++ has no built-in functionality for auto-generating getters and setters (though metaclasses, if they ever get included in the language, would make this possible). This is related to the well-established software engineering principle tell, don’t ask.

In particular, mutating state via setters is usually a sign of code smell and a bad architectural design. There are exceptions from this rule, purely out of practicality. And this is fine, but the exceptions are few enough that they shouldn’t warrant tools to auto-generate getters and setters.

In fact, you may use this as a litmus test: whenever you find yourself wishing for a tool to autogenerate such boilerplate, take a step back and reconsider your code design.


That said, there exist a number of tools to provide the functionality and in purely practical terms they may prove useful, though I have not personally tested them:

  • Visual Studio Code:
    • Getter and Setter Generator
    • Getter/Setter Generator
  • Vim
    • vim-refactor
  • Emacs
    • semantic-refactor
  • Visual Studio
    • Resharper C++
    • Visual Assist
    • GS Assist
  • CLion
    • built in
  • Eclipse
    • built into Exclipse CDT (“Implement method”)

Not the compiler itself, but an IDE like eclipse CDT can actually perform this action automatcally (right click on class > Source > Generate Getters and Setters...).


You have to implement them yourself