6 Basics [basic]

6.5 Name lookup [basic.lookup]

6.5.6 Elaborated type specifiers [basic.lookup.elab]

If the class-key or enum keyword in an elaborated-type-specifier is followed by an identifier that is not followed by ​::​, lookup for the identifier is type-only ([basic.lookup.general]).
[Note 1: 
In general, the recognition of an elaborated-type-specifier depends on the following tokens.
If the identifier is followed by ​::​, see [basic.lookup.qual].
— end note]
If the terminal name of the elaborated-type-specifier is a qualified name, lookup for it is type-only.
If the name lookup does not find a previously declared type-name, the elaborated-type-specifier is ill-formed.
[Example 1: struct Node { struct Node* Next; // OK, refers to injected-class-name Node struct Data* Data; // OK, declares type Data at global scope and member Data }; struct Data { struct Node* Node; // OK, refers to Node at global scope friend struct ::Glob; // error: Glob is not declared, cannot introduce a qualified type ([dcl.type.elab]) friend struct Glob; // OK, refers to (as yet) undeclared Glob at global scope. /* ... */ }; struct Base { struct Data; // OK, declares nested Data struct ::Data* thatData; // OK, refers to ​::​Data struct Base::Data* thisData; // OK, refers to nested Data friend class ::Data; // OK, global Data is a friend friend class Data; // OK, nested Data is a friend struct Data { /* ... */ }; // Defines nested Data }; struct Data; // OK, redeclares Data at global scope struct ::Data; // error: cannot introduce a qualified type ([dcl.type.elab]) struct Base::Data; // error: cannot introduce a qualified type ([dcl.type.elab]) struct Base::Datum; // error: Datum undefined struct Base::Data* pBase; // OK, refers to nested Data — end example]