C++ static constant string (class member)

I'd like to have a private static constant for a class (in this case a shape-factory). I'd like to have something of the sort.

class A {
   private:
      static const string RECTANGLE = "rectangle";
}

Unfortunately I get all sorts of error from the C++ (g++) compiler, such as:

ISO C++ forbids initialization of member 'RECTANGLE'

invalid in-class initialization of static data member of non-integral type 'std::string'

error: making 'RECTANGLE' static

This tells me that this sort of member design is not compliant with the standard. How do you have a private literal constant (or perhaps public) without having to use a #define directive (I want to avoid the uglyness of data globality!)

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

---

You have to define your static member outside the class definition and provide the initializer there.

First

// In a header file (if it is in a header file in your case)
class A {   
private:      
  static const string RECTANGLE;
};

and then

// In one of the implementation files
const string A::RECTANGLE = "rectangle";

The syntax you were originally trying to use (initializer inside class definition) is only allowed with integral and enum types.

---

在C ++ 11中，你现在可以做到：

class A {
 private:
  static constexpr const char* STRING = "some useful string constant";
};

---

Inside class definitions you can only declare static members. They have to be defined outside of the class. For compile-time integral constants the standard makes the exception that you can "initialize" members. It's still not a definition, though. Taking the address would not work without definition, for example.

I'd like to mention that I don't see the benefit of using std::string over const char[] for constants. std::string is nice and all but it requires dynamic initialization. So, if you write something like

const std::string foo = "hello";

at namespace scope the constructor of foo will be run right before execution of main starts and this constructor will create a copy of the constant "hello" in the heap memory. Unless you really need RECTANGLE to be a std::string you could just as well write

// class definition with incomplete static member could be in a header file
class A {
    static const char RECTANGLE[];
};

// this needs to be placed in a single translation unit only
const char A::RECTANGLE[] = "rectangle";

There! No heap allocation, no copying, no dynamic initialization.

Cheers, s.

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