Re: Undefined symbol error for static const char

From:
Andrey Tarasevich <andreytarasevich@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:09:47 -0700
Message-ID:
<hal6cm$hbe$1@news.eternal-september.org>
rawhm wrote:

What gives?

$ cat sc.cpp


#include <vector>

class cls {
public:
    static const char foo = 100;
};

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    std::vector<char> vect;

    vect.resize(10, cls::foo);

    return 0;
}

$ g++ sc.cpp

Undefined symbols:
  "cls::foo", referenced from:
      __ZN3cls3fooE$non_lazy_ptr in ccB49b7c.o
ld: symbol(s) not found
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status


Adding an intializer to a static const member _declaration_ does not
turn it into a _definition_. A separate _definition_ of that static
member is still required, if the member is "used" in the code. What
constitutes a "use" of such a member changed from the "original" C++
specification (1998) to the later ones.

In the original C++ standard, the way you are using 'cls::foo' in your
code does qualify as a "use", so you have to _define_ your 'cls::foo'
separately at namespace scope

   const char cls::foo;

If your GCC version adheres to that original standard, that would be the
reason for that legitimate linker error.

In the updated C++ standard the definition of "use" for integral
constants was changed considerably. I'm not sure whether 'cls::foo' is
"used" according to the new definition (can't check right now).

Anyway, what version of GCC are you using?

--
Best regards,
Andrey Tarasevich

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