Re: Undefined symbol error for static const char

From:
Michael Tsang <miklcct@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:37:28 +0800
Message-ID:
<havevi$g2e$1@news.eternal-september.org>
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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


According to ISO/IEC 14882:2009 (draft n2960) Section 9.4.2
[class.static.data]:
2 The declaration of a static data member in its class definition is not a
definition and may be of an incomplete type other than cv-qualified void.
The definition for a static data member shall appear in a namespace scope
enclosing the member???s class definition.

You missed the definition so the linker complains.

3 If a static data member is of const literal type, its declaration in the
class definition can specify a brace-or-equal-initializer in which every
initializer-clause that is an assignment-expression is a constant
expression. A static data member of literal type can be declared in the
class definition with the constexpr specifier; if so, its declaration shall
specify a brace-or-equal-initializer in which every initializer-clause that
is an assignment-expression is a constant expression. [ Note: In both these
cases, the member may appear in constant expressions. ??? end note ] *The
member shall still be defined in a namespace scope if it is used in the
program and the namespace scope definition shall not contain an
initializer.*

You have used the member in the program so a definition is still needed and
the initialization needs to be done in the definition.
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