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Defining static const integer members in class definition

Asked 2010-06-11T20:26:48.840
130

My understanding is that C++ allows static const members to be defined inside a class so long as it's an integer type.

Why, then, does the following code give me a linker error?

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>

class test
{
public:
    static const int N = 10;
};

int main()
{
    std::cout << test::N << "\n";
    std::min(9, test::N);
}

The error I get is:

test.cpp:(.text+0x130): undefined reference to `test::N'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

Interestingly, if I comment out the call to std::min, the code compiles and links just fine (even though test::N is also referenced on the previous line).

Any idea as to what's going on?

My compiler is gcc 4.4 on Linux.

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4

C++ allows static const members to be defined inside a class

Nope, 3.1 ยง2 says:

A declaration is a definition unless it declares a function without specifying the function's body (8.4), it contains the extern specifier (7.1.1) or a linkage-specification (7.5) and neither an initializer nor a functionbody, it declares a static data member in a class definition (9.4), it is a class name declaration (9.1), it is an opaque-enum-declaration (7.2), or it is a typedef declaration (7.1.3), a using-declaration (7.3.3), or a using-directive (7.3.4).

answered 2010-06-11T21:02:34.997

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