Say we need a class member variable (non-const). Global variables should be best avoided, but let's ignore that for now and focus on the solution.
This is a bad choice most often:
struct S {
static int i;
};
// somewhere in cpp file:
int S::i = 0;
The definition (int S::i = 0;) needs to be placed in a single translation unit in the whole project, otherwise we get an error indicating multiple definition of S::i.
In pre-C++17 world we need to find some workaround of this problem. One way is to go with a static member function:
struct S {
static int& getStatic() {
static int i = 0;
return i;
}
};
// sample use: ++S::getStatic();
Another way is to use templates:
template <typename T>
struct S
{
static int i;
};
template <typename T>
int S<T>::i = 0;
using static_instance = S<void>;
// sample use: ++static_instance::i;
That makes a lot of boilerplate and obscure code. Our problem is solved by inline variables in C++17. That looks simple and serves well:
struct S {
static inline int i = 0;
};
// sample use: ++S::i;
The inline variable has an external linkage if our class is not inside an unnamed namespace (i.e. when the class has external linkage too). It enables the possibility of more than one definition of the variable (hence no multiple definition errors). The variable must be declared inline in all the translation units and it always has the same memory address. All the definitions have to be identical, otherwise we break one definition rule. That may lead to hard to detect problems if we are not cautious.
// one translation unit, S has external linkage
struct S {
static inline int i = 3;
};
// another translation unit, S has external linkage
struct S {
static inline double i = 3.14159;
};
The code in the example above is invalid, but it compiles and can behave unexpectedly.
Static constexpr members are inline by default.
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