7.6 Static Class Members

• • We can access a static member directly through the scope operator.
    

  • in general, we may not initialize astatic member inside the class. Instead, we must define and initialize each staticdata member outside the class body. 

    
    

  • Ordinarily, class static members may not be initialized in the class body. However,we can provide in-class initializers for static members that have const integral type and must do so for static members that are constexprs of literal type 

  • Even if a const static data member is initialized in the class body, that member ordinarily should be defined outside the class definition. 

    If an initializer is provided inside the class, the member’s definition must not specifyan initial value.

    class Bar { public:
    // ... private:
    static Bar mem1; // ok: static member can have incomplete type
    Bar *mem2; // ok: pointer member can have incomplete type 
    <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bar mem3; // error: data members must have complete type
    };</span>

    
    

    // for each file passed to the program
    for (auto p = argv + 1; p != argv + argc; ++p) {
    ifstream input(*p); // create input and open the file 
    <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if (input)
     { // if the file is ok, ''process'' this file
    </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span>	</span>process(input); 
    } else
    </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">cerr << "couldn't open: " + string(*p); 
    </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">} // input goes out of scope and is destroyed on each iteration</span>

    
    
    

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