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    CWG Issue 75</TITLE>
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<P><EM>This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21
  Core Issues List revision 118b.
  See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official
  list.</EM></P>
<P>2025-09-28</P>
<HR>
<A NAME="75"></A><H4>75.
  
In-class initialized members must be const
</H4>
<B>Section: </B>11.4&#160; [<A href="https://wg21.link/class.mem">class.mem</A>]
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Status: </B>TC1
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Submitter: </B>John Wiegley
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Date: </B>29 Dec 1998<BR>





<P>The standard says, in
11.4 [<A href="https://wg21.link/class.mem">class.mem</A>]

paragraph 4:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>A <I>member-declarator</I> can contain a
<I>constant-initializer</I> only
if it declares a <TT>static</TT> member
(11.4.9 [<A href="https://wg21.link/class.static">class.static</A>]
)
of integral or enumeration type, see
11.4.9.3 [<A href="https://wg21.link/class.static.data">class.static.data</A>]
.</BLOCKQUOTE>
But later, in the section on static class data member initialization,
11.4.9.3 [<A href="https://wg21.link/class.static.data">class.static.data</A>]

paragraph 4, it says:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If a <TT>static</TT> data member is of <TT>const</TT> integral
or <TT>const</TT> enumeration
type, its declaration in the class definition can specify a
<I>constant-initializer</I> which shall be an integral constant expression
(7.7 [<A href="https://wg21.link/expr.const">expr.const</A>]
). In that case, the
member can appear in integral constant expressions within its scope.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
The first paragraph should be modified to make it clear that it is not possible
to initialize a static data member in-line with a constant-initializer if that
data member is of integral (or enumeration) type, and yet not const.

<P>
<B>Proposed Resolution (10/99):</B>
Change the sentence in 11.4 [<A href="https://wg21.link/class.mem#4">class.mem</A>] paragraph 4
to read:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
A <I>member-declarator</I> can contain a <I>constant-initializer</I>
only if it declares a <TT>static</TT> member
(11.4.9 [<A href="https://wg21.link/class.static">class.static</A>]
)
of <TT>const</TT> integral or <TT>const</TT> enumeration type,
see 11.4.9.3 [<A href="https://wg21.link/class.static.data">class.static.data</A>]
.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
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