c++stdconstexprstdsetinitialization-order

Can I make a constexpr object of type std::set?

I need a const object of type std::set, which will be used in many other cpp files. Since the initialization order of each translation unit is undefined, I may get an empty set when I initialize other const objects with this std::set object.

So, I want make this std::set as constexpr, but it can not be compiled. I want to have:

constexpr std::set<int> EARLIER_SET = { 1, 2, 3 };

Is there a way to do this, or none at all?

Solution

  • You cannot use constexpr here since std::set has no constexpr constructors.

    What you can do though is declare the variable as an inline const variable and that will allow you to include it in every translation unit and provide an initializer. That would look like

    //header file
inline const std::set<int> EARLIER_SET = { 1, 2, 3 };