How to initialize private static members in C++?

Question

What is the best way to initialize a private, static data member in C++? I tried this in my header file, but it gives me weird linker errors:

class foo
{
           


        

Answer 1

I follow the idea from Karl. I like it and now I use it as well. I've changed a little bit the notation and add some functionality

#include 

class Foo
{
   public:

     int   GetMyStaticValue () const {  return MyStatic();  }
     int & GetMyStaticVar ()         {  return MyStatic();  }
     static bool isMyStatic (int & num) {  return & num == & MyStatic(); }

   private:

      static int & MyStatic ()
      {
         static int mStatic = 7;
         return mStatic;
      }
};

int main (int, char **)
{
   Foo obj;

   printf ("mystatic value %d\n", obj.GetMyStaticValue());
   obj.GetMyStaticVar () = 3;
   printf ("mystatic value %d\n", obj.GetMyStaticValue());

   int valMyS = obj.GetMyStaticVar ();
   int & iPtr1 = obj.GetMyStaticVar ();
   int & iPtr2 = valMyS;

   printf ("is my static %d %d\n", Foo::isMyStatic(iPtr1), Foo::isMyStatic(iPtr2));
}

this outputs

mystatic value 7
mystatic value 3
is my static 1 0