Unnamed/anonymous namespaces vs. static functions

Question

A feature of C++ is the ability to create unnamed (anonymous) namespaces, like so:

namespace {
    int cannotAccessOutsideThisFile() { ... }
} // namespace
<         


        

Answer 1

Having learned of this feature only just now while reading your question, I can only speculate. This seems to provide several advantages over a file-level static variable:

• Anonymous namespaces can be nested within one another, providing multiple levels of protection from which symbols can not escape.
• Several anonymous namespaces could be placed in the same source file, creating in effect different static-level scopes within the same file.

I'd be interested in learning if anyone has used anonymous namespaces in real code.