How to declare a static const char* in your header file?

Question

I\'d like to define a constant char* in my header file for my .cpp file to use. So I\'ve tried this:

private:
    static const char *SOMETHING = \"sommething\";         


        

Answer 1

If you're using Visual C++, you can non-portably do this using hints to the linker...

// In foo.h...

class Foo
{
public:
   static const char *Bar;
};

// Still in foo.h; doesn't need to be in a .cpp file...

__declspec(selectany)
const char *Foo::Bar = "Blah";

__declspec(selectany) means that even though Foo::Bar will get declared in multiple object files, the linker will only pick up one.

Keep in mind this will only work with the Microsoft toolchain. Don't expect this to be portable.