Meyers Singleton : static keyword confusion

Question

Consider a following piece of code which is essentially an example of Meyer's singleton (hopefully)

static const std::string& foo() // Line 1
{
   static std::string str("foo");
   return str;
}

Is static keyword mentioned in the Line 1 meaningless ? If so why ?

@Evg The first line is the function signature. Not the static variable. — Max Langhof, Dec 11 '18 at 14:20

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 11 '18 at 14:21

Is static keyword mentioned in the Line 1 meaningless ? If so why ?

It is not meaningless, if you need it or not depend on your situation. static in C++ means different thing in different context, in this case it makes this function only available on current compilation unit. Modern way to do it in C++ - to put the function into anonymous namespace.

Meyers Singleton : static keyword confusion

1 Answers1