Member function returning a static variable

Question

Should a member function that returns a static member variable also be static?

For instance:

struct T {
   static int i;
   static int getNumber() {
       return i;
   }
};

Should getNumber be static or not?

Lightness Races in Orbit · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-07 18:10:31Z

8

Usually, yes.

If the variable doesn't have any per-instance state, then what possible per-instance logic could the function perform on it before returning it?

answered Sep 7, 2011 at 18:10

Lightness Races in Orbit

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2 Comments

Nim Over a year ago

@Ben, I was thinking of something else at the time I made the comment (i.e. hokey way of keeping track of count of instances)... anyways - removed the dodgy comment...

Lightness Races in Orbit Over a year ago

@Nim: I was wondering whether someone might bring up something like that. You're not going mad. But it's highly unlikely that you'd ever want to do that in a simple getter.

Foo Bah · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-07 18:14:04Z

3

It's not compulsory. you can write a member function that returns a static variable. You cannot go the other way around (write a static function which returns an instance variable).

As an example of a case where you may want to return a static member, imagine a circumstance where the class holds a state variable and based on the state you would return one of the static values. Not that this is good design, but its not completely inconceivable

answered Sep 7, 2011 at 18:14

Foo Bah

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