2 ways to use static with functions in C++

I've been doing a code review lately and I saw the following piece of code (I anonymized it) in a .cpp file:

static bool isWineColour(const std::string& iWineCoulour) {
  static const std::array<std::string, 3> wineCoulours{ "white", "red", "rose" };
  return std::find(wineCoulours.begin(), wineCoulours.end(), iWineCoulour)
         != wineCoulours.end();
}

I read the code and it made sense, but I didn't really get it. WTF. Do we return a static bool? What? I've never seen anything like that in a cpp file and it wouldn't make sense, would it?

But it said static bool and we are not in the header. There is no isWineColour() function declared in the header at all.

At this point, I understood that either there is something very wrong here or I am missing the point. Given that the code compiled, the tests succeeded and SonarQube didn't report any code smells, it was pretty clear that I was missing the point.

Just to make it clear, before I reveal the big secret (no, there is no big secret...) there is no such thing as a static return type. When the keyword static appears in front of the return type, it might be mean one of these two possibilities:

• a member function is static
• a free-function cannot be accessed by any other translation unit

So the difference between the two usages is that in one case, we use static with a member function in the other we use it with a free-function.

Let's get into details.

static member functions

Okay, probably this one you already knew. If you make a class member function static, it means that you can call it without going through an instance of the class.

#include <iostream>
#include <type_traits>

class A {
public:
  static void Foo() {
      std::cout << "A::foo is called\n"; 
  }

};

int main() {
  A a;
  a.Foo();
  A::Foo();
}
/*
A::foo is called
A::foo is called
*/

As you can see, it's possible to call Foo() both via an instance (a.Foo()) or just via its enclosing class (A::Foo()).

There are a couple of characteristics to keep in mind:

• static member functions don't have this pointer
• A static member function can't be virtual
• static member functions cannot access non-static members
• The const, const volatile, and volatile declarations aren't available for static member functions

As this pointer always holds the memory address of the current object and to call a static member you don't need an object at all, it cannot have a this pointer.

A virtual member is something that doesn't relate directly to any class, only to an instance. A "virtual function" is (by definition) a function that is dynamically linked, i.e. it's chosen at runtime depending on the dynamic type of a given object. Hence, as there is no object, there cannot be a virtual call.

Accessing a non-static member requires that the object has been constructed but for static calls, we don't pass any instantiation of the class. It's not even guaranteed that any instance has been constructed.

Once again, the const and the const volatile keywords modify whether and how an object can be modified or not. As there is no object...

Probably we all got used to static member functions already. Let's jump to the other usage of static with functions.

static free functions

Normally all functions declared within a cpp file have external linkage by default, meaning that a function defined in one file can be used in another cpp file by forward declaration.

As I recently learned, we can declare a free-function static and it changes the type of linkage to internal, which means that the function can only be accessed from the given translation unit, from the same file where it was declared and from nowhere else.

With internal linkage, the linker can ignore the static free-functions entirely bringing a couple of advantages:

• the free-function can be declared in a cpp file and we have a guarantee that it will not be used from any other place
• speeds up the link-time as there is one less function to take care of
• we can put a function with the same name in each translation unit and they can be implemented differently. For example, you could create a logger that is implemented differently in each translation unit.

Conclusion

Today I shared with you what I learned recently from a code review that I was doing for someone else. I learnt that we can declare static not only class member functions, but free-functions as well.

Having a class member function static means that it's part of the class, but there is no instance needed to call it, hence it cannot interact with members of the class.

Declaring a free-function static is about its visibility and the type of linkage. If you declare a free-function static, it will have an internal linkage and will not be accessible from any other file.

Have you ever used static free functions?

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Comments

[David Brewer]

Interesting, I never knew that. I recently started relearning C++ after only using it in college and using Java professionally, but didn't realize that static class methods were even an option in C++. Very cool

[Pierre Gradot]

I am very surprised that you didn't know that we can use static to change the linkage. You can also use it with variables and get a static bool in a *.cpp file :D

[Sandor Dargo]

Somehow I never noticed it. Even in this case, it was only about hiding the existance of a helper method which I don't think was the best idea as it introduces positional coupling (does that exist?)...

Someone suggested to use anonymous namespaces instead as in addition "anonymous namespaces allow you to have internal type declarations, something that cannot be achieved through the static."

[Pierre Gradot]

Anonymous namespaces indeed have the same purpose. After may years, I still prefer static: when you see a function prototype, you immediately know that it has internal linkage. With anonymous namespaces, you have to scroll up the file to see that (or your IDE's hints, if available) to check.