`static constexpr` function called in a constant expression is…an error?

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As T.C. demonstrated with some links in a comment, the standard is not quite clear on this; a similar problem arises with trailing return types using decltype(memberfunction()).

The central problem is that class members are generally not considered to be declared until after the class in which they’re declared is complete. Thus, regardless of the fact that foo is static constexpr and its declaration precedes that of bar, it cannot be considered “available” for use in a constant expression until MyClass is complete.

As pointed out by Shafik Yaghmour, there is some attempt within the standard to avoid a dependency on the ordering of members within a class, and obviously allowing the example in the original question to compile would introduce an ordering dependency (since foo would need to be declared before bar). However, there is already a minor dependency on ordering, because although constexpr functions can’t be called inside noexcept, a noexcept expression itself might depend on an earlier declaration inside the class:

class MyClass
{
    // void bar() noexcept(noexcept(foo())); // ERROR if declared here
    static constexpr bool foo();
    void bar() noexcept(noexcept(foo())); // NO ERROR
}

(Note that this is not actually a violation of 3.3.7, since there is still only one correct program that is possible here.)

This behavior may actually be a violation of the standard; T.C. points out (in a comment below) that foo here should actually be looked up in the scope of the whole class. Both g++ 4.9.2 and clang++ 3.5.1 fail with an error when bar is declared first but compile with no errors or warnings when foo is declared first. EDIT: clang++ trunk-revision 238946 (from shortly before the release of 3.7.0) does not fail when bar is declared first; g++ 5.1 still fails.

Intriguingly, the following variation causes a “different exception specifier” with clang++ but not with g++:

class MyClass
{
  static constexpr bool foo2();
  void bar2() noexcept(noexcept(foo2()));
};

constexpr bool MyClass::foo2() { return true; }
void MyClass::bar2() noexcept(noexcept(MyClass::foo2())) { }

According to the error, the noexcept specification for the declaration of bar2 evaluates to noexcept(false), which is then considered a mismatch for noexcept(noexcept(MyClasss::foo2())).

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  3. When does a constexpr function get evaluated at compile time?
  4. When should I really use noexcept?
  5. Why do constant expressions have an exclusion for undefined behavior?
  6. When should you use constexpr capability in C++11?
  7. Is is_constexpr possible in C++11?
  8. C++11 – static_assert within constexpr function?
  9. Why do we need to mark functions as constexpr?
  10. Is constexpr supported with lambda functions / expressions?
  11. Does constexpr imply inline?
  12. constexpr overloading
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  14. static constexpr member of same type as class being defined
  15. C++11 constexpr function pass parameter
  16. Does static constexpr variable inside a function make sense?
  17. Why are lambda expressions not allowed in an unevaluated operands but allowed in the unevaluated portions of constant expressions?
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  19. Is it possible to declare constexpr class in a header and define it in a separate .cpp file?
  20. constexpr function parameters as template arguments
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  22. What is the difference between C++03 `throw()` specifier and C++11 `noexcept`?
  23. Is a constexpr array necessarily odr-used when subscripted?
  24. Why can I call a non-constexpr function inside a constexpr function?
  25. Why does constexpr static member (of type class) require a definition?
  26. C++ Linker Error With Class static constexpr
  27. Why vector access operators are not specified as noexcept?
  28. constexpr not working if the function is declared inside class scope
  29. Why is reinterpret_cast not constexpr?
  30. Is constexpr really needed?

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