Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!brunix!sdm
From: sdm@cs.brown.edu (Scott Meyers)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Initialization Order of Statics/Globals
Message-ID: <45330@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jul 90 17:32:08 GMT
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: sdm@cs.brown.edu (Scott Meyers)
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Lines: 28

What's the latest story on initialization order of statics and globals?  In
particular, can one rely on static data members of a class being
initialized before global objects of that class?  For example:

    class OneOnly {
      private:
        static int objectCount;

      public:
        OneOnly()
          {
          if (objectCount++ > 1) error("Too many objects");
          }
    };

    int OneOnly::objectCount = 0;

    OneOnly thisObject;

Can I rely on OneOnly::objectCount being initialized before thisObject?  I
took a look at E&S, but I'm still unclear on this point.

(By the way, I know that statics are pre-initialized to 0, so the question
for this example is moot, but the general question remains...)

Thanks,

Scott