constexpr specifier (since C++11)

 

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• constexpr - specifies that the value of a variable or function can be computed at compile time

Explanation

constexpr specifier declares that it is possible to evaluate the value of the function or variable at compile time, they then can be used where only compile time constants are allowed. constexpr implies const.

constexpr variables must satisfy the following requirements:

• it must be immediately constructed or assigned a value.
• the constructor parameters or the value to be assigned must contain only literal values, constexpr variables and functions.
• the constructor used to construct the object (either implicit or explicit) must satisfy the requirements of constexpr constructor. In the case of explicit constructor, it must have constexpr specified.

constexpr functions must satisfy the following requirements:

• it must not be virtual
• its return type must be literal type
• each of its parameters must be literal types
• the function body must be either deleted or defaulted or contain only the following:

• null statements
• static_assert declarations
• typedef declarations and alias declarations that do not define classes or enumerations
• using declarations
• using directives
• exactly one return statement that contains only literal values, constexpr variables and functions.

constexpr constructor must satisfy the following requirements:

Keywords

constexpr

Example

Definition of a constexpr function which computes factorials and a literal type that extends string literals

#include <iostream>
#include <stdexcept>
 
// constexpr functions use recursion rather than iteration
constexpr int factorial(int n)
{
    return n <= 1 ? 1 : (n * factorial(n-1));
}
 
// literal class
class conststr {
    const char * p;
    std::size_t sz;
 public:
    template<std::size_t N>
    constexpr conststr(const char(&a)[N]) : p(a), sz(N-1) {}
    // constexpr functions signal errors by throwing exceptions from operator ?:
    constexpr char operator[](std::size_t n) {
        return n < sz ? p[n] : throw std::out_of_range("");
    }
    constexpr std::size_t size() { return sz; }
};
constexpr std::size_t countlower(conststr s, std::size_t n = 0,
                                             std::size_t c = 0) {
    return n == s.size() ? c :
           s[n] >= 'a' && s[n] <= 'z' ? countlower(s, n+1, c+1) :
           countlower(s, n+1, c);
}
 
// output function that requires a compile-time constant, for testing
template<int n> struct constN {
    constN() { std::cout << n << '\n'; }
};
 
int main()
{
    std::cout << "4! = " ;
    constN<factorial(4)> out1; // computed at compile time
 
    volatile int k = 8;
    std::cout << k << "! = " << factorial(k) << '\n'; // computed at run time
 
    std::cout << "Number of lowercase letters in \"Hello, world!\" is ";
    constN<countlower("Hello, world!")> out2; // implicitly converted to conststr
}

Output:

4! = 24
8! = 40320
Number of lowercase letters in "Hello, world!" is 9