constexpr specifier

• constexpr - specifies that the value of a variable or function can appear in constant expressions

Explanation

The constexpr specifier declares that it is possible to evaluate the value of the function or variable at compile time. Such variables and functions can then be used where only compile time constant expressions are allowed (provided that appropriate function arguments are given). A constexpr specifier used in an object declaration implies const. A constexpr specifier used in a function declaration implies inline.

A constexpr variable must satisfy the following requirements:

• its type must be a LiteralType.
• 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.

A constexpr function must satisfy the following requirements:

• it must not be virtual
• its return type must be LiteralType
• each of its parameters must be literal type
• there exists at least one argument value such that an invocation of the function could be an evaluated subexpression of a core constant expression (for constexpr function templates, at least one specialization must satisfy this requirement , for constructors, use in a constant initializer is sufficient) (since C++14))

A constexpr constructor must satisfy the following requirements:

• each of its parameters must be literal type
• the class must have no virtual base classes
• the constructor must not have a function-try-block

Notes

Because the noexcept operator always returns true for a constant expression, it can be used to check if a particular invocation of a constexpr function takes the constant expression branch:

constexpr int f(); 
constexpr bool b1 = noexcept(f()); // false, undefined constexpr function
constexpr int f() { return 0; }
constexpr bool b2 = noexcept(f()); // true, f() is a constant expression

Constexpr constructors are permitted for classes that aren't literal types. For example, the default constructor of std::unique_ptr is constexpr, allowing constant initialization.

Keywords

constexpr.

Example

#include <iostream>
#include <stdexcept>
 
// C++11 constexpr functions use recursion rather than iteration
// (C++14 constexpr functions may use local variables and loops)
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
    // in C++11, they must do so from the conditional operator ?:
    constexpr char operator[](std::size_t n) const
    {
        return n < sz? p[n] : throw std::out_of_range("");
    }
    constexpr std::size_t size() const { return sz; }
};
 
// C++11 constexpr functions had to put everything in a single return statement
// (C++14 doesn't have that requirement)
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; // disallow optimization using volatile
    std::cout << k << "! = " << factorial(k) << '\n'; // computed at run time
 
    std::cout << "the number of lowercase letters in \"Hello, world!\" is ";
    constN<countlower("Hello, world!")> out2; // implicitly converted to conststr
}

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

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

See also

• constant expression