static members construction

are static members in a class garanteed to be constructed before any instance of the class?
I have a class that adds a pointer to each instance to a static std::list on construction, but I'm getting an access violation error when creating an instance of this class, so can this be the reason?
Any suggestions?
TIA

yes, static members are created when the program is first run like globals. Can u just post some of your code?

weird, it kept giving access violation when trying to access the static member, I fixed it this way:

Code:

---

std::list& MyClass::getStaticMember() {
    static std::list myList;
    return myList;
}

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can u post ur original class definition?

if the static data member is private u can only access it once outside the class, thats for initialising the memeber.