PLEASE HELP! initialization of static constant instance variables

I am reading a book and it says:

Because the enum hack is so inelegant, the ANSI/ISO C++ working group has recently added a new construction to the language: initialization of static constant instance variables. This solves all the problems discussed in the sections above. Here’s the idea:

class Stack
{
private:
static const int size = 20; // static constant
int st[size];
int top;
…
};

However, when I tried to put this code in practise:

#include <iostream.h>
class Stack // a stack holds up to 20 ints
{
private:
static const int size = 20; // array size
int st[size]; // integers are stored in array
int top; // index of last item pushed
public:
Stack() : top(-1) // constructor
{ }
void push(int var) // place an item on the stack
{
st[++top] = var;
}
int pop() // remove an item from the stack
{
return st[top--];
}
};
void main()
{
Stack s1; // create a stack object
s1.push(11); // push 3 items onto stack
s1.push(12);
s1.push(13);
cout << s1.pop() << endl; // pop 3 items and display them
cout << s1.pop() << endl;
cout << s1.pop() << endl;
}


Visual C++ 6 returns these errors:

ompiling...
prog.cpp
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\arrayconst\prog.cpp(5) : error C2258: illegal pure syntax, must be '= 0'
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\arrayconst\prog.cpp(5) : error C2252: 'size' : pure specifier can only be specified for functions
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\arrayconst\prog.cpp(6) : error C2065: 'size' : undeclared identifier
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\arrayconst\prog.cpp(6) : error C2057: expected constant expression
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\arrayconst\prog.cpp(6) : warning C4200: nonstandard extension used : zero-sized array in struct/union
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\arrayconst\prog.cpp(7) : error C2229: class 'Stack' has an illegal zero-sized array
Error executing cl.exe.

prog.obj - 5 error(s), 1 warning(s)




Anybody know what the problem is?
It's supposed to work isn't it?

Thanks,
Marc

> static const int size = 20; // static constant
This has to be declared and initialized outside of the class, something like this

Code:

---

class Stack
{
        private:
                int st[size]; //*WRONG!*
                int top;
        ...
};

static const int Stack::size = 20; // static constant

---

See the problem yet? Using size in this way probably won't work, but you can try it and see. Since you're declaring and initializing the static const properly then when you instantiate the object it could very well accept taking the constant as the size of the array...but I doubt it.

Quote:

---

Anybody know what the problem is?

---

You can't do it in VC++ 6.0, so you'll have to keep using the enum hack. It's supported in VC++.NET, though.