Static Const Int Linkage Is No Longer Literal

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Declaration of a constant member of a class has changed from Managed Extensions for C++ to Visual C++.

Although static const integral members are still supported, their linkage attribute has changed. Their former linkage attribute is now carried in a literal integral member. For example, consider the following Managed Extensions class:

public __gc class Constants {  
public:  
   static const int LOG_DEBUG = 4;  
};  

This generates the following underlying CIL attributes for the field (note the literal attribute):

.field public static literal int32   
modopt
([Microsoft.VisualC]Microsoft.VisualC.IsConstModifier) STANDARD_CLIENT_PRX = int32
(0x00000004)  

While this still compiles under the new syntax:

public ref class Constants {  
public:  
   static const int LOG_DEBUG = 4;  
};  

it no longer emits the literal attribute, and therefore is not viewed as a constant by the CLR runtime:

.field public static int32 modopt
([Microsoft.VisualC]Microsoft.VisualC.IsConstModifier) STANDARD_CLIENT_PRX = int32
(0x00000004)  

In order to have the same inter-language literal attribute, the declaration should be changed to the newly supported literal data member, as follows,

public ref class Constants {  
public:  
   literal int LOG_DEBUG = 4;  
};  

See Also

Member Declarations within a Class or Interface (C++/CLI)
literal