case expression not constant

[amalshah71]

Hello,
My program structure is:

Constants.h

#ifndef CONSTANTS_H
#define CONSTANTS_H

class Constants
{
	public:
			Constants();
			~Constants();

			static const int8 MAIN_REQ_CLASS_ID;

			static const int8 BYTE;

			static const int8 SHORT;
};

Constants.cpp

#include "Constants.h"

const int8 Constants::MAIN_REQ_CLASS_ID = 127;

const int8 Constants::BYTE = 1;

const int8 Constants::SHORT = 2;

Constants::Constants()
{
}

Constants::~Constants()
{
}

Main.cpp

int main()
{
    int temp=0;
    switch(temp)
    { 
   case Constants::BYTE:
                          break;
   case Constants::SHORT:
                           break;
   }
    return 0;
}

I keep getting compile time error message as "case expression not constant".

Though i have defined the values BYTE,SHORT as constants Constants.cpp

Is there something that i am missing.

help appreciated
amal

[melkiy]

I don't understand the situation competely, but if you initialize your constant members in Main.cpp, it will work. I think, this is a restriction of programming language.

If you are not bound to do as you've done, you also may use enumeration inside your class declaration:

class Constants
{
	public:
			Constants();
			~Constants();

			enum MY_CONSTANTS{MAIN_REQ_CLASS_ID=127, BYTE=1, SHORT=2};
};