cannot specify explicit initializer for arrays

Question

I'm getting the following compile error...

error C2536: 'Player::Player::indices' : cannot specify explicit initializer for arrays 

why is this?

header

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

    float x;
    float y;
    float z;
    float velocity;

    const unsigned short indices[ 6 ];
    const VertexPositionColor vertices[];
};

cpp

Player::Player()
:
    indices
    { 
        3, 1, 0,
        4, 2, 1 
    },
    vertices{
        { XMFLOAT3( -0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f ) },
        { XMFLOAT3( -0.5f, 0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f ) },
        { XMFLOAT3( 0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f ) },
        { XMFLOAT3( 0.5f, 0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f ) }
    }
{
}

EDIT TO SHOW MY ATTEMPT AT std::array

std::array<unsigned short, 6> indices;
std::array<VertexPositionColor, 4>  vertices;

can't get this to work either.

error C2661: 'std::array<unsigned short,6>::array' : no overloaded function takes 6 arguments

and if I do this in my construct like the other post says:

indices( { 
    3, 1, 0,
    4, 2, 1 
} ),
vertices ( {
    { XMFLOAT3( -0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f ) },
    { XMFLOAT3( -0.5f, 0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f ) },
    { XMFLOAT3( 0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f ) },
    { XMFLOAT3( 0.5f, 0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f ) }
} )

it crashes the compiler...

EDIT:: Victory!

I put them in my cpp file babeh:

const unsigned short Player::indices[ 6 ] = {
    3, 1, 0,
    4, 2, 1
};

const VertexPositionColor Player::vertices[ 4 ] = {
    { XMFLOAT3( -0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f ) },
    { XMFLOAT3( -0.5f, 0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f ) },
    { XMFLOAT3( 0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f ) },
    { XMFLOAT3( 0.5f, 0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f ) }
}

Answer 1

As everyone else was saying, set the properties of my class to static const and then define them in the cpp file for the class:

header file:

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

    float x;
    float y;
    float z;
    float velocity;

    static const unsigned short indices[ 6 ];
    static const VertexPositionColor vertices[ 4 ];
};

cpp:

const unsigned short Player::indices[ 6 ] = {
    3, 1, 0,
    4, 2, 1
};

const VertexPositionColor Player::vertices[ 4 ] = {
    { XMFLOAT3( -0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f ) },
    { XMFLOAT3( -0.5f, 0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f ) },
    { XMFLOAT3( 0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f ) },
    { XMFLOAT3( 0.5f, 0.5f, -0.5f ), XMFLOAT3( 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f ) }
}

Answer 2

The size of the array needs to be defined in the class definition. C++ doesn't support variable sized arrays, at least, not yet:

class Player
{  
public:
    // ...
    const unsigned short indices[ 6 ];
    const VertexPositionColor vertices[4];
};

Assuming a suitable definition of VertexPositionColor this should be OK (it compiles with gcc and clang using -std=c++11).