How to refer current class using decltype in C++11?

Question

When I declare a class static method, is it possible to refer current class using decltype (or in any other similar style)? For example,

class
AAA
{
    static AAA const make();
};

I am trying to make something like this.

class
AAA
{
    static decltype(*this) const make();  // Not working because there's no `this`.
};

The *this is used to describe what I want to do. I want to know some decltype() expression which can be resolved to AAA.

If it's possible how can I do that?

Answer 1

In C++1y you could do this:

class
AAA
{
public:
    static auto make()
    {
        return AAA();
    }
};

int main()
{
    AAA aaa = AAA::make();
}

This is not legal in C++11 as you need to specify a return type for make(). In C++98/03/11 you can:

class
AAA
{
public:
    typedef AAA Self;

    static Self make()
    {
        return AAA();
    }
};

That is low-tech, but very readable.

<aside>

You should avoid returning const-qualified types by value. This inhibits efficient move semantics. If you want to avoid assigning to rvalues, then create an assignment operator qualified with &.

</aside>