Emulating static constructors for templated classes

Question

I would like to have a templated class with a static data member, and initialize it by emulating a "static constructor." For a non-templated class, this has already been answered (see static constructors in C++? I need to initialize private static objects and What is a static constructor?). However, none of the answers seem to work for a templated class.

The following is an example that tries to adapt the "static constructor" idiom from the previous answers to a templated class. (Note that the example is simply initializing an int and could be written without such constructors; however, I require a general solution.)

#include <iostream>

struct Foo
{
    static int x;
    static struct init
    {
        init()
        {
            std::cout << "Initializing Foo..." << std::endl;
            x = 1;
        }
    } initializer;
};
int Foo::x;
Foo::init Foo::initializer;

template<int N>
struct Bar
{
    static int x;
    static struct init
    {
        init()
        {
            std::cout << "Initializing Bar..." << std::endl;
            x = N;
        }
    } initializer;
};

template<int N>
int Bar<N>::x;
template<int N>
typename Bar<N>::init Bar<N>::initializer;

int main()
{
    std::cout << Foo::x << std::endl;
    std::cout << Bar<1>::x << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

This outputs:

Initializing Foo...
1
0

But I expected it to output:

Initializing Foo...
Initializing Bar...
1
1

Is this an example of the "static initialization order fiasco?"

Answer 1

No, it is not static initialization order fiasco. It is simply a result of the fact that every member of a template class is a template on it's own, and as such is not instantiated until used.

Your code never uses init member, so init is never instantiated.

However, your problem is easily solved:

#include <iostream>

template<int N>
struct Bar 
{
    static int x;
};

template<int N>
int Bar<N>::x= N;

int main()
{
    std::cout << Bar<1>::x << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

This gives you what you want in a simpler way.