Static member access in constant expressions

Question

Accessing static class member functions or variables, can be done in two ways: through an object (obj.member_fun() or obj.member_var) or through the class (Class::member_fun() or Class::member_var). However, in constexpr functions, Clang gives an error on the object access and requires to use class access:

struct S 
{
    constexpr static auto s_v = 42;    
    constexpr static auto v() { return s_v; }
};

#define TEST 1

constexpr auto foo(S const& s [[maybe_unused]]) 
{
#if TEST
    constexpr auto v = s.v();   // ERROR for clang, OK for gcc
#else    
    constexpr auto v = S::v();  // OK for clang and gcc
#endif
    return v;
}

constexpr auto bar(S const& s [[maybe_unused]])
{
#if TEST   
    constexpr auto v = s.s_v;   // ERROR for clang, OK for gcc
#else    
    constexpr auto v = S::s_v;  // OK for clang and gcc
#endif    
    return v;
}

int main() {}

Live Example compiled with -std=c++1z and #define TEST 1 for Clang 5.0 SVN, with error message:

Start
prog.cc:12:24: error: constexpr variable 'v' must be initialized by a constant expression
    constexpr auto v = s.v();   // ERROR for clang, OK for gcc
                       ^~~~~
prog.cc:22:24: error: constexpr variable 'v' must be initialized by a constant expression
    constexpr auto v = s.s_v;   // ERROR for clang, OK for gcc
                       ^~~~~
2 errors generated.
1
Finish

Question: is this is a Clang bug, or is gcc too liberal in accepting both syntax forms for static member access in a constexpr function?

Answer 1

Clang seems to be in the right. When accessing a static member with the member access syntax [class.static/1]:

A static member s of class X may be referred to using the qualified-id expression X​::​s; it is not necessary to use the class member access syntax to refer to a static member. A static member may be referred to using the class member access syntax, in which case the object expression is evaluated.

So s.v() will cause s to be evaluated. Now, according to [expr.const/2.11], s is not a constant expression:

2 An expression e is a core constant expression unless the evaluation of e, following the rules of the abstract machine, would evaluate one of the following expressions:

[...]

an id-expression that refers to a variable or data member of reference type unless the reference has a preceding initialization and either:
(2.11.1) - it is initialized with a constant expression or
(2.11.2) - its lifetime began within the evaluation of e;

s doesn't have a preceding initialization with a constant expression, not in the scope of foo.

---

If you want to access the static members based of a function parameter, without hard-coding the type, the way forward is std::remove_reference_t<decltype(s)>. This is accepted by Clang and GCC both:

#include <type_traits>

struct S 
{
    constexpr static auto s_v = 42;    
    constexpr static auto v() { return s_v; }
};

constexpr auto foo(S const& s) 
{
    constexpr auto v = std::remove_reference_t<decltype(s)>::v();
    return v;
}

constexpr auto bar(S const& s)
{
    constexpr auto v = std::remove_reference_t<decltype(s)>::s_v;
    return v;
}

int main() {}