Why is this nested lambda not considered constexpr?

Question

I'm trying to create a curried interface using nested constexpr lambdas, but the compiler does not consider it to be a constant expression.

namespace hana = boost::hana;
using namespace hana::literals;

struct C1 {};

template < typename T,
           std::size_t size >
struct Array {};

constexpr auto array_ = [] (auto size) {
      return [=] (auto type) {
        return hana::type_c<Array<typename decltype(type)::type, size()>>;
      };
    };

int main() {

  constexpr auto c1 = hana::type_c<C1>;
  constexpr auto test = hana::type_c<Array<typename decltype(c1)::type, hana::size_c<100>()>>;
  constexpr auto test2 = array_(hana::size_c<100>)(c1);
}

I post a question earlier because I found a different minimal example, but it wasn't enough.

Error:

test2.cpp: In instantiation of ‘<lambda(auto:1)>::<lambda(auto:2)> [with auto:2 = boost::hana::type_impl<C1>::_; auto:1 = boost::hana::integral_constant<long unsigned int, 100>]’:
test2.cpp:31:54:   required from here
test2.cpp:20:16: error: ‘__closure’ is not a constant expression
         return hana::type_c<Array<typename decltype(type)::type, size()>>;
                ^~~~
test2.cpp:20:16: note: in template argument for type ‘long unsigned int’ 
test2.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
test2.cpp:31:18: error: ‘constexpr const void test2’ has incomplete type
   constexpr auto test2 = array_(hana::size_c<100>)(c1);

__closure is not a constant expression : if someone could explain me this error that would be a great help. I ran into that error before but can't remember why.

Answer 1

I reduced your test case to this:

#include <type_traits>

constexpr auto f = [](auto size) {
  return [=](){
    constexpr auto s = size();
    return 1;
  };
};

static_assert(f(std::integral_constant<int, 100>{})(), "");

int main() { }

As said in the comments above, this happens because size is not a constant expression from within the function body. This is not specific to Hana. As a workaround, you can use

constexpr auto f = [](auto size) {
  return [=](){
    constexpr auto s = decltype(size)::value;
    return 1;
  };
};

or anything similar.