What is a static constructor?

Question

This question was asked to me in an interview:

What is a static constructor?

Does it exist in C++? If yes, please explain it wit

Answer 1

A static constructor is used to initialize static data of a class. C++ doesn't have static constructor. But a static constructor can be emulated by using a friend class or nested class as below.

class ClassStatic{
private:
    static char *str;
public:
    char* get_str() { return str; }
    void set_str(char *s) { str = s; }
    // A nested class, which used as static constructor
    static class ClassInit{
    public:
        ClassInit(int size){ 
            // Static constructor definition
            str = new char[size];
            str = "How are you?";
        }
    } initializer;
};

// Static variable creation
char* ClassStatic::str; 
// Static constructor call
ClassStatic::ClassInit ClassStatic::initializer(20);

int main() {
    ClassStatic a;
    ClassStatic b;
    std::cout << "String in a: " << a.get_str() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "String in b: " << b.get_str() << std::endl;
    a.set_str("I am fine");
    std::cout << "String in a: " << a.get_str() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "String in b: " << b.get_str() << std::endl;
    std::cin.ignore();
}

Output:

String in a: How are you?
String in b: How are you?
String in a: I am fine
String in b: I am fine