Unnamed/anonymous namespaces vs. static functions

Question

A feature of C++ is the ability to create unnamed (anonymous) namespaces, like so:

namespace {
    int cannotAccessOutsideThisFile() { ... }
} // namespace
<         


        

Answer 1

Use of static keyword for that purpose is deprecated by the C++98 standard. The problem with static is that it doesn't apply to type definition. It's also an overloaded keyword used in different ways in different contexts, so unnamed namespaces simplify things a bit.