extern const char* const SOME_CONSTANT giving me linker errors

Question

I want to provide a string constant in an API like so:

extern const char* const SOME_CONSTANT;

But if I define it in my static library source file as

const char* const SOME_CONSTANT = "test";

I'm getting linker errors when linking against that library and using SOME_CONSTANT:

Error 1 error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "char const * const SOME_CONSTANT" (?SOME_CONSTANT@@3QBDB)

Removing the pointer const-ness (second const keyword) from both the extern const char* const declaration and the definition makes it work. How can I export it with pointer const-ness?

Answer 1

The problem could be that the extern declaration is not visible in the source file defining the constant. Try repeating the declaration above the definition, like this:

extern const char* const SOME_CONSTANT;  //make sure name has external linkage
const char* const SOME_CONSTANT = "test";  //define the constant

Answer 2

most probably you forgot to include your header in your implementation file

anyway, add the keyword extern to the definition

without an extern declaration it has internal linkage and is thus not visible to the linker