Using static vector as a storage

Question

My program has a enum to store colors and user response like this. Now I need to keep RGB and CYMK values along with the color. So this cannot do using enum,

enum COLOR
{
    RED = 'R',
    GREEN = 'G',
    BLUE = 'B',
    YELLOW = 'Y',
    MAGENTA = 'M'
};

So I' planing to use static array of struct for this purpose. I use static because

These values are never change in the program
To avoid multiple creation of the vector when other classes creating and destroying this classes object.
```
struct Color
{
 char user_responce;
 std::string rgb_code;
 std::string cymk_code;
};

static std::vector<Color> colors;
colors.push_back('R', "FF0000", "30 - 96 - 76 - 26");
```
But after reading this post Is using a lot of static methods a bad thing? I feel bad about the way I'm doing. Is this a "unsafe" statics? any other suggestion?

What is the question? You want an opinion or a better solution? — Soren, Oct 22 '14 at 02:12
I feel like this is not a solid solution. So looking for a better solution — Nayana Adassuriya, Oct 22 '14 at 02:14
Reason 1 is not good enough for using Static. Reason 2: Maybe you need a singleton pattern — Wajahat, Oct 22 '14 at 02:17
also if you are making something static because "it doesnt change" then it should also be `const`. — Brad Allred, Oct 22 '14 at 02:30

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 22 '14 at 02:39

If the values never change then you can do this:

static const std::vector<Colour> colors = 
{   { 'R', "FFFF00", "blabla" }
,   { 'S', "00FF00", "foo" }
,   { 'T', "0f3033", "burnt sienna" }
};

Personally I would use a C-style array and pointers to char here; in general those are bad idea but for static variables it removes the risk of undefined behaviour due to accessing an object that has not had its constructor called yet.

Using static vector as a storage

1 Answers1