3 Basic concepts [basic]

A declaration (Clause [dcl.dcl]) may introduce one or more names into a translation unit or redeclare names introduced by previous declarations. If so, the declaration specifies the interpretation and attributes of these names. A declaration may also have effects including:

• (1.1)

  a static assertion (Clause [dcl.dcl]),

• (1.2)

  controlling template instantiation ([temp.explicit]),

• (1.3)

  use of attributes (Clause [dcl.dcl]), and

• (1.4)

  nothing (in the case of an empty-declaration).

A declaration is a definition unless it declares a function without specifying the function's body ([dcl.fct.def]), it contains the extern specifier ([dcl.stc]) or a linkage-specification25 ([dcl.link]) and neither an initializer nor a function-body, it declares a static data member in a class definition ([class.mem], [class.static]), it is a class name declaration ([class.name]), it is an opaque-enum-declaration ([dcl.enum]), it is a template-parameter ([temp.param]), it is a parameter-declaration ([dcl.fct]) in a function declarator that is not the declarator of a function-definition, or it is a typedef declaration ([dcl.typedef]), an alias-declaration ([dcl.typedef]), a using-declaration ([namespace.udecl]), a static_assert-declaration (Clause [dcl.dcl]), an attribute-declaration (Clause [dcl.dcl]), an empty-declaration (Clause [dcl.dcl]), or a using-directive ([namespace.udir]).

[ Example: all but one of the following are definitions:

int a;                          // defines a
extern const int c = 1;         // defines c
int f(int x) { return x+a; }    // defines f and defines x
struct S { int a; int b; };     // defines S, S::a, and S::b
struct X {                      // defines X
  int x;                        // defines non-static data member x
  static int y;                 // declares static data member y
  X(): x(0) { }                 // defines a constructor of X
};
int X::y = 1;                   // defines X::y
enum { up, down };              // defines up and down
namespace N { int d; }          // defines N and N::d
namespace N1 = N;               // defines N1
X anX;                          // defines anX

whereas these are just declarations:

extern int a;                   // declares a
extern const int c;             // declares c
int f(int);                     // declares f
struct S;                       // declares S
typedef int Int;                // declares Int
extern X anotherX;              // declares anotherX
using N::d;                     // declares d

 — end example ]

[ Note: In some circumstances, C++ implementations implicitly define the default constructor ([class.ctor]), copy constructor ([class.copy]), move constructor ([class.copy]), copy assignment operator ([class.copy]), move assignment operator ([class.copy]), or destructor ([class.dtor]) member functions.  — end note ] [ Example: given

#include <string>

struct C {
  std::string s;              // std::string is the standard library class (Clause [strings])
};

int main() {
  C a;
  C b = a;
  b = a;
}

the implementation will implicitly define functions to make the definition of C equivalent to

struct C {
  std::string s;
  C() : s() { }
  C(const C& x): s(x.s) { }
  C(C&& x): s(static_cast<std::string&&>(x.s)) { }
    // : s(std::move(x.s)) { }
  C& operator=(const C& x) { s = x.s; return *this; }
  C& operator=(C&& x) { s = static_cast<std::string&&>(x.s); return *this; }
    // { s = std::move(x.s); return *this; }
  ~C() { }
};

 — end example ]

[ Note: A class name can also be implicitly declared by an elaborated-type-specifier ([dcl.type.elab]).  — end note ]

A program is ill-formed if the definition of any object gives the object an incomplete type ([basic.types]).