Why is this constexpr-function giving me errors?

Question

For debug purposes, I want to be able to get the name of a type as a string, and after some Googling I found this answer on SO:

C++ Get name of type in template

It presents this solution:

#include <array>
#include <cstddef>

namespace impl
{
    template <typename T>
    constexpr const auto &RawTypeName()
    {
        #ifdef _MSC_VER
        return __FUNCSIG__;
        #else
        return __PRETTY_FUNCTION__;
        #endif
    }

    struct RawTypeNameFormat
    {
        std::size_t leading_junk = 0, trailing_junk = 0;
    };

    // Returns `false` on failure.
    inline constexpr bool GetRawTypeNameFormat(RawTypeNameFormat *format)
    {
        const auto &str = RawTypeName<int>();
        for (std::size_t i = 0;; i++)
        {
            if (str[i] == 'i' && str[i+1] == 'n' && str[i+2] == 't')
            {
                if (format)
                {
                    format->leading_junk = i;
                    format->trailing_junk = sizeof(str)-i-3-1; // `3` is the length of "int", `1` is the space for the null terminator.
                }
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    static constexpr RawTypeNameFormat format =
    []{
        static_assert(GetRawTypeNameFormat(nullptr), "Unable to figure out how to generate type names on this compiler.");
        RawTypeNameFormat format;
        GetRawTypeNameFormat(&format);
        return format;
    }();
}

// Returns the type name in a `std::array<char, N>` (null-terminated).
template <typename T>
[[nodiscard]] constexpr auto CexprTypeName()
{
    constexpr std::size_t len = sizeof(impl::RawTypeName<T>()) - impl::format.leading_junk - impl::format.trailing_junk;
    std::array<char, len> name{};
    for (std::size_t i = 0; i < len-1; i++)
        name[i] = impl::RawTypeName<T>()[i + impl::format.leading_junk];
    return name;
}

template <typename T>
[[nodiscard]] const char *TypeName()
{
    static constexpr auto name = CexprTypeName<T>();
    return name.data();
}
template <typename T>
[[nodiscard]] const char *TypeName(const T &)
{
    return TypeName<T>();
}

The answer has a score of ten so I assume the code works for most people, but I currently get errors when I try to run it.

Error C2131 expression did not evaluate to a constant that points to the line inline static constexpr RawTypeNameFormat format =

and

Error (active) E1763 a lambda is not allowed in a constant expression that points to the line []{, right under the line with the first error.

What is causing these errors? Is it that my compiler is too old for these features?

Answer 1

The sample code only runs with C++17 or higher.

It seems that you are using Visual Studio. And if so, you can go to the Project Protities and do the following change to make your code run properly.