Loading a Font in a class in SFML - c++

Question

I'm having trouble loading a font as a static member of a custom class.
I have tried following the SFML tutorial but there are steps that I am clearly missing!
The code is the following:
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <SFML/Graphics.hpp>
#include <SFML/Audio.hpp>
#include <random>
#include <chrono>
#include <math.h>
using namespace std;
using namespace sf;
class base
{
int number;
double radius;
double last_update_time;
public:
static const string FontFile = "SugarpunchDEMO.otf";
static bool Init(const string& FontFile)
{
return font.loadFromFile(FontFile);
}
CircleShape shape;
Text text;
static Font font;
void update_number(double time, double &last_update_time, int &number);
void update_radius(int number, double &radius);
base(int ini_number, double pos_x, double pos_y, double time);
void update(double time);
};
The constructor is:
base::base(int ini_number, double pos_x, double pos_y, double time){
number = ini_number;
update_radius(number, radius);
shape.setRadius(radius);
shape.setFillColor(Color::Red);
shape.setPosition(pos_x - radius, pos_y - radius);
text.setFont(font);
char name[32];
sprintf(name,"%d",number);
text.setString(name);
text.setCharacterSize(200);
text.setFillColor(sf::Color::Blue);
text.setPosition(pos_x,pos_y);
last_update_time = time;
}
The goal would be to load the font just once and to have it applied to each member of the class.
The error I got is:
In file included from base.cpp:9:0:
base.hpp:19:29: error: in-class initialization of static data member ‘const string base::FontFile’ of non-literal type
static const string FontFile = "SugarpunchDEMO.otf";
^~~~~~~~
base.hpp:19:40: error: call to non-constexpr function ‘std::__cxx11::basic_string<_CharT, _Traits, _Alloc>::basic_string(const _CharT*, const _Alloc&) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; _Alloc = std::allocator<char>]’
static const string FontFile = "SugarpunchDEMO.otf";
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Answer 1

This issue has nothing to do with SFML as your error message states:
in-class initialization of static data member const string base::FontFile of non-literal type
Or in other words: This way of initializing a class member is only allowed for numerical values and pointers to (string) literals. You're trying to initialize a std::string object of said class.
As a solution, use const char* for FontFile or move the initialization to your implementation file as const std::string FontFile = "SugarpunchDEMO.otf";