Is a class with only static methods preferable to a namespace?

Question

I was inspired by the comments in this question .

I did not see the reasons why a class with only static functions would be better than a namespace (with just functions). Any list of pros and cons of these two approaches is welcome. It would be great with some practical examples!

Answer 1

One non-stylistic difference is that you can use the class as a template parameter, but you cannot use the namespace. This is sometimes used for policy classes such as std::char_traits .

Outside of this use case, I will stick with a namespace with regular functions.

Answer 2

Classes with Static Methods

• You can have a class inside another class, you cannot have a namespace inside the class (because it probably doesn't make any sense).
• They work with very ancient compilers.

Namespaces

- you can create namespace aliases

namespace io = boost::iostreams; Well, you can typedef classes, so that's a moot point.

• You can import characters into other namespaces.

  namespace mystuff { using namespace boost; }

• You can import selected characters.

  using std::string;

• they can span multiple files (a very important advantage)

• built-in namespaces (C ++ 11)

Bottom line: namespaces are a way to migrate to C ++.