Getting this error while compiling an open-source code.

error C2039: 'format_string': is not a member of 'std'

Google results will tell you to make sure you're using C++20 flag in the compiler since it's a new feature. I'm pretty sure it's not the issue since std::format itself works fine in the code. But I double checked anyway and try all solutions I could find online (big mistake, trying to be lazy : ). I checked all the dependencies and VS packages needed. I even re-install Visual Studio 2022.

After wasting half a day (and a good sleep) without any progress, I started to be serious about this error.

So back to the error, what's this std::format_string. According to std::basic_format_string, std::format_string, std::wformat_string - cppreference.com, it's a new feature in C++ 20 standard library and should be in the <format> header file. (Yes, I do explicitly include this header file in the source code and nothing changed).

The definition of it is:

template< class... Args >
using format_string = basic_format_string<char, std::type_identity_t<Args>...>;

Then I open the format header in the MSVC and try to search for it. Of course no exact match, so I just tried the patterns like "basic_format_string". Finally, I find this:

template <class... _Args>
using _Fmt_string = _Basic_format_string<char, type_identity_t<_Args>...>;

Surprise, surprise, MSVC has their own naming different from the standard library : )

Then changing the std::format_string to std:_Fmt_string fix the compilation errors. But why I'm getting this while it seems to work fine for others? I realise it's the MSVC version I'm using, it's 14.34.31933 even though the latest one is 14.36.32532.

Then I reinstall MSVC again and this time to ensure I have the latest version of MSVC installed. Then in 14.36.32532, the format header change it to std::format_string and now the original source code is compiled without any issues.

Lesson learnt : )