In C, static variables can only be initialized using constant literals. For example, following program fails in compilation.
#include<stdio.h> int initializer(void) { return 50; } int main() { static int i = initializer(); printf(" value of i = %d", i); getchar(); return 0; } |
If we change the program to following, then it works without any error.
#include<stdio.h> int main() { static int i = 50; printf(" value of i = %d", i); getchar(); return 0; } |
The reason for this is simple: All objects with static storage duration must be initialized (set to their initial values) before execution of main() starts. So a value which is not known at translation time cannot be used for initialization of static variables.
Thanks to Venki and Prateek for their contribution.
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