Initialization of static variables in C
Last Updated :
31 Jul, 2018
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;
}
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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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