implicit initialization

[fcarney]

I am trying to determine if structs will be initialized if defined outside a function in a compilation unit:

...
typedef struct SomeStruct{
    int somevalue;
} buncha_structs[256];
...
int main(){
    SomeStruct local_structs[256];
}

If I am understanding this correctly. Then bunch_structs is initialized, but local_structs are not and require explicit initialization. Is this true? I am having trouble testing this out. I can test this out with the new operator by creating a memory pool and feeding a pointer to that pool to new(pool). Cannot think of a way to test this with a struct array outside of a function.

[JonB]

@fcarney
Yes, and also as per reading the link you referenced, your understanding is correct. Static/global storage declarations will be initialized to 0, but local/stack will be uninitialized. This would be just as true if your variable was int instead of struct ....

I'm not sure why you cannot think how to test this. I have gone to http://cpp.sh and pasted:

// Example program
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

struct SomeStruct
{
    int somevalue;
} buncha_structs[256];

int main()
{
    SomeStruct local_structs[256];
    
    std::cout << local_structs[1].somevalue << std::endl;

    std::cout << buncha_structs[1].somevalue << std::endl;
}

available as http://cpp.sh/5gbae (don't know how long that link is valid).

Note that I think you did not intend the typedef in your code. With the typedef, your buncha_structs is a type not a variable. I have removed the typedef to give you a global variable, which I think is what you intended.

The above reliably outputs 0 for the second, global variable case, but outputs a "random", changing number each time for the first, local case. You should also see that it shows an "uninitialized" warning message against your use in the local variable case.

[fcarney]

One issue I ran into was my local variables were showing zeros as well. It wasn't until I inited the ram with 255 for every character and used new(mempool()) to use that preinited ram that I did see uninitialized ram. Of course that was on the heap and not the stack. I did test this over the weekend and observed what you said. Variables declared outside of local scope are initialized to zero. While stack and heap are not.