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 » C Programming Language » C Variables

C Variables
Defining Variables
A variable is a meaningful name of data storage location in computer memory. When using a variable you refer to
memory address of computer.
Naming Variables
The name of variable can be called identifier or variable name in a friendly way. It has to follow these rules:
 The name can contain letters, digits and the underscore but the first letter has to be a letter or the
underscore. Be avoided underscore as the first letter because it can be clashed with standard system variables.
 The length of name can be up to 247 characters long in Visual C++ but 31 characters are usually adequate.
Keywords cannot be used as a variable name.
Of course, the variable name should be meaningful to the programming context.
Declaring Variables
To declare a variable you specify its name and kind of data type it can store. The variable declaration always ends
with a semicolon, for example:
view source

print?
1.int counter;
2.char ch;

You can declare variables at any point of your program before using it. The best practice suggests that you should
declare your variables closest to their first point of use so the source code is easier to maintain. In C programming
language, declaring a variable is also defining a variable.
Initializing Variables
You can also initialize a variable when you declare it, for example:
view source

print?
1.int x = 10;
2.char ch = 'a';

Storage of Variables
Each variable has its own lifetime (the length of time the variable can be accessible) or storage duration. When you
declare your variable you implicitly assign it a lifetime. Let take a look at this source code example:
view source

print?
01.#include <stdio.h>
02.  
03.int global_variable = 10;// global variable
04.  
05.void func();
06.  
07.void main()
08.{
09.    int i;  
10.    // test static variable
11.    for(i = 0; i < 5 ; i++)
12.    {
13.        func();    
14.        printf("after %d call \n",i);
15.    }
16.}
17.void func()
18.{
19.    static int counter = 0;// static variable
20.    counter++;
21.    printf("func is called %d time(s)\n",counter);
22.  
23.    int local_variable = 10;              
24.  
25.}

Explanations
global_variable is a global variable. It is visible and accessible to all functions. It has static life time (static means
variable is retained until the program executes). It is suggested that we should avoid using global variable because it
is difficult to maintain, and we don’t know exactly the state of global variable because any functions can change it at
any time of program execution.
The local_variable and i are only existed until function completed. We cannot access it anymore. In this case it is call
automatic lifetimes.
In case you want a local variable has static lifetimes, you can use static keyword like counter variable in func(). It
retains until program executes even when the func() completed.
extern and register keywords
You can use extern keyword when declaring a variable or function to imply that the variable is implemented
elsewhere and it will be implement later on.
 register keyword is used when you want a variable which is accessed many time and required fast memory access.
Be noted that, declaring a variable with register keyword acts as a directive. It means it does not guarantee the
allocation of a register for storing values.
Scope of Variables
You can define variable in a block of code which specifies by {and} braces. The variable has the scope inside block it
is declared.
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