initializing char pointers - c

I have a char pointer which would be used to store a string. It is used later in the program.
I have declared and initialized like this:
char * p = NULL;
I am just wondering if this is good practice. I'm using gcc 4.3.3.

Yes, it's good idea.
Google Code Style recommends:
To initialize all your variables even if you don't need them right now.
Initialize pointers by NULL, int's by 0 and float's by 0.0 -- just for better readability.
int i = 0;
double x = 0.0;
char* c = NULL;

You cannot store a string in a pointer.
Your definition of mgt_dev_name is good, but you need to point it somewhere with space for your string. Either malloc() that space or use a previously defined array of characters.
char *mgt_dev_name = NULL;
char data[4200];
/* ... */
mgt_dev_name = data; /* use array */
/* ... */
mgt_dev_name = malloc(4200);
if (mgt_dev_name != NULL) {
/* use malloc'd space */
free(mgt_dev_name);
} else {
/* error: not enough memory */
}

It is good practice to initialize all variables.

If you're asking whether it's necessary, or whether it's a good idea to initialize the variable to NULL before you set it to something else later on: It's not necessary to initialize it to NULL, it won't make any difference for the functionality of your program.
Note that in programming, it's important to understand every line of code - why it's there and what exactly it's doing. Don't do things without knowing what they mean or without understanding why you're doing them.

Another option is to not define the variable until the place in your code where you have access to it's initial value. So rather then doing:
char *name = NULL;
...
name = initial_value;
I would change that to:
...
char *name = initial_value;
The compiler will then prevent you from referencing the variable in the part of the code where it has no value. Depending on the specifics of your code this may not always be possible (for example, the initial value is set in an inner scope but the variable has a different lifetime), moving the definition as late as possible in the code prevents errors.
That said, this is only allowed starting with the c99 standard (it's also valid C++). To enable c99 features in gcc, you'll need to either do:
gcc -std=gnu99
or if you don't want gcc extensions to the standard:
gcc -std=c99

No, it is not a good practice, if I understood your context correctly.
If your code actually depends on the mgt_dev_name having the initial value of a null-pointer, then, of course, including the initializer into the declaration is a very good idea. I.e. if you'd have to do this anyway
char *mgt_dev_name;
/* ... and soon after */
mgt_dev_name = NULL;
then it is always a better idea to use initialization instead of assignment
char *mgt_dev_name = NULL;
However, initialization is only good when you can initialize your object with a meaningful useful value. A value that you will actually need. In general case, this is only possible in languages that allow declarations at any point in the code, C99 and C++ being good examples of such languages. By the time you need your object, you usually already know the appropriate initializer for that object, and so can easily come up with an elegant declaration with a good initializer.
In C89/90 on the other hand, declarations can only be placed at the beginning of the block. At that point, in general case, you won't have meaningful initializers for all of your objects. Should you just initialize them with something, anything (like 0 or NULL) just to have them initialized? No!!! Never do meaningless things in your code. It will not improve anything, regardless of what various "style guides" might tell you. In reality, meaningless initialization might actually cover bugs in your code, making it the harder to discover and fix them.
Note, that even in C89/90 it is always beneficial to strive for better locality of declarations. I.e. a well-known good practice guideline states: always make your variables as local as they can be. Don't pile up all your local object declarations at the very beginning of the function, but rather move them to the beginning of the smallest block that envelopes the entire lifetime of the object as tightly as possible. Sometimes it might even be a good idea to introduce a fictive, otherwise unnecessary block just to improve the locality of declarations. Following this practice will help you to provide good useful initializers to your objects in many (if not most) cases. But some objects will remain uninitialized in C89/90 just because you won't have a good initializer for them at the point of declaration. Don't try to initialize them with "something" just for the sake of having them initialized. This will achieve absolutely nothing good, and might actually have negative consequences.
Note that some modern development tools (like MS Visual Studio 2005, for example) will catch run-time access to uninitialized variables in debug version of the code. I.e these tools can help you to detect situations when you access a variable before it had a chance to acquire a meaningful value, indicating a bug in the code. But performing unconditional premature initialization of your variables you essentially kill that capability of the tool and sweep these bugs under the carpet.

This topic has already been discussed here:
http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t282290-how-to-initialize-a-char.html
It refers to C++, but it might be useful for you, too.

There are several good answers to this question, one of them has been accepted. I'm going to answer anyway in order to expand on practicalities.
Yes, it is good practice to initialize pointers to NULL, as well as set pointers to NULL after they are no longer needed (i.e. freed).
In either case, its very practical to be able to test a pointer prior to dereferencing it. Lets say you have a structure that looks like this:
struct foo {
int counter;
unsigned char ch;
char *context;
};
You then write an application that spawns several threads, all of which operate on a single allocated foo structure (safely) through the use of mutual exclusion.
Thread A gets a lock on foo, increments counter and checks for a value in ch. It does not find one, so it does not allocate (or modify) context. Instead, it stores a value in ch so that thread B can do this work instead.
Thread B Sees that counter has been incremented, notes a value in ch but isn't sure if thread A has done anything with context. If context was initialized as NULL, thread B no longer has to care what thread A did, it knows context is safe to dereference (if not NULL) or allocate (if NULL) without leaking.
Thread B does its business, thread A reads its context, frees it, then re-initializes it to NULL.
The same reasoning applies to global variables, without the use of threads. Its good to be able to test them in various functions prior to dereferencing them (or attempting to allocate them thus causing a leak and undefined behavior in your program).
When it gets silly is when the scope of the pointer does not go beyond a single function. If you have a single function and can't keep track of the pointers within it, usually this means the function should be re-factored. However, there is nothing wrong with initializing a pointer in a single function, if only to keep uniform habits.
The only time I've ever seen an 'ugly' case of relying on an initialized pointer (before and after use) is in something like this:
void my_free(void **p)
{
if (*p != NULL) {
free(*p);
*p = NULL;
}
}
Not only is dereferencing a type punned pointer frowned upon on strict platforms, the above code makes free() even more dangerous, because callers will have some delusion of safety. You can't rely on a practice 'wholesale' unless you are sure every operation is in agreement.
Probably a lot more information than you actually wanted.

Preferred styles:
in C: char * c = NULL;
in C++: char * c = 0;

My rationale is that if you don't initialize with NULL, and then forget to initialize altogether, the kinds of bugs you will get in your code when dereferencing are much more difficult to trace due to the potential garbage held in memory at that point. On the other hand, if you do initialize to NULL, most of the time you will only get a segmentation fault, which is better, considering the alternative.

Initializing variables even when you don't need them initialized right away is a good practice. Usually, we initialize pointers to NULL, int to 0 and floats to 0.0 as a convention.
int* ptr = NULL;
int i = 0;
float r = 0.0;

It is always good to initialize pointer variables in C++ as shown below:
int *iPtr = nullptr;
char *cPtr = nullptr;
Because initializing as above will help in condition like below since nullptr is convertible to bool, else your code will end up throwing some compilation warnings or undefined behaviour:
if(iPtr){
//then do something.
}
if(cPtr){
//then do something.
}

Related

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In case you don't want (or can not) init a pointer with an address, I often hear people say that you should init it with NULL and it's a good practice.
You can find people also say something like that in SO, for example here.
Working in many C projects, I don't think it is a good practice or at least somehow better than not init the pointer with anything.
One of my biggest reason is: init a pointer with NULL increase the chance of null pointer derefence which may crash the whole software, and it's terrible.
So, could you tell me what are the reasons if you say that it is a good pratice or people just say it for granted (just like you should always init an variable) ?
Note that, I tried to find in Misra 2004 and also did not find any rule or recommendation for that.
Update:
So most of the comments and answers give the main reason that the pointer could have an random address before being used, so it's better to have it as null so you could figure out the problem faster.
To make my point clearer, I think that it doesn't make senses nowadays in commercial C softwares, in a practical point of view. The unassigned pointer that is used will be detected right the way by most of static analyzer, that's why I prefer to let it be un-init because if I init it with NULL then when developers forget to assign it to a "real" address, it passes the static analyzer and will cause runtime problems with null pointer.
You said
One of my biggest reason is: init a pointer with NULL increase the chance of null pointer derefence which may crash the whole software, and it's terrible.
I would argue the main reason is actually due to exactly this. If you don't init pointers to NULL, then if there is a dereferecing error it's going to be a lot harder to find the problem because the pointer is not going to be set to NULL, it's going to be a most likely garbage value that may look exactly like a valid pointer.
C has very little runtime error checking, but NULL is guaranteed not to refer to a valid address, so a runtime environment (typically an operating system) is able to trap any attempt to de-refernce a NULL. The trap will identify the point at which the de-reference occurs rather then the point the program may eventually fail, making identification of the bug far easier.
Moreover when debugging, and unitialised pointer with random content may not be easily distinguishable from a valid pointer - it may refer to a plausible address, whereas NULL is always an invalid address.
If you de-reference an uninitialised pointer the result is non-deterministic - it may crash, it may not, but it will still be wrong.
If it does crash you cannot tell how or even when, since it may result in corruption of data, or reading of invalid data that may have no effect until that corrupted data is later used. The point of failure will not necessarily be the point of error.
So the purpose is that you will get deterministic failure, whereas without initialising, anything could happen - including nothing, leaving you with a latent undetected bug.
One of my biggest reason is: init a pointer with NULL increase the chance of null pointer derefence which may crash the whole software, and it's terrible.
Deterministic failure is not "terrible" - it increases your chance of finding the error during development, rather then having your users finding the error after deployment. What you are effectively suggesting is that it is better to leave the bugs in and hide them. The dereference on null is guaranteed to be trapped, de-referencing an unitialised pointer is not.
That said initialising with null, should only be done if at the point of declaration you cannot directly assign an otherwise valid value. That is to say, for example:
char* x = malloc( y ) ;
is much preferable to:
char* x = NULL ;
...
x = malloc( y ) ;
which is in turn preferable to:
char* x ;
...
x = malloc( y ) ;
Note that, I tried to find in Misra 2004 and also did not find any
rule or recommendation for that.
MISRA C:2004, 9.1 - All automatic variables shall have been assigned a value before being used.
That is to say, there is no guideline to initialise to NULL, simply that initialisation is required. As I said initialisation to NULL is not preferable to initialising to a valid pointer. Don't blindly follow the "must initialise to NULL advice", because the rule is simply "must initialise", and sometimes the appropriate initialisation value is NULL.
If you don't initialize the pointer, it can have any value, including possibly NULL. It's hard to imagine a scenario where having any value including NULL is preferable to definitely having a NULL value. The logic is that it's better to at least know its value than have its value unpredictably depend on who knows what, possibly resulting in the code behaving differently on different platforms, with different compilers, and so on.
I strongly disagree with any answer or argument based on the idea that you can reliably use a test for NULL to tell if a pointer is valid or not. You can set a pointer to NULL and then test it for NULL within a limited context where that is known to be safe. But there will always be contexts where more than one pointer points to the same thing and you cannot ensure that every possible pointer to an object will be set to NULL at the very place the object is freed. It is simply an essential C programming discipline to understand that a pointer may or may not point to a valid object depending on what is going on in the code.
One issue is that given a pointer variable p, there is no way defined by the C language to ask, "does this pointer point to valid memory or not?" The pointer might point to valid memory. It might point to memory that (once upon a time) was allocated by malloc, but that has since been freed (meaning that the pointer is invalid). It might be an uninitialized pointer, meaning that it's not even meaningful to ask where it points (although it is definitely invalid). But, again, there's no way to know.
So if you're bopping along in some far-off corner of a large program, and you want to say
if(p is valid) {
do something with p;
} else {
fprintf(stderr, "invalid pointer!\n");
}
you can't do this. Once again, the C language gives you no way of writing if(p is valid).
So that's where the rule to always initialize pointers to NULL comes in. If you adopt this rule and follow it faithfully, if you initialize every pointer to NULL or as a pointer to valid memory, if whenever you call free(p) you always immediately follow it with p = NULL;, then if you follow all these rules, you can achieve a decent way of asking "is p valid?", namely:
if(p != NULL) {
do something with p;
} else {
fprintf(stderr, "invalid pointer!\n");
}
And of course it's very common to use an abbreviation:
if(p) {
do something with p;
} else {
fprintf(stderr, "invalid pointer!\n");
}
Here most people would read if(p) as "if p is valid" or "if p is allocated".
Addendum: This answer has attracted some criticism, and I suppose that's because, to make a point, I wrote some unrealistic code which some people are reading more into than I'd intended. The idiom I'm advocating here is not so much valid pointers versus invalid pointers, but rather, pointers I have allocated versus pointers I have not allocated (yet). No one writes code that simply detects and prints "invalid pointer!" as if to say "I don't know where this pointer points; it might be uninitialized or stale". The more realistic way of using the idiom is do do something like
/* ensure allocation before proceeding */
if(p == NULL)
p = malloc(...);
or
if(p == NULL) {
/* nothing to do */
return;
}
or
if(p == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "null pointer detected\n");
exit(0);
}
(And in all three cases the abbreviation if(!p) is popular as well.)
But, of course, if what you're trying to discriminate is pointers I have allocated versus pointers I have not allocated (yet), it is vital that you initialize all your un-allocated pointers with the explicit marker you're using to record that they're un-allocated, namely NULL.
One of my biggest reason is: init a pointer with NULL increase the chance of null pointer derefence which may crash the whole software, and it's terrible.
Which is why you add a check against NULL before using that pointer value:
if ( p ) // p != NULL
{
// do something with p
}
NULL is a well-defined invalid pointer value, guaranteed to compare unequal to any object or function pointer value. It's a well-defined "nowhere" that's easy to check against.
Compare that to the indeterminate value that the uninitialized pointer1 may have - most likely, it will also be an invalid pointer value that will lead to a crash as soon as you try to use it, but it's almost impossible to determine that beforehand. Is 0xfff78567abcd2220 a valid or invalid pointer value? How would you check that?
Obviously, you should do some analysis to see if an initialization is required. Is there a risk of that pointer being dereferenced before you assign a valid pointer value to it? If not, then you don't need to initialize it beforehand.
Since C99, the proper answer has been to defer instantiating a pointer (or any other type of object, really) until you have a valid value to initialize it with:
void foo( void )
{
printf( "Gimme a length: " );
int length;
scanf( "%d", &length );
char *buf = malloc( sizeof *buf * length );
...
}
ETA
I added a comment to Steve's answer that I think needs to be emphasized:
There's no way to determine if a pointer is valid - if you receive a pointer argument in a function like
void foo( int *ptr )
{
...
}
there is no test you can run on ptr to indicate that yes, it definitely points to an object within that object's lifetime and is safe to use.
By contrast, there is an easy, standard test to indicate that a pointer is definitely invalid and unsafe to use, and that's by checking that its value is NULL. So you can at least avoid using pointers that are definitely invalid with the
if ( p )
{
// do something with p
}
idiom.
Now, just because p isn't NULL doesn't automatically mean it's valid, but if you're consistent and disciplined about setting unused pointers to NULL, then the odds are pretty high that it is.
This is one of those areas where C doesn't protect you, and you have to devote non-trivial amounts of effort to make sure your code is safe and robust. Frankly, it's a pain in the ass more often than not. But being disciplined with using NULL for inactive pointers makes things a little easier.
Again, you have to do some analysis and think about how pointers are being used in your code. If you know you're going to set a pointer to valid value before it's ever read, then it's not critical to initialize it to anything in particular. If you have multiple pointers pointing to the same object, then you need to make sure if that object ever goes away that all those pointers are updated appropriately.
This assumes that the pointer in question has auto storage duration - if the pointer is declared with the static keyword or at file scope, then it is implicitly initialized to NULL.

Saving code space by altering a function call in C

I am calling a function that returns a variable through a pointer parameter. I do not care about the return value of this parameter nor do I want to make a dummy variable to pass to the function. For a simple example's sake, let's say the function is as follows and I don't care about, nor want to make a dummy variable for parameter "d".
void foo(int a, int b, int* c, int* d)
{
*c = a+b;
*d = a+b+*c;
}
I understand that a NULL pointer is in theory a pointer to a location that is not the address of any object or function. Would it be correct to pass NULL into "d" in this function if NULL was defined as the following? Or is this going to change whatever is at the 0'th element in memory?
#define NULL ((void *)0)
The target device is an MSP430 and I am using IAR C. No operating system is used therefore no memory management is implemented
EDIT: Please note that I do not want to create a dummy variable. Also if there was a way to fool the compiler into optimizing the "d" parameter out without altering the function definition, this is preferable.
EDIT#2: I would rather not use the & operator in the function call as it generates inefficient code that I do not want to generate
EDIT#3: For those who don't believe me when I am talking about the & operator... the compiler manual states "Avoid taking the address of local variables using the & operator. This is inefficient
for two main reasons. First, the variable must be placed in memory, and thus cannot be placed in a processor register. This results in larger and slower code. Second, the optimizer can no longer assume that the local variable is unaffected over function calls."
No, it is not correct.
The C standard does not define the behavior when you do this. On many systems, it will cause an error (some sort of memory fault) when foo attempts to store to address 0. If it does not, then you will have written data to address 0, presumably overwriting something else there that may have been needed, so your system may fail at a later time.
You should change your function a bit to allow passing NULL
void foo(int a, int b, int* c, int* d)
{
if(c != NULL)
{
*c = a+b;
if(d != NULL)
{
*d = a+b+*c;
}
}
}
Now you can safely pass NULL. Otherwise, as the other answers already state, you end up dereferencing a NULL pointer which results in undefined behavior.
In your example, if you don't care about the pointer d and you pass NULL as you defined then it'll probably crash due to dereferencing NULL.
You should pass a valid pointer even if you don't care about the result.
Why not just declare a temporary and pass?
int tempd;
foo(a,b,&c, &tempd);
There is no such thing as the 0th element in memory due to virtual memory. However, if you attempt this, your program will crash with a memory exception. I assume you want to ignore d if it's null so simply do this:
if(d != NULL)
{
*d = a+b+*c
}
Since you don't want to create a dummy variable and can't change the function you'll most likely end up scribbling at the memory position 0 on your device whatever that means. Maybe it's a memory mapped hardware register, maybe it's just normal physical memory.
If it's a register, maybe it doesn't have any effect unless you write the magical value 4711 into it which will happen once every three months and the device halts and catches fire. (has happened to me, it's fun to overwrite the boot eeprom on a device)
Or if it's memory maybe you'll send a NULL pointer to a different function later and that function will happily read the value that this function wrote there and you'll end up at 5 in the morning tearing your hair out and yelling "this can't possibly affect that!". (has happened to me on some ancient unix that used to map the NULL page)
Maybe your compiler adds a safety net for you. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe the next version will. Maybe the next hardware revision will come with memory unmapped at address 0 and the device will halt.
I'd create a dummy variable in the calling function and move on to a more interesting problem, but if you're a stress junkie, pass NULL and see what happens (today or in 10 years).
In that specific example code both passed in pointers are dereferenced. Dereferencing NULL is undefined behavior. Just go with the dummy variables.
In general: If a function accepts a pointer it should state if the null pointer is a valid value for the argument. If it doesn't say anything stay on the safe side and just assume it isn't. This will safe you a lot of grief.
Interesting question! Generally speaking, NULL is reserved as an "invalid" address. You shouldn't try to write to it, but I don't think the standard specifies what should happen if you do. On a Windows machine, this will generate an access violation exception. I don't know what will happen on your device.
In any case, passing NULL is the usual way to indicate that you're not interested in the value of an out parameter. But your function must be aware of this and act accordingly:
if( c ) {
*c = a+b;
if( d ) {
*d = a+b+*c;
}
}
Edit
If you can't change the function definition, then you're probably out of luck. You can trick the compiler into not passing d if the calling convention is cdecl. Just declare the function without the d parameter:
extern void foo( int a, int b, int * c );
However, you're definitely into dangerous shenanigans territory here. The function definition will still expect the d paramater, so it will see random garbage.
The only other thing I can think of is passing a fixed address. Since you're writing for a specific device, there might be an address range that's safe to write to. (That is, it won't cause exceptions or corrupt actual memory.)
void * SafeAddress = (void *)0x12345678;
foo( a, b, &c, SafeAddress );
Of course, the easiest thing is to just use the dummy variable. I know you've said more than once that this generates inefficient code, but does that have to be the case? Does it make a difference if the dummy is a local variable versus a global one?
The function tries to store value at the provided address. If the address is invalid, then there will be a malfunction of some sort -- whether you use an operating system or not is irrelevant.
Either you have to give the function some valid address (even if you don't care for the value in a particular case), or you have to change the function so that it does not store the value (and, probably, does not even even compute it), if the address for it is NULL (which may or may not be 0x0 on your platform, BTW).
You keep repeating, that you "don't want" to do the former and can not do the latter. Well, then you have an unsolvable dilemma. Maybe, there already exists some other address, where dummy values like this can be stored in your program (or on the platform) -- you can pass that.
If there is no OS involved, then you must be dealing with some funky programmable device, which means, there ought to be seasoned C-programmers around you. Ask them for confirmation of what you are told here -- clearly, you aren't trusting the answers given to you by several people already.
It will try to assign something at memory location 0x0, so I'd say it will crash
I was able to save code space without increasing memory usage on the stack by declaring a dummy variable as well as a pointer to the dummy variable.
int Dummy;
int* Dummy_ptr = &Dummy;
This allowed the compiler to make optimizations on the function call as the & operator was not used in the function call.
The call is now
foo(a, b, c_ptr, Dummy_ptr);
EDIT: For those of you who don't believe me.
I took a look at the assembler. The Dummy variable exists on the stack, though because it is not used later on, and because it is only a return from the function the address is never passed to the function and any use of that variable in the function is optimized out.

is it necessary to call pointer = NULL when initializing?

when I create a pointer to certain struct, do I have to set it to NULL, then alloc it then use it? and why?
No, you don't have to set it to NULL, but some consider it good practice as it gives a new pointer a value that makes it explicit it's not pointing at anything (yet).
If you are creating a pointer and then immediately assigning another value to it, then there's really not much value in setting it to NULL.
It is a good idea to set a pointer to NULL after you free the memory it was pointing to, though.
No, there is no requirement (as far as the language is concerned) to initialize a pointer variable to anything when declaring it. Thus
T* ptr;
is a valid declaration that introduces a variable named ptr with an indeterminate value. You can even use the variable in certain ways without first allocating anything or setting it to any specific value:
func(&ptr);
According to the C standard, not initializing an automatic storage variable leaves its value indeterminate.
You are definitely encouraged to set pointers to NULL whenever the alternative is your pointer having an indeterminate value. Usage of pointers with an indeterminate value is undefined behavior, a concept that you might not grasp properly if you're used to C programming and come from higher level languages.
Undefined behavior means that anything could happen, and this is a part of the C standard since the philosophy of C is letting the programmer have the burden to control things, instead of protecting him from his mistakes.
You want to avoid undefined behaviors in code: it is very hard to debug stuff when any behavior can occurr. It is not caught by a compiler, and your tests may always pass, leaving the bug unnoticed until it is very expensive to correct it.
If you do something like this:
char *p;
if(!p) puts("Pointer is NULL");
You don't actually know whether that if control will be true or false. This is extremely dangerous in large programs where you may declare your variable and then use it somewhere very far in space and time.
Same concept when you reference freed memory.
free(p);
printf("%s\n", p);
p = q;
You don't actually know what you're going to get with the last two statements. You can't test it properly, you cannot be sure of your outcome. Your code may seem to work because freed memory is recycled even if it may have been altered... you could even overwrite memory, or corrupt other variables that share the same memory. So you still have a bug that sooner or later will manifest itself and could be very hard to debug it.
If you set the pointer to NULL, you protect yourself from these dangerous situations: during your tests, your program will have a deterministic, predictable behavior that will fail fast and cheaply. You get a segfault, you catch the bug, you fix the bug. Clean and simple:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(){
char* q;
if(!q) puts("This may or may not happen, who knows");
q = malloc(10);
free(q);
printf("%s\n", q); // this is probably don't going to crash, but you still have a bug
char* p = NULL;
if(!p) puts("This is always going to happen");
p = malloc(10);
free(p);
p = NULL;
printf("%s\n", p); // this is always going to crash
return 0;
}
So, when you initialize a pointer, especially in large programs, you want them to be explicitely initliazed or set to NULL. You don't want them to get an indeterminate value, never. I should say unless you know what you are doing, but I prefer never instead.
No, don't forget that initialization has to be to a null pointer at all. A very convenient idiom in modern C is to declare variables at their first use
T * ptr = malloc(sizeof *ptr);
This avoids you a lot of hussle of remembering the type and whether or not a variable is already initialized. Only if you don't know where (or even if) it is later initialized, then you definitively should initialize it to a null pointer.
So as a rule of thumb, always initialize variables to the appropriate value. The "proper 0 for the type" is always a good choice if you don't have a better one at hand. For all types, C is made like that, such that it works.
Not initializing a variable is premature optimization in most cases. Only go through your variables when you see that there is a real performance bottleneck, there. In particular if there is an assignment inside the same function before a use of the initial value, andy modern compiler will optimize you the initialization out. Think correctness of your program first.
You dont have to unless you dont want it to dangle a while. You know you should after freeing(defensive style).
You do not have to initialize to NULL. If you intend to allocate it immediately, you can skip it.
At can be useful for error handling like in the following example. In this case breaking to the end after p allocation would leave q uninitialized.
int func(void)
{
char *p;
char *q;
p = malloc(100);
if (!p)
goto end;
q = malloc(100);
if (!q)
goto end;
/* Do something */
end:
free(p);
free(q);
return 0;
}
Also, and this is my personal taste, allocate structs always with calloc. Strings may be allocated uninitialized with malloc

Initializing variables in C

I know that sometimes if you don't initialize an int, you will get a random number if you print the integer.
But initializing everything to zero seems kind of silly.
I ask because I'm commenting up my C project and I'm pretty straight on the indenting and it compiles fully (90/90 thank you Stackoverflow) but I want to get 10/10 on the style points.
So, the question: when is it appropriate to initialize, and when should you just declare a variable:
int a = 0;
vs.
int a;
There are several circumstances where you should not initialize a variable:
When it has static storage duration (static keyword or global var) and you want the initial value to be zero. Most compilers will actually store zeros in the binary if you explicitly initialize, which is usually just a waste of space (possibly a huge waste for large arrays).
When you will be immediately passing the address of the variable to another function that fills its value. Here, initializing is just a waste of time and may be confusing to readers of the code who wonder why you're storing something in a variable that's about to be overwritten.
When a meaningful value for the variable can't be determined until subsequent code has completed execution. In this case, it's actively harmful to initialize the variable with a dummy value such as zero/NULL, as this prevents the compiler from warning you if you have some code paths where a meaningful value is never assigned. Compilers are good at warning you about accessing uninitialized variables, but can't warn you about "still contains dummy value" variables.
Aside from these issues, I'd say it's generally good practice to initialize your non-static variables when possible.
A rule that hasn't been mentioned yet is this: when the variable is declared inside a function it is not initialised, and when it is declared in static or global scope it's set to 0:
int a; // is set to 0
void foo() {
int b; // set to whatever happens to be in memory there
}
However - for readability I would usually initialise everything at declaration time.
If you're interested in learning this sort of thing in detail, I'd recommend this presentation and this book
I can think of a couple of reason off the top of my head:
When you're going to be initializing it later on in your code.
int x;
if(condition)
{
func();
x = 2;
}
else
{
x = 3;
}
anotherFunc(x); // x will have been set a value no matter what
When you need some memory to store a value set by a function or another piece of code:
int x; // Would be pointless to give x a value here
scanf("%d", &x);
If the variable is in the scope of of a function and not a member of a class I always initialize it because otherwise you will get warnings. Even if this variable will be used later I prefer to assign it on declaration.
As for member variables, you should initialize them in the constructor of your class.
For pointers, always initialize them to some default, particularly NULL, even if they are to be used later, they are dangerous when uninitialized.
Also it is recommended to build your code with the highest level of warnings that your compiler supports, it helps to identify bad practices and potential errors.
Static and global variables will be initialized to zero for you so you may skip initialization. Automatic variables (e.g. non-static variables defined in function body) may contain garbage and should probably always be initialized.
If there is a non-zero specific value you need at initialization then you should always initialize explicitly.
It's always good practice to initialize your variables, but sometimes it's not strictly necessary. Consider the following:
int a;
for (a = 0; a < 10; a++) { } // a is initialized later
or
void myfunc(int& num) {
num = 10;
}
int a;
myfunc(&a); // myfunc sets, but does not read, the value in a
or
char a;
cin >> a; // perhaps the most common example in code of where
// initialization isn't strictly necessary
These are just a couple of examples where it isn't strictly necessary to initialize a variable, since it's set later (but not accessed between declaration and initialization).
In general though, it doesn't hurt to always initialize your variables at declaration (and indeed, this is probably best practice).
In general, there's no need to initialize a variable, with 2 notable exceptions:
You're declaring a pointer (and not assigning it immediately) - you
should always set these to NULL as good style and defensive
programming.
If, when you declare the variable, you already know
what value is going to be assigned to it. Further assignments use up
more CPU cycles.
Beyond that, it's about getting the variables into the right state that you want them in for the operation you're going to perform. If you're not going to be reading them before an operation changes their value (and the operation doesn't care what state it is in), there's no need to initialize them.
Personally, I always like to initialize them anyway; if you forgot to assign it a value, and it's passed into a function by mistake (like a remaining buffer length) 0 is usually cleanly handled - 32532556 wouldn't be.
There is absolutely no reason why variables shouldn't be initialised, the compiler is clever enough to ignore the first assignment if a variable is being assigned twice. It is easy for code to grow in size where things you took for granted (such as assigning a variable before being used) are no longer true. Consider:
int MyVariable;
void Simplistic(int aArg){
MyVariable=aArg;
}
//Months later:
int MyVariable;
void Simplistic(int aArg){
MyVariable+=aArg; // Unsafe, since MyVariable was never initialized.
}
One is fine, the other lands you in a heap of trouble. Occasionally you'll have issues where your application will run in debug mode, but release mode will throw an exception, one reason for this is using an uninitialised variable.
As long as I have not read from a variable before writing to it, I have not had to bother with initializing it.
Reading before writing can cause serious and hard to catch bugs. I think this class of bugs is notorious enough to gain a mention in the popular SICP lecture videos.
Initializing a variable, even if it is not strictly required, is ALWAYS a good practice. The few extra characters (like "= 0") typed during development may save hours of debugging time later, particularly when it is forgotten that some variables remained uninitialized.
In passing, I feel it is good to declare a variable close to its use.
The following is bad:
int a; // line 30
...
a = 0; // line 40
The following is good:
int a = 0; // line 40
Also, if the variable is to be overwritten right after initialization, like
int a = 0;
a = foo();
it is better to write it as
int a = foo();

C - Check if Integer is assigned

How do I determine if an integer is unassigned?
int i; /* no assignment */
if (/* conditional statement here to check if int i is unassigned or not */) {
printf("Integer is unassigned!\n");
} else {
printf("Integer is assigned!\n");
}
You can't. It will have "undefined" content, meaning it'll contain what ever happens to be in that memory location at that time.
. . . unless i is declared at the global scope, then it will be initialised to Zero.
C doesn't intrinsically support this - just like it doesn't intrinsically support bounds checking on arrays. It's a trade-off between speed/efficiency and safety.
In general... initialize your variables.
If i is global or static, its value will be 0, otherwise its value can be anything and there is no way to find out whether it is garbage or not.
You may be able to ask for compiler warnings if you use uninitialized values. They're not wholly reliable, however - you get the occasional false positive where the DFA isn't as clever as you'd hope, and maybe occasional false negatives (I'd hope not, but I promise nothing).
For GCC:
-Wuninitialized -O1
If you want to write conditional code:
int a = 3;
int b;
int *p = (rand() > RAND_MAX/2) ? &a : &b;
if (is_uninitialized(*p)) // blah
then you're out of luck. Unlike some dynamic languages, C has no concept of "the undefined value". If a variable is not initialized, it isn't given some special value which can be tested for later. It's not given a value at all, so it's undefined what happens when you use the variable.
As others have noted, you can't write a C program that detects if one of its own variables is uninitialized, and you should strive to make sure that variables are always initialized.
If your goal is to make sure all variables are initialized, a tool like valgrind can detect uses of uninitialized variables dynamically, through expensive run-time analysis.
If your goal is to make sure that private data is initialized exactly once, the usual method is to protect it with
int i;
static bool initialized = 0;
...
if (!initialized) {
initialized = 1;
i = ... i's initial value ...;
}
It's very simple. You know it is unassigned because you did not initialise it.
As all previous answers, there is no way to detect that at runtime.
However, almost any static code analysis tool with warn you for unassigned variables.
Using a variable before intialization (or assignment) is serious cause of errors. You can not reliably check it at runtime, but you can detect it during or before compilation.
I suggest not to check it inside the code. Because this is likely to cause compiler warnings (Variable 'i' is used before it has been assigned a value), introduce new errors and has very little chance on succes in medium to large programs.
The best method is to use static code analys tools (like QA/C or PCLint).
Using compiler at high warning sensitivity level is a free option, with much less coverage as the specialized tools.
If you perform code reviews, you can also include a check for uninitialized variables on the checklist. This is no guarantee, but it will trigger manual checks from reviewers.
If it is runtime checking you want, then you can start of by intializing variables to an out-of-range value. For instance -1 for an otherwise postive value. Then you can check for
#define UNASSIGNED_VALUE -1
static int number_of_apples = UNASSIGNED_VALUE;
if (UNASSIGNED_VALUE == number_of_apples)
{
// error handling
}
this is not a true 'unintialized' variable, but at least you can detect whether runtime assignments in legal range were done.
Usually variables are set to 0 by the C library, but not necessarily.
But basically, you can't. Assign them a default value in the definition, for instance:
int i = 0; /* Or what ever value you know won't be used elsewhere */
Then if you run some code and want to check if the value was set there, you can compare to your initial value.
In C, an integer takes on an undefined value when it is created. This means that if your first use of that integer comes from a register/memory location/device with a 5893872 in it, that's the value of that integer. (Mileage varies for debug/release compilation.)
The usual method of dealing with this is to use a nonsensical default:
int number_of_widgets = -1;
...or a flag to indicate its state:
int number_of_widgets;
int number_of_widgets_assigned = 0;
if (number_of_widgets_assigned)
do something
else
do something else
number_of_widgets_assigned = 1;
There is no other way to detect whether something has been assigned to - unless you want to get into the debugging features of your hardware and I suspect that is not what this conversation is about.
Checking whether or not a variable you're using is initialized (assigned) at runtime is notoriously difficult for C. There's no language support for it, and the information available at runtime simply is insufficient for perfect detection of uninitialized values. Dynamic analysis tools such as Valgrind/Memcheck goes through great lengths (such as keeping track of every byte of memory in your process's address space and then examining every store to mark a byte as intiialized ) to determine whether or not the value using is initialized and are still susceptible to false positives.
If you're just trying to minimize such errors in your programs, static analysis tools such as lint can do a reasonably good job of informing you of whether or not you're using uninitialized variables. In fact, I believe most compilers will do their best to tell you when you're doing this (though, they're certainly not perfect.)
In C# I'd use:
Nullable<int> i = null; /* null assignment */
if (i == null) {
printf("Integer is unassigned!\n");
} else {
printf("Integer is assigned!\n");
}
Not sure if this'd translate to C, though.

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