Using a Global Variable

suggest change

Use of global variables is generally discouraged. It makes your program more difficult to understand, and harder to debug. But sometimes using a global variable is acceptable.

global.h

#ifndef GLOBAL_DOT_H    /* This is an "include guard" */
#define GLOBAL_DOT_H

/**
 * This tells the compiler that g_myglobal exists somewhere.
 * Without "extern", this would create a new variable named
 * g_myglobal in _every file_ that included it. Don't miss this!
 */
extern int g_myglobal; /* _Declare_ g_myglobal, that is promise it will be _defined_ by
                        * some module. */

#endif /* GLOBAL_DOT_H */

global.c

#include "global.h" /* Always include the header file that declares something
                     * in the C file that defines it. This makes sure that the
                     * declaration and definition are always in-sync.
                     */
                       
int g_myglobal;     /* _Define_ my_global. As living in global scope it gets initialised to 0 
                     * on program start-up. */

main.c

#include "global.h"

int main(void)
{
    g_myglobal = 42;
    return 0;
}

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

Table Of Contents