Uninitialized variables

[Rife]

Hi everyone.
I'm new here, and I have a question, very simple for most of you... I guess.
Here's the code:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
    int a, b, c;
    cout << a << endl << b << endl << c <<endl;
    system ("pause");
    return (0);
}

The result is:

2
16
2293672

How and why got the three variables those values??

Thank you.

[laserlight]

How and why got the three variables those values??

They happened to be the contents of the memory that those variables were allocated.

[Rife]

Thank you.
I presumed they should get value of 0.

So, the variables always should be initialiyed if we want to operate with them.

[matsp]

Thank you.
I presumed they should get value of 0.

So, the variables always should be initialiyed if we want to operate with them.

Yes, all local variables must be initialized. Local variables have whatever they happens to be in the memory they are given in the function [unless it's a debug build from V7.0+ of MS Visual studio, in which case uninitialized variables have a specific bit-pattern (e.g. 0xCC) filled into them to make it easier to detect uninitialized variables - but this is also not zero].

GLOBAL (and static) variables are initialized to zero.

--
Mats

[leeor_net]

As Matsp noted, in certain situations your variables will be initialized to 0 but it's considered very bad form and poor practice to expect your compiler to do the work you should be doing.

The long and short of it -- always initialize your variables.

[CornedBee]

Depends on what you consider the "work you should be doing". I personally like passing as much work as possible to the compiler.

[leeor_net]

In this case it's initializing variables/pointers/whatever. I generally take the approach "If I'm not initializing it myself expect bugs."