Thread: Difference between global variable and volatile

Hello Guys,

Am looking for a clear explanation with example to differentiate between global and volatile variables. This was part of an interview question where the guy asked:

consider two programs: 1.c 2.c, where:

1.c: int a=10;
2.c: extern int a; printf(a);

Now, the value should be 10 only. Also, in case later if the value for a is changed in 1.c program then also 2.c will print the same value. Then how does volatile different from global variables?

Thanks for your answers. Not sure if the question is described clearly, let me know if any doubts.

Regards,
Karthik

Global variables are regular variables that exist in a program. You have to write code to change the value of the variable. Even if they're in two different .c files, you have to somewhere, in 1.c or 2.c, do something like a = 42; to change it's value. Whatever it is that you do, you did it, in your program.

The volatile keyword means something outside your program may change the value of your variable. This is commonly used for lower level programming and embedded systems, when you have memory-mapped variables that correspond to hardware registers. An external interrupt, serial data, A/D converter, etc may change the value of that variable, so that between the following code could print any number:

Code:

volatile int x;
x = 42;
printf("%d", x);  // could print 17 or any other number if the value of x was changed externally

Also, volatile variables can't really be optimized by the compiler. Since the value may be changed by something other than your program, the compiler can never make any assumptions about it's value or usage, thus can't make any decisions to optimize.

But volatile can also be modified by you and your code and similarly a global variable can also be used as a variable to monitor external events so how does both are different?

Originally Posted by amritpal.singh

similarly a global variable can also be used as a variable to monitor external events

Not reliably (afaik).
Suppose, you want a loop to continue when a global variable has a certain value.
If the compiler finds that nothing in your program is changing that variable, it would simply make the loop an infinite one.
But it can't do so, if you make the variable volatile.