When Are Static Class Members Initialized in C ?

Initialization of Static Class Members in C

Static class fields are widely used in C programming to provide shared data and functionality. Determining when these static members are initialized can be a critical aspect of code design and execution.

According to the C Standard, static objects are initialized before any other initialization takes place. This implies that all static objects defined within the same translation unit (typically a .cpp file) are initialized in the order of their definitions, disregarding their declarations. This behavior is referred to as static initialization.

Objects of POD (plain old data) types with static storage duration and initialized with constant expressions are initialized before any dynamic initialization occurs. Dynamic initialization is any initialization that is not static.

In terms of execution, static object initialization of a translation unit is guaranteed to occur before the first statement of the main function or any other object or function defined within that unit is used. This means that while dynamic initialization may be deferred, static initialization is completed prior to the execution of the program.

It's important to note that the standard does not specify the exact order of initialization for objects defined in different translation units. This behavior is implementation-defined and may vary across different compilers and platforms.

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