Explain the concept of uninitialized array access in C language

Question

In C language, if an uninitialized array is used, will the program be executed?

Solution

• If we use any uninitialized array, the compiler will not generate any compilation and execution errors.

• If the array is not initialized, you may get unpredictable results.

• Therefore, it is better that we always initialize array elements with default values.

Sample program

The following is a C program to access an uninitialized array -

Live demonstration

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
   int a[4];
   int b[4] = {1};
   int c[4] = {1,2,3,4};
   int i; //for loop counter
   //printing all alements of all arrays
   printf("</p><p>Array a:</p><p>");
   for( i=0; i<4; i++ )
      printf("arr[%d]: %d</p><p>",i,a[i]);
   printf("</p><p>Array b:</p><p>");
   for( i=0; i<4; i++)
      printf("arr[%d]: %d</p><p>",i,b[i]);
   printf("</p><p>Array c:</p><p>");
   for( i=0; i<4; i++ )
      printf("arr[%d]: %d</p><p>",i, c[i]);
   return 0;
}

Output

When the above program is executed, the following results are produced -

Array a:
arr[0]: 4195872
arr[1]: 0
arr[2]: 4195408
arr[3]: 0

Array b:
arr[0]: 1
arr[1]: 0
arr[2]: 0
arr[3]: 0

Array c:
arr[0]: 1
arr[1]: 2
arr[2]: 3
arr[3]: 4

NOTE

If we do not initialize the array, by default, it will print garbage values ​​and never show the error.

Consider another C program to access an uninitialized array -

Example

Live demonstration

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
   int A[4];
   int B[4] ;
   int C[4] = {1,2};
   int i; //for loop counter
   //printing all alements of all arrays
   printf("</p><p>Array a:</p><p>");
   for( i=0; i<4; i++ )
      printf("arr[%d]: %d</p><p>",i,A[i]);
   printf("</p><p>Array b:</p><p>");
   for( i=0; i<4; i++)
      printf("arr[%d]: %d</p><p>",i,B[i]);
   printf("</p><p>Array c:</p><p>");
   for( i=0; i<4; i++ )
      printf("arr[%d]: %d</p><p>",i, C[i]);
   return 0;
}

Output

When executing the above program, the following results will be produced -

Array a:
arr[0]: 4195856
arr[1]: 0
arr[2]: 4195408
arr[3]: 0

Array b:
arr[0]: -915120393
arr[1]: 32767
arr[2]: 0
arr[3]: 0

Array c:
arr[0]: 1
arr[1]: 2
arr[2]: 0
arr[3]: 0

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