Does an int in Objective-C have a default value of 1?

Question

I have this simple line of code:

int x;

x automatically has the value of 1. I don't set it to anything but when I debug, it shows that x is 1.

Does an int have a default value of 1?!

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered May 12 '11 at 15:50

22

No. int has an undefined default value. It just happens to be 1 in this case. It could just as easily be -18382 or 22 or 0xBAADF00D.

Always initialize your variables in C.

answered May 12 '11 at 15:50

Jonathan Grynspan

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered May 12 '11 at 15:50

The initial value is undefined, and in this case will be whatever happened to be in that memory location before x started using it.

(Depending on the surrounding code, you might find that in your specific case it's always 1, but you can't be sure of that.)

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered May 12 '11 at 15:50

5

No, on the contrary, x has no default value at all. What you're seeing is the garbage that the variable was placed upon when you created it.

answered May 12 '11 at 15:50

Blindy

score -1 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

-1

Instance variables are initialized to 0 before your initializer runs..

ref:

edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

Community

answered May 08 '14 at 08:31

kainan

1

the question is not about instance variables. – katzenhut Jun 24 '15 at 16:57

4 Answers4