Automatic variable: Difference between revisions

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In [[computer programming]], an '''automatic variable''' is a local [[Variable (programming)|variable]] which is allocated and deallocated automatically when program flow enters and leaves the variable's scope. The scope is the lexical context, particularly the function or block in which a variable is defined. Automatic local data is typically (in most languages) invisible outside the function or lexical context where it is defined. It is also invisible and inaccessible to a locally ''called'' function, <ref group="note">unless this function is also ''defined'' locally, along with that local data, see [[nested function]]</ref>, but is not deallocated, coming back in scope as the execution thread returns to the caller.

Automatic local variables primarily applies to recursive [[scope (programming)|lexically-scoped]] languages. Automatic local variables are normally [[Stack-based memory allocation|allocated in the stack frame]] of the procedure in which they are declared.<ref group="note">unless otherwise specified, such as static or heap-based data, which are specifiable in some languages</ref>. This was originally done to achieve [[reentrant (subroutine)|re-entrancy]] and allowing [[recursion]],<ref group="note">When the reentrant property of the routine is used, for recursion or otherwise, the [[compiler optimization|optimizer]] must ''not'' try to allocate such variables in [[processor register]]s (for efficiency) as this would break the reentrancy.</ref> considerations that still applies, althoughtoday. theThe concept of automatic variables in recursive (and [[nested function|nested]]) functions in a lexically scoped language was introduced to the wider audience already with [[ALGOL]] in the late 1950s, (and thenwas further popularized by its many descendants).

The term ''[[local variable]]'' is usually synonymous with automatic variable, since these are the same thing in many programming languages, but local is more general – most local variables are automatic local variables, but [[static local variable]]s also exist, notably in C. For a static local variable, the allocation is static (the lifetime is the entire program execution), not automatic, but it is only in scope during the execution of the function.