Global variables are not extern
nor static
by default on C and C++.
When you declare a variable as static
, you are restricting it to the current source file. If you declare it as extern
, you are saying that the variable exists, but are defined somewhere else, and if you don't have it defined elsewhere (without the extern
keyword) you will get a link error (symbol not found).
Your code will break when you have more source files including that header, on link time you will have multiple references to varGlobal
. If you declare it as static
, then it will work with multiple sources (I mean, it will compile and link), but each source will have its own varGlobal
.
What you can do in C++, that you can't in C, is to declare the variable as const
on the header, like this:
const int varGlobal = 7;
And include in multiple sources, without breaking things at link time. The idea is to replace the old C style #define
for constants.
If you need a global variable visible on multiple sources and not const
, declare it as extern
on the header, and then define it, this time without the extern keyword, on a source file:
Header included by multiple files:
extern int varGlobal;
In one of your source files:
int varGlobal = 7;