TL;DR: The author writes a snippet of C++ code where he declares variable but not initializes them. Of course any programmer that has started in C knows that such variables will then have unexpected values.
The author recommends us: "initialize your variables."
Then follows a interesting and fun, but not really important, review of the different ways if initialization in C++. And they are bonkers.
Unfortunately, many languages have gotchas like these, and specifications and tutorials often fail to point them out. For the sake of education they should be shouted loudly. You don't really know a language, and aren't really safe using it, until you understand them.
Exactly, i recall that was one of the first things I read, i think, on the Kerninghan&Ritchie classic book ("The C Programming language").
Also on university they repeated to me exactly the same thing. "Since each variable points to a memory location, you can't be sure of what is inside that memory location, until you initialize the variable".
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[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 26.5 ms ] threadThe author recommends us: "initialize your variables."
Then follows a interesting and fun, but not really important, review of the different ways if initialization in C++. And they are bonkers.
Unfortunately, many languages have gotchas like these, and specifications and tutorials often fail to point them out. For the sake of education they should be shouted loudly. You don't really know a language, and aren't really safe using it, until you understand them.
Also on university they repeated to me exactly the same thing. "Since each variable points to a memory location, you can't be sure of what is inside that memory location, until you initialize the variable".
https://blog.tartanllama.xyz/c++/2017/01/20/initialization-i...