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From: ross@spam.ua.oz.au (Ross Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Are definitions evaluated in order?
Summary: Are definitions evaluated in order?
Keywords: c programming language definitions evaluation order
Message-ID: <895@spam.ua.oz>
Date: 27 Jun 91 07:03:31 GMT
Sender: ross@spam.ua.oz
Followup-To: comp.lang.c
Organization: Statistics, Pure & Applied Mathematics, University of Adelaide
Lines: 38

Does C guarantee that it will evaluate declarations in order?

For example, is the following program guaranteed to output "3"?

   main()
   {
    int a=3;
    int b=a;

    printf("%d\n",b);
   }

And how about:

   main()
   {
    int a=3,b=a;

    printf("%d\n",b);
   }

Even if it is standard, does anyone know if it is practically portable
(i.e. do compilers as a rule evaluate in order).

I am asking because it would neaten up a lot of the code I am writing.
Without the order assumption, variables that are dependent on other
variables initialized in the same block have to be initialized using
assignments instead of at their declaration.

I don't just need a yes or a no, I need a specific reference to [K&R]
or the ANSI standard ([K&R] preferred as I don't have a copy of the
standard). Without a formal language spec reference, I won't have a
warm fuzzy feeling about it.

Thanks,

Ross Williams
ross@spam.ua.oz.au