Order of Object Initialization Across Translation Units

 Last reviewed: July 31, 1997
Article ID: Q101188
7.00 | 1.00 1.50 | 1.00 2.00 4.00 
MS-DOS | WINDOWS   | WINDOWS NT
kbprg

The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft C/C++ for MS-DOS, version 7.0
  • Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, versions 1.0 and 1.5
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 32-bit Edition, versions 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0

The order of initialization of global objects is undefined across translation units. For example, if your application consists of three C++ modules and each module declares an object of xyz class, there is no guarantee during program initialization which of these objects will be constructed first.

In addition to not relying on the order of initialization, you should not use one object's address in another object's initialization when the two objects are contained in different translation units.

AT&T 2.1 does not define the order of initialization for global objects across translation units. The order of initialization is implementation-dependent.

Additional reference words: kbinf 7.00 1.00 1.50 2.00 4.00
KBCategory: kbprg
KBSubcategory: CPPLngIss
Keywords : CPPLngIss kbprg
Version : 7.00 | 1.00 1.50 | 1.00 2.00 4
Platform : MS-DOS NT WINDOWS

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Last reviewed: July 31, 1997
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