Chapter 6, Problem 1RQE

Why do local variables lose their values between calls to the function in which they are defined?

Program Plan Intro

Function:

One of the building blocks of C++ program is functions; it contains a group of statements which are used to perform a specific task and the executable segments in a program.

• The function “main()” is the most important function in a program, because the “main()” function is the starting point of the program.
• The main advantage of using function is that it reuses and reduce the code size of the program; because a function can be called for multiple times in a program.

Local variables:

A variable which is declared inside the function or is passed as an argument to the function is termed as a local variable.

• The scope of the local variables is only within the block of a function in which they are defined.
• The local variable cannot be accessed by the segments outside the function block.

Explanation of Solution

Reason for the local variables losing their scope:

The local variables will lose the scope outside the block in which they are defined.

• The reason is the memory for the local variable which is created at the beginning of the function.
• And the memory which has been created will get destroyed when the function ends.

Therefore, the value of the local variable is lost, when it is called outside the function.