-initauto / -noinitauto

Syntax

-initauto [full|short]
-noinitauto

Behavior

-initauto full

Adds an initial attribute with a default value to all automatic variables according to its data type:

Variable	Initialized to
FIXED FLOAT	0 (zero)
PICTURE CHAR BIT WIDECHAR GRAPHIC	''
POINTER OFFSET	SYSNULL()
ENTRY ENTRY LIMITED	binary 0 (zero)

This is the default setting when -initauto is explicitly set.

CAUTION:

Setting -initauto full can be very expensive in terms of both code size and speed. Use this option with caution. As an alternative, consider using -initauto short instead.

-initauto short

Adds an initial attribute with a default value to automatic scalar variables only, for the following data types:

Variable	Initialized to
FIXED BIN FLOAT BIN FLOAT DEC POINTER OFFSET	0 (zero)
BIT CHAR(1) VARCHAR(1)	''

Note: -initauto short is an abbreviated form intended to reduce negative affects on code size and speed that might occur when using -initauto full.

-noinitauto

The compiler does not initialize automatic variables without an INITIAL attribute and without a NOINIT attribute.

Default

-noinitauto

Comments

Programs having data items that are not explicitly initialized before first use are not considered to be technically correct.