Question

Say I declare a header file with a variable:

int count;

Then in the source file, I want to use count. Do I have to declare it as:

extern int count

Or can I just use it in my source file? All assuming that I have #include "someheader.h". Or should I just declare it in the source file? What is the difference between putting count in the header file vs the source file? Or does it not matter?

Answer 1

You only want one count variable, right? Well this line:

int count;

Defines a count variable for you. If you stick that in multiple files (by including it in a header), then you’ll have multiple count variables, one for each file, and you’ll get errors because they’ll all have the same name.

All the extern keyword does is say that there is a count variable defined in some other file, and we’re just letting the compiler know about it so we can use it in this file. So the extern declaration is what you want to put in your header to be included by your other files. Put the int count; definition in one source file.