What is the scope of a variable ?

Scope of variable:

The scope of variable defines the variable access point and life of variable. There are two variable scopes:

1. Local variable
2. Global variable

Local variable:

A type of variable that is declared inside a function is called as global variable.

The life of a local variable ends when a function ends and can only be accessed within the function in which it is declared.

Global variable:

A type of variable that is declared outside of any function is called as a global variable. It is generally declared after preprocessor directives and before main () function.

The life of a global variable ends when the execution of programs ends and it can be accessed by any function of the program.

Example:

#include<iostream.h>

#include<conio.h>

int a;

void main()

{ 

int b=10;

a=110;

cout<< “value of a: ”<<a ;

cout<<”\n value of b:”<<b;

getch();

}

In the above example "int a" is a globle variable which means that it can be accessed through out the program and "int b" is a local variable which means that it can only be accessed within the main(), not outside the main ().