Linxutopia - Thinking in C++ - 3: The C in C++

Thinking in C++
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extern

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The extern keyword has already been briefly described and demonstrated. It tells the compiler that a variable or a function exists, even if the compiler hasn’t yet seen it in the file currently being compiled. This variable or function may be defined in another file or further down in the current file. As an example of the latter:

//: C03:Forward.cpp
// Forward function & data declarations
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// This is not actually external, but the 
// compiler must be told it exists somewhere:
extern int i; 
extern void func();
int main() {
  i = 0;
  func();
}
int i; // The data definition
void func() {
  i++;
  cout << i;
} ///:~

When the compiler encounters the declaration ‘extern int i’, it knows that the definition for i must exist somewhere as a global variable. When the compiler reaches the definition of i, no other declaration is visible, so it knows it has found the same i declared earlier in the file. If you were to define i as static, you would be telling the compiler that i is defined globally (via the extern), but it also has file scope (via the static), so the compiler will generate an error.

Thinking in C++
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