0xDEADBEEF equivalent for 64-bit development?

Question

For C++ development for 32-bit systems (be it Linux, Mac OS or Windows, PowerPC or x86) I have initialised pointers that would otherwise be undefined (e.g. they can not immedi

Answer 1

I see several answers claiming NULL is a good choice, but I disagree.

NULL is often used as a valid return value from functions. It indicates a failure return or an unknown value. This is a different meaning than "uninitialized pointer."

Using a debugger on the code and seeing NULL would then leave two possibilities: the pointer was never initialized or it had failed a memory allocation.

Setting the uninitialized pointer to 0xDEADBEEF or the 64-bit equivalent means that a NULL pointer indicates an intentional value.