Initialisation of static variable with itself

Question

Consider following code example:

#include 

static int bar = bar;

int main()
{
    int foo = foo;
    std::cout << \"foo = \" << foo         


        

Answer 1

I believe that part of the standard is relevant to your question (§3.6.2/2):

Variables with static storage duration (3.7.1) or thread storage duration (3.7.2) shall be zero-initialized (8.5) before any other initialization takes place.[...]

So in this case, even before the compiler looks at your definition of bar, it has already zero-initialized it.

As it is specified a bit further in the standard, there shall be two phases for static variables initialization (emphasis mine).

Together, zero-initialization and constant initialization are called static initialization; all other initialization is dynamic initialization. Static initialization shall be performed before any dynamic initialization takes place.