DLLs and Static Variables

[Captrick458]

I am from the Unix Environment so have absolutely no experience with Windows and DLLs.

I read somewhere that static variable behave improperly in DLLs because of the shared nature of the DLL. Yet, accroding to Microsoft, each time a process attaches to a DLL, the DLL creates a separate data space.

Imperical testing indicates that static variables regardless of whether defined inside a function or defined at the file level, as well as externals maintain their own version of each variable type. I've only done this with integers, but I assume that the outcome will be the same with other simple as well as complex data types.

If anyone has comments or references on this topic, I would love to hear them.

Thanks in advance, Rick

 

[dc2000]

Well, I wouldn't say that "static variables behave improperly in DLLs". They may confuse you. Say, instinctively you'd think that a certain static variable doesn't change within an instance of your app (unless you rewrite it), but in DLL, which could be loaded many times in different processes, those static variables may look like regular variables since each time DLL loads up into process it receives a new set of static variables (unless you put them into shared data section).