C++ In a Nutshell

Object Declarations

An object in C++ is a region of storage with a type, a value, and possibly a name. In traditional object-oriented programming, “object” means an instance of a class, but in C++ the definition is slightly broader to include instances of any data type.

An object (variable or constant) declaration has two parts: a series of specifiers and a list of comma-separated declarators. Each declarator has a name and an optional initializer.

Specifiers

Each declaration begins with a series of specifiers. The series can contain a storage class, const and volatile qualifiers, and the object’s type, in any order.

Storage class specifiers

A storage class specifier can specify scope linkage and lifetime. The storage class is optional. For function parameters and local variables in a function, the default storage class specifier is auto. For declarations at namespace scope, the default is usually an object with static lifetime and external linkage. C++ has no explicit storage class for such a declaration. (See Section 2.6.4 later in this chapter and Section 2.4 earlier in this chapter for more information.) If you use a storage class specifier, you must choose only one of the following:

auto

Denotes an automatic variable—that is, a variable with a lifetime limited to the block in which the variable is declared. The auto specifier is the default for function parameters and local variables, which are the only kinds of declarations for which it can be used, so it is rarely used explicitly. ...