Initializing variables in C

Question

I know that sometimes if you don\'t initialize an int, you will get a random number if you print the integer.

But initializing everything to zero seems

Answer 1

Initializing a variable, even if it is not strictly required, is ALWAYS a good practice. The few extra characters (like "= 0") typed during development may save hours of debugging time later, particularly when it is forgotten that some variables remained uninitialized.

In passing, I feel it is good to declare a variable close to its use.

The following is bad:

int a;    // line 30
...
a = 0;    // line 40

The following is good:

int a = 0;  // line 40

Also, if the variable is to be overwritten right after initialization, like

int a = 0;
a = foo();

it is better to write it as

int a = foo();