Difference between initialization of static variables in C and C++

Question

I was going through the code at http://geeksforgeeks.org/?p=10302

#include
int initializer(void)
{
    return 50;
}

int main()
{
    static i         


        

Answer 1

6.7.8/4 [C99]

All the expressions in an initializer for an object that has static storage duration shall be constant expressions or string literals.

In static int i = initializer(); the RHS is not a constant expression and so the code doesn't compile in C.

In C++ there is no such restriction and the code is well-formed in C++.