Is there a difference between initializing a variable and assigning it a value immediately after declaration?

Question

Assuming a purely non-optimizing compiler, is there any difference in machine code between initializing a variable and assigning it a value after declaration?

Answer 1

The behavior must be identical, but any differences in the generated code really depend on the compiler.

For example, the compiler could generate this for the initialized variable:

somefunction:
pushl    %ebp
movl     %esp, %ebp
pushl    $2 ; allocate space for x and store 2 in it
...

and this for the uninitialized, but later assigned variable:

somefunction:
pushl   %ebp
movl    %esp, %ebp
subl    $4, %esp ; allocate space for x
...
movl    $2, -4(%ebp) ; assign 2 to x
...

The C standard does not mandate the generated code to be identical or non-identical in these cases. It only mandates identical behavior of the program in these two cases. And that identical behavior does not necessarily imply identical machine code.