This term is part of the glossary of the open catalog of best practice rules for performance that is automatically detected and reported by Codee.
In computer programming, the term variable scope usually refers to the part of the code where the variable can be used (e.g. a function, a loop or the whole program).
In C/C++ there are the following scopes:
- Block scope – a variable defined inside a function has a block scope and is accessible from the place of definition until the end of the block where it is defined. In C++, blocks are delimited with curly brackets
{}
. - Function scope – function parameters have a function scope and can be used anywhere inside the function.
- File scope – defined outside functions, these variables are visible from the place of definition until the end of the file.
- Global scope – similar to file scope, but these variables are visible in all the functions in the program.

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