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{{Short description|Variable which is defined but never used}}
An '''unreferenced variable''' in the [[source code]] of a [[computer program]] is a [[Variable (programming)|variable]] that is defined but which is never used. This may result in a harmless waste of memory. Many [[compiler]]s detect such variables and do not allocate storage for them (i.e., "optimize away" their storage), generally also issuing a warning as they do.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Blair-Chappell |first1=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3DtR4mQNmwC |title=Parallel Programming with Intel Parallel Studio XE |last2=Stokes |first2=Andrew |date=2012-04-19 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-23488-4 |pages=108 |language=en}}</ref>

Some [[coding style|coding guideline]] documents consider an unreferenced variable to be a symptom of a potential coding fault. On the other hand, unreferenced variables can be used as temporary placeholders to indicate further expected future developments in the code.

==Examples==
[[C (programming language)|C]]:
<syntaxhighlight lang="c">
int main(void)
{
int i, j;
for (i=0; i<10; i++)
printf("%d", i);
return 0;
}
</syntaxhighlight>
In this example, '''j''' is an unreferenced variable.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unreferenced Variable}}
[[Category:Variable (computer science)]]

{{Compu-prog-stub}}

Unreferenced variable - Revision history

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