When are global variables acceptable?

Posted by dsimcha on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by dsimcha
Published on 2008-12-10T19:07:55Z Indexed on 2010/04/08 19:23 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 246

Filed under:

best-practices

|

subjective

|

anti-patterns

|

global-variables

Everyone here seems to hate global variables, but I see at least one very reasonable use for them: They are great for holding program parameters that are determined at program initialization and not modified afterwords.

Do you agree that this is an exception to the "globals are evil" rule? Is there any other exception that you can think of, besides in quick and dirty throwaway code where basically anything goes? If not, why are globals so fundamentally evil that you do not believe that there are any exceptons?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about best-practices

Batch Best Practices and Technical Best Practices Updated

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
The Batch Best Practices for Oracle Utilities Application Framework based products (Doc Id: 836362.1) and Technical Best Practices for Oracle Utilities Application Framework Based Products (Doc Id: 560367.1) have been updated with updated and new advice for the various versions of the Oracle… >>> More
Partial template specialization of free functions - best practices

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
As most C++ programmers should know, partial template specialization of free functions is disallowed. For example, the following is illegal C++: template <class T, int N> T mul(const T& x) { return x * N; } template <class T> T mul<T, 0>(const T& x) { return T(0); } //… >>> More
Object Oriented PHP Best Practices

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Say I have a class which represents a person, a variable within that class would be $name. Previously, In my scripts I would create an instance of the object then set the name by just using: $object->name = "x"; However, I was told this was not best practice? That I should have a function set_name()… >>> More
Good place to look for example Database Designs - Best practices

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have been given the task to design a database to store a lot of information for our company. Because the task is rather big and contains multiple modules where users should be able to do stuff, I'm worried about designing a good data model for this. I just don't want to end up with a badly designed… >>> More
Notification Email Best Practices--From Server Setup to Programming

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
All, I'm in the process now of building a SaaS tool that allows network admins to generate notification emails to the members of the end-users of our platform (among many many other things). I'm running into a bit of an "out of my expertise" wall, as I know there are a lot of variables involved… >>> More

Related posts about subjective

Scoring/analysis of Subjective testing for skills assessment

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I am lucky in the sense that I have been given the opportunity to be a 'Technical Troubleshooter' for our offshore development team. While I am confident and capable of dealing with most issues, I have come across something that I am not. Based on initial discussions with various team members both… >>> More
Best Practise/Subjective: Implement a finite state automaton in OOP

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi guys, I am thinking about implementing a programm with finite state automaton in an OOP language like Java or C++. What would you think is the best way to implement this with a manageable amount of available states, regarding to good software design? Is it good to implement for each state an… >>> More
Subjective question...would you use the Action delegate to avoid duplication of code?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, I just asked a question that helps about using generics (or polymorphism) to avoid duplication of code. I am really trying to follow the DRY principle. So I just ran into the following code... Sub OutputDataToExcel() OutputLine("Output DataBlocks", 1) OutputDataBlocks() … >>> More
"Best" language /architecture for browser-based app with ODBC and sockets? (subjective)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Sorry to ask a subjective question, but I would welcome some advice. I am an experienced programmer of embedded s/w, but haven't done much network programming, although I have done a fair bit of hobbyist PHP. Anyway, I have to develop what is probably a fairly general type of app, as shown in this… >>> More
The best terminal emulator for a heavy terminal user?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I spend a lot of time at the command-line during the workday and at home too since I run Ubuntu exclusively. I've been using the default gnome terminal but I've reached a point where I'd really like to get my terminal tricked out so that my common tasks are as easy as possible. Specifically, I find… >>> More