The problem that global variables create for the programmer is that it expands the inter-component coupling surface between the various components that are using the global variables. What this means is that as the number of components using a global variable increases, the complexity of the interactions can also increase. This increased coupling usually makes defects easier to inject into the system when making changes and also makes defects harder to diagnose and correct. This increase coupling can also reduce the number of available options when making changes and it can increase the effort required for changes as often one must trace through the various modules that are also using the global variable in order to determine the consequences of changes.

封装的目的(基本上与使用全局变量相反)是减少耦合，以便更容易理解和更改源，更安全，更容易测试。当不使用全局变量时，使用单元测试要容易得多。

For example if you have a simple global integer variable that is being used as an enumerated indicator that various components use as a state machine and you then make a change by adding a new state for a new component, you must then trace through all the other components to ensure that the change will not affect them. An example of a possible problem would be if a switch statement to test the value of the enumeration global variable with case statements for each of the current values is being used in various places and it so happens that some of the switch statements do not have a default case to handle an unexpected value for the global all of a sudden you have undefined behavior so far as the application is concerned.

另一方面，可以使用共享数据区域来包含一组在整个应用程序中引用的全局参数。这种方法通常用于占用内存较少的嵌入式应用程序。

当在这类应用程序中使用全局变量时，通常将写入数据区域的职责分配给单个组件，所有其他组件都将该区域视为const并从中读取，而从不写入。采用这种方法会限制可能出现的问题。

一些全局变量的问题需要解决

当一个全局变量(比如struct)的源代码被修改时，使用它的所有内容都必须重新编译，以便使用该变量的所有内容都知道它的真实大小和内存模板。

如果有多个组件可以修改全局变量，则可能会遇到全局变量中数据不一致的问题。对于多线程应用程序，您可能需要添加某种类型的锁定或关键区域来提供一种方法，以便一次只有一个线程可以修改全局变量，并且当一个线程正在修改变量时，所有的更改都已完成，并在其他线程可以查询或修改变量之前提交。

调试使用全局变量的多线程应用程序可能会更加困难。您可能会遇到竞争条件，从而产生难以复制的缺陷。当多个组件通过一个全局变量进行通信时，特别是在多线程应用程序中，要知道哪个组件在何时以及如何更改变量是非常难以理解的。

Name clash can be a problem with using of global variables. A local variable that has the same name as a global variable can hide the global variable. You also run into the naming convention issue when using the C programming language. A work around is to divide the system up into sub-systems with the global variables for a particular sub-system all beginning with the same first three letters (see this on resolving name space collisions in objective C). C++ provides namespaces and with C you can work around this by creating a globally visible struct whose members are various data items and pointers to data and functions which are provided in a file as static hence with file visibility only so that they can only be referenced through the globally visible struct.

In some cases the original application intent is changed so that global variables that provided the state for a single thread is modified to allow several duplicate threads to run. An example would be a simple application designed for a single user using global variables for state and then a request comes down from management to add a REST interface to allow remote applications to act as virtual users. So now you run into having to duplicate the global variables and their state information so that the single user as well as each of the virtual users from remote applications have their own, unique set of global variables.

使用c++命名空间和C的结构体技术

对于c++编程语言，命名空间指令在减少名称冲突的可能性方面有很大的帮助。命名空间、类和各种访问关键字(私有、受保护和公共)提供了封装变量所需的大部分工具。然而，C编程语言并没有提供这个指令。这篇stackoverflow文章，C中的命名空间，提供了一些C语言的技术。

一种有用的技术是将单个内存常驻数据区域定义为具有全局可见性的结构体，该结构体中包含指向正在公开的各种全局变量和函数的指针。全局变量的实际定义是使用static关键字指定文件范围的。如果你使用const关键字来指示哪些是只读的，编译器可以帮助你强制执行只读访问。

使用struct技术还可以封装全局变量，使其成为一种恰巧是全局变量的包或组件。通过使用这种组件，可以更容易地管理影响全局和使用全局功能的更改。

然而，尽管命名空间或结构技术可以帮助管理名称冲突，但使用全局变量(尤其是在现代多线程应用程序中)所带来的组件间耦合的潜在问题仍然存在。

问题不在于它们有多坏，而在于它们有多危险。他们有自己的优点和缺点，在某些情况下，他们要么是最有效的，要么是完成特定任务的唯一方法。然而，它们很容易被误用，即使你采取措施总是正确使用它们。

一些优点:

可以从任何函数访问。 可以从多个线程访问。 在项目结束前都不会超出范围。

一些缺点:

可以从任何函数访问，而不需要显式地作为参数拖入和/或记录。 不是线程安全的。 污染全局名称空间并可能导致名称冲突，除非采取措施防止这种情况。

请注意，如果你愿意的话，我列出的前两个优点和前两个缺点是完全相同的事情，只是措辞不同。这是因为全局变量的特性确实是有用的，但使它们有用的特性正是它们所有问题的根源。

一些问题的潜在解决方案:

Consider whether they're actually the best or most efficient solution for the problem. If there are any better solutions, use that instead. Put them in a namespace [C++] or singleton struct [C, C++] with a unique name (a good example would be Globals or GlobalVars), or use a standardised naming convention for global variables (such as global_[name] or g_module_varNameStyle (as mentioned by underscore_d in the comments)). This will both document their use (you can find code that uses global variables by searching for the namespace/struct name), and minimise the impact on the global namespace. For any function that accesses global variables, explicitly document which variables it reads and which it writes. This will make troubleshooting easier. Put them in their own source file and declare them extern in the associated header, so their use can be limited to compilation units that need to access them. If your code relies on a lot of global variables, but each compilation unit only needs access to a handful of them, you could consider sorting them into multiple source files, so it's easier to limit each file's access to global variables. Set up a mechanism to lock and unlock them, and/or design your code so that as few functions as possible need to actually modify global variables. Reading them is a lot safer than writing them, although thread races may still cause problems in multithreaded programs. Basically, minimise access to them, and maximise name uniqueness. You want to avoid name collisions and have as few functions as possible that can potentially modify any given variable.

它们是好是坏取决于你如何使用它们。大多数人倾向于不好地使用它们，因此对它们普遍持谨慎态度。如果使用得当，它们可以成为一大福音;然而，如果使用不当，它们可能会在你最意想不到的时候回来咬你一口。

从一个好的角度来看，它们本身并不坏，但它们导致了糟糕的设计，并且会成倍地增加糟糕设计的影响。

即使你不打算使用它们，知道如何安全使用它们并选择不使用，也比不使用它们因为你不知道如何安全使用它们要好。如果您发现自己处于需要维护依赖于全局变量的预先存在的代码的情况下，如果您不知道如何正确使用它们，那么您可能会遇到困难。

在一天结束时，你的程序或应用程序仍然可以工作，但这是一个整洁的问题，并对正在发生的事情有一个完整的理解。如果在所有函数之间共享一个变量值，那么可能很难跟踪是哪个函数更改了该值(如果函数更改了该值)，这将使调试变得更加困难

不，他们一点都不坏。你需要查看编译器生成的(机器)代码来做出判断，有时使用局部变量比使用全局变量要糟糕得多。还要注意，在局部变量上添加“static”基本上是使其成为全局变量(并产生真正的全局变量可以解决的其他丑陋问题)。“局部全局变量”尤其糟糕。

全局变量还可以让你完全控制内存的使用，这在局部变量中要困难得多。如今，这只在内存相当有限的嵌入式环境中才重要。在假定嵌入式环境与其他环境相同并假定编程规则全面相同之前，需要了解一些事情。

It is good that you question the rules being taught, most of them are not for the reasons you are being told. The most important lesson though is not that this is a rule to carry with you forever, but this is a rule required to honor in order to pass this class and move forward. In life you will find that for company XYZ you will have other programming rules that you in the end will have to honor in order to keep getting a paycheck. In both situations you can argue the rule, but I think you will have far better luck at a job than at school. You are just another of many students, your seat will be replaced soon, the professors wont, at a job you are one of a small team of players that have to see this product to the end and in that environment the rules developed are for the benefit of the team members as well as the product and the company, so if everyone is like minded or if for the particular product there is good engineering reason to violate something you learned in college or some book on generic programming, then sell your idea to the team and write it down as a valid if not the preferred method. Everything is fair game in the real world.

如果你遵循学校或书本上教给你的所有编程规则，那么你的编程生涯将非常有限。你很可能会生存下来，并拥有一个富有成效的事业，但你所能获得的环境的广度和宽度将是极其有限的。如果你知道规则是如何存在的，为什么会存在，并且能够捍卫它，那很好，如果你的理由只是“因为我的老师这么说”，那就不太好了。

请注意，这样的话题经常在工作场所被争论，并且将继续存在，随着编译器和处理器(以及语言)的发展，这些类型的规则也在发展，如果不捍卫你的立场，可能会被持不同意见的人教训一课，你就不会前进。

与此同时，那个说话声音最大或拿着最大棍子的人说什么，你就做什么(直到你是那个喊得最大、拿着最大棍子的人)。

是的，因为如果你让不称职的程序员使用它们(阅读90%，尤其是科学家)，你最终会得到600多个全局变量分布在20多个文件和一个12000行的项目中，其中80%的函数采用void，返回void，完全在全局状态下运行。

除非你了解整个项目，否则你很快就不可能在任何一个点上理解正在发生什么。

迟早，您将需要更改该变量的设置方式或访问它时发生的情况，或者您只需要查找它被更改的位置。

实际上，不使用全局变量总是更好。只需编写大坝获取和设置方法，并在一天、一周或一个月后当你需要它们时通知你。