Why does initializing a variable `i` to 0 and to a large size result in the same size of the program?

Question

There is a problem which confuses me a lot.

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int i = 12345678;
    return 0;
}

---

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int i = 0;
    return 0;
}

The programs have the same bytes in total. Why?

And where the literal value indeed stored? Text segment or other place?

Answer 1

The programs have the same bytes in total.Why?

There are two possibilities:

1. The compiler is optimizing out the variable. It isn't used anywhere and therefore doesn't make sense.

2. If 1. doesn't apply, the program sizes are equal anyway. Why shouldn't they? 0 is just as large in size as 12345678. Two variables of type T occupy the same size in memory.

And where the literal value indeed stored?

On the stack. Local variables are commonly stored on the stack.