Something stange with a variable

[Ima noob]

This variable in my program is used to accumulate the size of a folder. As soon as i press F10 to start debug(I use Microsoft Visual Studio), the variable fs (folder size) starts at 2,147,348,480. before i even create and initalize it. Then once i enter an if statement, more specifically;
else if( argc == 2 )

the variable goes to 14,757,395,258,967,641,292...thats just stupid...

I'm using boost and the variable is a boost uintmax_t like so:
boost::uintmax_t fs = 0;

Its late and i can't even sleep because this problem is driving me crazy. Is this just a boost thing, or is there something wrong with the way i coded it, I don't know, any ideas?

[helios]

Are you debugging without optimizations and compiling with debugging information? If the answer is no to either, the debugger is probably reading wrong memory locations.

[jsmith]

Hmm, this might help (I am not a windows programmer).

14,757,395,258,967,641,292 = 0xcccccccccccccccc

Doesn't msoft initialize things to that value in debug builds?

[Ima noob]

How do i debug with optimizations and compile with debug information? Cuz i'm not sure if i am.

[firedraco]

How do i debug with optimizations and compile with debug information? Cuz i'm not sure if i am.

For optimizations, you want them off:
Project -> Properties -> Config Properties -> C/C++ -> Optimization -> Optimization (Turn this OFF)

For Debug Information:
Get to Config Properties -> Linker -> Debugging -> Generate Debug Info (Turn this ON)

[Ima noob]

Optimization is disabled and Generate Debug info was already on, and i'm still getting the variable fs as 14,757,395,258,967,641,292

[Ima noob]

Ok found the problem, this code is what calculate the fs variable:

boost::uintmax_t& scan( path& folder )
{
	boost::uintmax_t fs = 0;
	try
	{
		locale local( "" );
		cout.imbue( local );
		directory_iterator dirIter( folder );
		directory_iterator dirEnd;
		while( dirIter != dirEnd )
		{
			if( !is_directory( dirIter->path() ) )
				fs += file_size( dirIter->path() );
			else
			{
				path next_folder = dirIter->path();
				fs += scan_h( next_folder );
			}
			++dirIter;
		}
		return fs; // warning: C1472: returning address of local variable or temporary
	}
	catch( filesystem_error& e )
	{
		cout << e.what() << endl;
	}
	catch(...)
	{
		cerr << "Error: Found an unexpected error" << endl;
	}
	return fs; // warning: C1472: returning address of local variable or temporary
}

Apparently this warning means i need to return something else other than a local variable from the function. Any ideas?

[helios]

Return a non-reference, non-pointer.

[Ima noob]

Return a non-reference, non-pointer

Yup that works, thanks helios