Is it necessary to assign a value to a static variable at the time of declaration?

In iOS (Swift or Objective-C), static variables do not necessarily need to be assigned a value at declaration. If no value is assigned:

• For types that support default initialization, the variable will be initialized with the default value (e.g., 0 for numbers, nil for optionals).
• If the variable is declared as let (constant), then a value must be assigned at declaration.

Example in Swift:

class Example {
    static var counter: Int // not necessarily assigned immediately
    static var name: String = "Default" // assigned a value
}

// Accessing Example.counter for the first time will cause an error if it is not explicitly initialized before use.

Therefore, although assignment is not mandatory at declaration, the static variable must be initialized before use, otherwise a compile-time or runtime error will occur.