Function init state

Severity: Info ID: function-init-state

Flags state variables whose initializer depends on a non-pure function or on another state variable.

What it does

Reports a state variable whose inline initializer references a non-constant state variable or a non-pure function (called or referenced, including inside the arguments of a nested call). A public variable referenced through its synthesized getter counts as a read of the variable itself, so references to public constants stay clean. This mirrors Slither's function-init-state detector.

References to constants, calls to pure functions and plain literal expressions are fine, and assignments made inside the constructor body are out of scope.

Why is this bad?

State variable initializers run at construction, before the constructor body, in base-to-derived order. An initializer that reads another state variable or calls a function that does may observe default values or an ordering the author did not intend, so the computed value is rarely the expected one, and silently so.

Example

Bad

contract C {
    uint256 internal seed = 77;
    uint256 public value = compute(); // runs before the constructor sets anything

    function compute() internal view returns (uint256) {
        return seed * 2;
    }
}

Good

contract C {
    uint256 internal seed = 77;
    uint256 public value;

    constructor() {
        value = compute();
    }

    function compute() internal view returns (uint256) {
        return seed * 2;
    }
}