Why does static modifier output is not consistent through function calls?

Question

I'm revisiting static modifier concepts and I'm wondering why this is the output:

this is main()
i is 6
i is 43
i is 44
i is 43

for the following code:

// Example program
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <cstdio>

void func() 
{

    static int i = 5;
    printf("i is %d\n", ++i);
    i = 42;
    printf("i is %d\n", ++i);
}

int main()
{
    puts("this is main()");
    func();
    func();
    return 0;
}

I know that static means one variable per instance (at least in Java). Therefore, I understand the first three lines of the output, but then why does the static int variable jumps right back to have a value of 44 and then ...it goes backwards and the last value is 43?

I would assume when the first function call ends then the static variable gets out of scope, but it doesn't. Neither it gets reassigned to be value of 5. I might be looking at something pretty obvious here, but I simply don't understand.

Answer 1

static int i = 5;

...is executed on the first call only. But

i = 42;

...sets i 's value to 42 each time you call func() .