What would happen if 'static' were removed from the variable declaration in the givemesum function?

In the context of the givemesum function, if 'static' is removed from the variable declaration, the variable will lose its previous value on each call to the function. A static variable in a function retains its value between function calls, meaning that once it is initialized, it keeps its value across multiple invocations of the function. If the static keyword is omitted, the variable will be treated as a regular local variable, which means it will be initialized each time the function is called. As a result, after the first call, the variable will be reset to its initial value on subsequent calls, losing any updates made during previous calls. This change in behavior is significant in programs that rely on maintaining state across function calls and is a fundamental concept in understanding how variable scope and lifetime work in programming.