Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!hp4nl!orcenl!bengsig
From: bengsig@oracle.nl (Bjorn Engsig)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: What I'd really like to see in an if-statement...
Message-ID: <469.nlhp3@oracle.nl>
Date: 7 Aug 89 09:59:17 GMT
References: <5024@alvin.mcnc.org> <1300@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu> <456@helios.prosys.se> <14521@bfmny0.UUCP>
Reply-To: bengsig@oracle.nl (Bjorn Engsig)
Organization: ORACLE Europe, The Netherlands
Lines: 21

Article <14521@bfmny0.UUCP> by tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff) says:
|	val1 < x < val2
|
|What's wished for is a triadic comparison operator ...
|
|... and parsing would be a nightmare.
As an example, have a look at the database language SQL, where you can write

  <expr1> <= <expr2> AND <expr2> <= <expr3>

or
  
  <expr2> BETWEEN <expr1> AND <expr3>

The two semantically equal (no side effects) have to be syntactically different
for the parser to resolve it.  

-- 
Bjorn Engsig, ORACLE Europe         \ /    "Hofstadter's Law:  It always takes
Path:   mcvax!orcenl!bengsig         X      longer than you expect, even if you
Domain: bengsig@oracle.nl           / \     take into account Hofstadter's Law"