Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!mtune!rutgers!rochester!crowl
From: crowl@cs.rochester.edu (Lawrence Crowl)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Another way (How not to write a loop)
Message-ID: <6848@sol.ARPA>
Date: 16 Feb 88 16:17:59 GMT
References: <560@naucse.UUCP> <1988Feb11.200149.25172@sq.uucp> <2115@bsu-cs.UUCP> <16941@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Reply-To: crowl@cs.rochester.edu (Lawrence Crowl)
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept, Rochester, NY
Lines: 28

In article <16941@watmath.waterloo.edu>
rbutterworth@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ray Butterworth) writes:
]I just got hit by yet another way not to write a loop:
]
]    auto size_t index;
]
]    index = sizeof(array) / sizeof(array[0]);
]
]    while (--index >= 0)
]        blah blah blah
]
]This looks wonderfully portable and works fine on the BSD 4.3 compiler
](and probably most others).
]
]But on an ANSI compiler, (size_t) will be an unsigned integer
]and the loop will go forever.
]
]Lint will notice this problem, but only with the ANSI compiler
]when it is probably too late.

Fortunately, there is an easy fix.

    while ( index-- > 0 )

-- 
  Lawrence Crowl		716-275-9499	University of Rochester
		      crowl@cs.rochester.edu	Computer Science Department
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