What is the name of the --> operator?
After reading Hidden Features and Dark Corners of C++/STL on comp.lang.c++.moderated, I was completely surprised that the following snippet compiled and worked in both Visual Studio 2008 and G++
Here's the code:
#include
int main()
{
int x = 10;
while (x --> 0) // x goes to 0
{
printf("%d ", x);
}
}
I'd assume this is C, since it works in GCC as well. Where is this defined in the standard, and where has it come from?
2Answer
--> is not an operator. It is in fact two separate operators, -- and >.
The conditional's code decrements x, while returning x's original (not decremented) value, and then compares the original value with 0 using the > operator.
To better understand, the statement could be written as follows:
while( (x--) > 0 )
- answered 8 years ago
- Sunny Solu
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
int x = 10;
while( x-- > 0 ) // x goes to 0
{
printf("%d ", x);
}
return 0;
}
Just the space make the things look funny, -- decrements and > compares.
- answered 8 years ago
- Gul Hafiz
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