NULL or '\0'

hi ,
There are 2 questions here. I would appreciate your help here.

1.i want to know what you all prefer to use ->NULL or '\0' ??like for example to count the length of string. and also why do you guys choose so. and also is it that using NULL over '\0' is advantagious while coding or vice vesra??? I just want to know these so that i code better in future. ;-)

2. I think using inline doesnt make any difference .like example

Code:

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inline int a(int b) { //stuff }

          and

int a(int b) {//stuff}

---

so whats the point in using inline when the results are same.Is it that using inline saves compile time or something else?

1. NULL resides in <windows.h> and is not part of the C++ standard. It's traditionally used in Windows programs. The number '0' can be used just as well.
'\0' is another thing; it's the null-character, which is not the same thing.

2. There's no functional difference between inlined and non-inlined functions. It can make your program a little bit faster (and larger) when applied to small functions.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Sang-drax
'\0' is another thing; it's the null-character, which is not the same thing.

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well you didnt catch my point here. okay....

Code:

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while (* a_string++ != NULL )
{
 // do something.
}

//we can use a  '/0' instead of NULL can't we?? but why
// is it that programmer chose one over the other??

---

>>NULL resides in <windows.h> and is not part of the C++ standard.
Actually, NULL is defined in <cstdio> among others and is quite standard. :-)

>>i want to know what you all prefer to use ->NULL or '\0'
NULL is used for pointers, '\0' is used for character strings, the two are completely different. It's not as big an issue in C++ because NULL is most likely defined as

Code:

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#define NULL 0

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but in C and less than state of the art C++ compilers you should never use NULL in place of '\0' because it could be defined like this

Code:

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#define (void *)0

---

which would cause your program to choke and die :-)

>>I think using inline doesnt make any difference
inline only makes a difference if you use the function a *lot*, otherwise it could have no effect on performance and could actually slow things down.

>>//we can use a '/0' instead of NULL can't we??
Maybe, but it's not a good idea

>>// is it that programmer chose one over the other??
He was misinformed :-)

The value NULL is used for pointers, it indicates that the pointer points to nothing.

The value '\0' is used for strings, it indicates the end of a so-called null-terminated string. Such a string has '\0' as last character.

You can also use 0 in place of '\0' as in:

while(*p++ != 0);

Likewise, for pointers, you can use NULL or 0 as in:

char * p = 0;

also, for the majority of compilers, declaring a funciton as "inline" is just a suggestion to the compiler. if it doesnt think the function should be inline, it will not be made inline despite how it is declared... on the other hand if it is a small in class definition it might be made inline even if its not declared so.

There is typically a command that will force the compiler to inline code (compilers usually take the size of the function in account in order to decide whether or not to inline it). If your compiler doesn't support such a feature you probably do support a feature that throws warning when a function is not inlined. If it isn't inlined then can use a macro instead of an inline function. This does not apply to member functions of classes/structs though. When it comes to those your code is at the whim of the compiler.