Thread: Fair use vs. abuse of the comma operator

Originally Posted by C-UL8R

Hi everyone,

I recently discovered the comma operator in C and it has certainly been useful in my projects. However, I worry that evaluating many instructions in one line can quickly uglify the code and potentially make it harder to read. Are there any generally accepted guidelines about what constitutes abuse of the comma operator and when it is okay/not okay to employ it?

The comma operator is sometimes seen in for loops where you have two index variables

Code:

for (i=0; j = N-1; i < N; i++,j--)

However even here many people frown on its use. Comma operators make code hard to read and seldom have a logical purpose, and most people avoid them. I do know of one programmer who disagrees with this and uses them heavily, but he is very much the exception.

Originally Posted by Malcolm McLean

The comma operator is sometimes seen in for loops where you have two index variables

Code:

for (i=0; j = N-1; i < N; i++,j--)

Was that a way to subtly discourage copying the example by introducing a syntax error?

I rarely use the comma operator because as you observed I too find that "evaluating many instructions in one line can quickly uglify the code and potentially make it harder to read". Then again, I also usually declare variables of the same type in the same scope separately, and use braces for if statements and for loops whose body consists of a single statement, though I am not necessarily opposed to the comma operator in the "two index variables" scenario... but then index variables tend to have a very small scope and terse names.