Related
I'm using the ranges library to help filer data in my classes, like this:
class MyClass
{
public:
MyClass(std::vector<int> v) : vec(v) {}
std::vector<int> getEvens() const
{
auto evens = vec | ranges::views::filter([](int i) { return ! (i % 2); });
return std::vector<int>(evens.begin(), evens.end());
}
private:
std::vector<int> vec;
};
In this case, a new vector is constructed in the getEvents() function. To save on this overhead, I'm wondering if it is possible / advisable to return the range directly from the function?
class MyClass
{
public:
using RangeReturnType = ???;
MyClass(std::vector<int> v) : vec(v) {}
RangeReturnType getEvens() const
{
auto evens = vec | ranges::views::filter([](int i) { return ! (i % 2); });
// ...
return evens;
}
private:
std::vector<int> vec;
};
If it is possible, are there any lifetime considerations that I need to take into account?
I am also interested to know if it is possible / advisable to pass a range in as an argument, or to store it as a member variable. Or is the ranges library more intended for use within the scope of a single function?
This was asked in op's comment section, but I think I will respond it in the answer section:
The Ranges library seems promising, but I'm a little apprehensive about this returning auto.
Remember that even with the addition of auto, C++ is a strongly typed language. In your case, since you are returning evens, then the return type will be the same type of evens. (technically it will be the value type of evens, but evens was a value type anyways)
In fact, you probably really don't want to type out the return type manually: std::ranges::filter_view<std::ranges::ref_view<const std::vector<int>>, MyClass::getEvens() const::<decltype([](int i) {return ! (i % 2);})>> (141 characters)
As mentioned by #Caleth in the comment, in fact, this wouldn't work either as evens was a lambda defined inside the function, and the type of two different lambdas will be different even if they were basically the same, so there's literally no way of getting the full return type here.
While there might be debates on whether to use auto or not in different cases, but I believe most people would just use auto here. Plus your evens was declared with auto too, typing the type out would just make it less readable here.
So what are my options if I want to access a subset (for instance even numbers)? Are there any other approaches I should be considering, with or without the Ranges library?
Depends on how you would access the returned data and the type of the data, you might consider returning std::vector<T*>.
views are really supposed to be viewed from start to end. While you could use views::drop and views::take to limit to a single element, it doesn't provide a subscript operator (yet).
There will also be computational differences. vector need to be computed beforehand, where views are computed while iterating. So when you do:
for(auto i : myObject.getEven())
{
std::cout << i;
}
Under the hood, it is basically doing:
for(auto i : myObject.vec)
{
if(!(i % 2)) std::cout << i;
}
Depends on the amount of data, and the complexity of computations, views might be a lot faster, or about the same as the vector method. Plus you can easily apply multiple filters on the same range without iterating through the data multiple times.
In the end, you can always store the view in a vector:
std::vector<int> vec2(evens.begin(), evens.end());
So my suggestions is, if you have the ranges library, then you should use it.
If not, then vector<T>, vector<T*>, vector<index> depending on the size and copiability of T.
There's no restrictions on the usage of components of the STL in the standard. Of course, there are best practices (eg, string_view instead of string const &).
In this case, I can foresee no problems with handling the view return type directly. That said, the best practices are yet to be decided on since the standard is so new and no compiler has a complete implementation yet.
You're fine to go with the following, in my opinion:
class MyClass
{
public:
MyClass(std::vector<int> v) : vec(std::move(v)) {}
auto getEvens() const
{
return vec | ranges::views::filter([](int i) { return ! (i % 2); });
}
private:
std::vector<int> vec;
};
As you can see here, a range is just something on which you can call begin and end. Nothing more than that.
For instance, you can use the result of begin(range), which is an iterator, to traverse the range, using the ++ operator to advance it.
In general, looking back at the concept I linked above, you can use a range whenever the conext code only requires to be able to call begin and end on it.
Whether this is advisable or enough depends on what you need to do with it. Clearly, if your intention is to pass evens to a function which expects a std::vector (for instance it's a function you cannot change, and it calls .push_back on the entity we are talking about), you clearly have to make a std::vector out of filter's output, which I'd do via
auto evens = vec | ranges::views::filter(whatever) | ranges::to_vector;
but if all the function which you pass evens to does is to loop on it, then
return vec | ranges::views::filter(whatever);
is just fine.
As regards life time considerations, a view is to a range of values what a pointer is to the pointed-to entity: if the latter is destroied, the former will be dangling, and making improper use of it will be undefined behavior. This is an erroneous program:
#include <iostream>
#include <range/v3/view/filter.hpp>
#include <string>
using namespace ranges;
using namespace ranges::views;
auto f() {
// a local vector here
std::vector<std::string> vec{"zero","one","two","three","four","five"};
// return a view on the local vecotor
return vec | filter([](auto){ return true; });
} // vec is gone ---> the view returned is dangling
int main()
{
// the following throws std::bad_alloc for me
for (auto i : f()) {
std::cout << i << std::endl;
}
}
You can use ranges::any_view as a type erasure mechanism for any range or combination of ranges.
ranges::any_view<int> getEvens() const
{
return vec | ranges::views::filter([](int i) { return ! (i % 2); });
}
I cannot see any equivalent of this in the STL ranges library; please edit the answer if you can.
EDIT: The problem with ranges::any_view is that it is very slow and inefficient. See https://github.com/ericniebler/range-v3/issues/714.
It is desirable to declare a function returning a range in a header and define it in a cpp file
for compilation firewalls (compilation speed)
stop the language server from going crazy
for better factoring of the code
However, there are complications that make it not advisable:
How to get type of a view?
If defining it in a header is fine, use auto
If performance is not a issue, I would recommend ranges::any_view
Otherwise I'd say it is not advisable.
For lambda expressions, I don't quite get the usefulness of closures in C++11.
auto f = [] (int n, int m) { return n + m };
std::cout << f(2,2);
versus.
int n = 2;
auto f = [n] (int m) { return n + m };
std::cout << f(2);
This is a very basic and primitive example. I'm guessing that closures play an important part in other kinds of statements, but my C++ book doesn't clarify this (so far).
Why not include the closure as a parameter?
OK, a simple example, remove all the x's from a string
char x = 'x';
std::string s = "Text to remove all 'x's from";
s.erase(std::remove_if(s.begin(), s.end(), [x](char c) {return x == c;}), s.end());
Borrowed and modifed from http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/algorithm/remove
In this example, remove_if() only takes a single parameter, but I need two values for the comparison.
Closures are not always called immediately. They are objects which can be stored and called later when the data necessary to successfully execute the lambda function may no longer be in scope or easily accessible from the call site.
It's possible to to store any necessary data along with the closure but it's so much simpler for the closure to grab anything it needs when it's created and use it when it's eventually called. It provides a form of encapsulation.
This also decreases code coupling because if you were to store the data along with the code then the caller could only work with the specific objects you decided to store. Since a closure carries its own data along with it, it can work with any data it needs.
Here's an greatly oversimplified real-life example. I built a database server which needed to support fields with multiple values. The problem was that when results were displayed, it was important to highlight which values actually caused a record to match the search criteria. So, the query parser would spit out a predicate in the form of a closure which would indicate whether or not it was a matching value.
It looked something like this:
std::function< bool(int value) > parser::match_int(int search_val) {
return [=](int value) { value == search_val; };
}
That closure got stored in a collection. When it was time to render the record, I could easily determine which values needed to be highlighted. Keep in mind that the parser and any associated data is now gone:
void render_values(std::function< bool(int value) > pred, std::vector<int> values) {
for (int value : values) {
if (pred(value))
render_highlight(value);
else
render_normal(value);
}
}
I'm currently trying to do a complicated variable correction to a bunch of variables (based on normalizing in various phase spaces) for some data that I'm reading in. Since each correction follows the same process, I was wondering if there would be anyway to do this iteratively rather than handle each variable by itself (since I need to this for about 18-20 variables). Can C++ handle this? I was told by someone to try this in python but I feel like it could be done in C++ in some way... I'm just hitting a wall!
To give you an idea, given something like:
class VariableClass{
public :
//each object of this class represents an event for this particlular data set
//containing the following variables
double x;
double y;
double z;
}
I want to do something along the lines of:
for (int i=0; i < num_variables; i++)
{
for (int j=0; j < num_events; j++)
{
//iterate through events
}
//correct variable here, then move on to next one
}
Thanks in advance for any advice!!!
I'm assuming your member variables will not all have the same type. Otherwise you can just throw them into a container. If you have C++11, one way you could solve this problem is a tuple. With some template metaprogramming you can simulate a loop over all elements of the tuple. The function std::tie will build a tuple with references to all of your members that you can "iterate" like this:
struct DoCorrection
{
template<typename T>
void operator()(T& t) const { /* code goes here */ }
};
for_each(std::tie(x, y, z), DoCorrection());
// see linked SO answer for the detailed code to make this special for_each work.
Then, you can specialize operator() for each member variable type. That will let you do the appropriate math automatically without manually keeping track of the types.
taken from glm (detail vec3.incl)
template <typename T>
GLM_FUNC_QUALIFIER typename tvec3<T>::value_type &
tvec3<T>::operator[]
(
size_type i
)
{
assert(i < this->length());
return (&x)[i];
}
this would translate to your example:
class VariableClass{
public :
//each object of this class represents an event for this particlular data
double x;
double y;
double z;
double & operator[](int i) {
assert(i < 3);
return (&x)[i];
}
}
VariableClass foo();
foo.x = 2.0;
std::cout << foo[0] << std::endl; // => 2.0
Althought i would recomment glm, if it is just about vector math.
Yes, just put all your variables into a container, like std::vector, for example.
http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container/vector
I recommend spending some time reading about all the std classes. There are many containers and many uses.
In general you cannot iterate over members without relying on implementation defined things like padding or reordering of sections with different access qualifiers (literally no compiler does the later - it is allowed though).
However, you can use a the generalization of a record type: a std::tuple. Iterating a tuple isn't straight-forward but you will find plenty of code that does it. The worst here is the loss of named variables, which you can mimic with members.
If you use Boost, you can use Boost.Fusion's helper-macro BOOST_FUSION_ADAPT_STRUCT to turn a struct into a Fusion sequence and then you can use it with Fusion algorithms.
OK, I've been googling around for too long, I'm just not sure what to call this technique, so I figured it's better to just ask here on SO. Please point me in the right direction if this has an obvious name and/or solution I've overlooked.
For the laymen: a tensor is the logical extension of the matrix, in the same way a matrix is the logical extension of the vector. A vector is a rank-1 tensor (in programming terms, a 1D array of numbers), a matrix is a rank-2 tensor (a 2D array of numbers), and a rank-N tensor is then simply an N-D array of numbers.
Now, suppose I have something like this Tensor class:
template<typename T = double> // possibly also with size parameters
class Tensor
{
private:
T *M; // Tensor data (C-array)
// alternatively, std::vector<T> *M
// or std::array<T> *M
// etc., or possibly their constant-sized versions
// using Tensor<>'s template parameters
public:
... // insert trivial fluffy stuff here
// read elements
const T & operator() (size_t a, size_t b) const {
... // error checks etc.
return M[a + rows*b];
}
// write elements
T & operator() (size_t a, size_t b) {
... // error checks etc.
return M[a + rows*b];
}
...
};
With these definitions of operator()(...), indexing/assign individual elements then has the same call signature:
Tensor<> B(5,5);
double a = B(3,4); // operator() (size_t,size_t) used to both GET elements
B(3,4) = 5.5; // and SET elements
It is fairly trivial to extend this up to arbitrary tensor rank. But what I'd like to be able to implement is a more high-level way of indexing/assigning elements:
Tensor<> B(5,5);
Tensor<> C = B( Slice(0,4,2), 2 ); // operator() (Slice(),size_t) used to GET elements
B( Slice(0,4,2), 2 ) = C; // and SET elements
// (C is another tensor of the correct dimensions)
I am aware that std::valarray (and many others for that matter) does a very similar thing already, but it's not my objective to just accomplish the behavior; my objective here is to learn how to elegantly, efficiently and safely add the following functionality to my Tensor<> class:
// Indexing/assigning with Tensor<bool>
B( B>0 ) += 1.0;
// Indexing/assigning arbitrary amount of dimensions, each dimension indexed
// with either Tensor<bool>, size_t, Tensor<size_t>, or Slice()
B( Slice(0,2,FINAL), 3, Slice(0,3,FINAL), 4 ) = C;
// double indexing/assignment operation
B(3, Slice(0,4,FINAL))(mask) = C; // [mask] == Tensor<bool>
.. etc.
Note that it's my intention to use operator[] for non-checked versions of operator(). Alternatively, I'll stick more to the std::vector<> approach of using .at() methods for checked versions of operator[]. Anyway, this is a design choice and besides the issue right now.
I've conjured up the following incomplete "solution". This method is only really manageable for vectors/matrices (rank-1 or rank-2 tensors), and has many undesirable side-effects:
// define a simple slice class
Slice ()
{
private:
size_t
start, stride, end;
public:
Slice(size_t s, size_t e) : start(s), stride(1), end(e) {}
Slice(size_t s, size_t S, size_t e) : start(s), stride(S), end(e) {}
...
};
template<typename T = double>
class Tensor
{
... // same as before
public:
// define two operators() for use with slices:
// version for retrieving data
const Tensor<T> & operator() (Slice r, size_t c) const {
// use slicing logic to construct return tensor
...
return M;
{
// version for assigning data
Sass operator() (Slice r, size_t c) {
// returns Sass object, defined below
return Sass(*this, r,c);
}
protected:
class Sass
{
friend class Tensor<T>;
private:
Tensor<T>& M;
const Slice &R;
const size_t c;
public:
Sass(Tensor<T> &M, const Slice &R, const size_t c)
: M(M)
, R(R)
, c(c)
{}
operator Tensor<T>() const { return M; }
Tensor<T> & operator= (const Tensor<T> &M2) {
// use R/c to copy contents of M2 into M using the same
// Slice-logic as in "Tensor<T>::operator()(...) const" above
...
return M;
}
};
But this just feels wrong...
For each of the indexing/assignment methods outlined above, I'd have to define a separate Tensor<T>::Sass::Sass(...) constructor, a new Tensor<T>::Sass::operator=(...), and a new Tensor<T>::operator()(...) for each and every such operation. Moreover, the Tensor<T>::Sass::operators=(...) would need to contain much of the same stuff that's already in the corresponding Tensor<T>::operator()(...), and making everything suitable for a Tensor<> of arbitrary rank makes this approach quite ugly, way too verbose and more importantly, completely unmanageable.
So, I'm under the impression there is a much more effective approach to all this.
Any suggestions?
First of all I'd like to point out some design issues:
T & operator() (size_t a, size_t b) const;
suggests you can't alter the matrix through this method, because it's const. But you are giving back a nonconst reference to a matrix element, so in fact you can alter it. This only compiles because of the raw pointer you are using. I suggest to use std::vector instead, which does the memory management for you and will give you an error because vector's const version of operator[] gives a const reference like it should.
Regarding your actual question, I am not sure what the parameters of the Slice constructor should do, nor what a Sass object is meant to be (I am no native speaker, and "Sass" gives me only one translation in the dictionary, meaning sth. like "impudence", "impertinence").
However, I suppose with a slice you want to create an object that gives access to a subset of a matrix, defined by the slice's parameters.
I would advice against using operator() for every way to access the matrix. op() with two indices to access a given element seems natural. Using a similar operator to get a whole matrix to me seems less intuitive.
Here's an idea: make a Slice class that holds a reference to a Matrix and the necessary parameters that define which part of the Matrix is represented by the Slice. That way a Slice would be something like a proxy to the Matrix subset it defines, similar to a pair of iterators which can be seen as a proxy to a subrange of the container they are pointing to. Give your Matrix a pair of slice() methods (const and nonconst) that give back a Slice/ConstSlice, referencing the Matrix you call the method on. That way, you can even put checks into the method to see if the Slice's parameters make sense for the Matrix it refers to. If it makes sense and is necessary, you can also add a conversion operator, to convert a Slice into a Matrix of its own.
Overloading operator() again and again and using the parameters as a mask, as linear indices and other stuff is more confusing than helping imo. operator() is slick if it does something natural which everybody expects from it. It only obfuscates the code if it is used everywhere. Use named methods instead.
Not an answer, just a note to follow up my comment:
Tensor<bool> T(false);
// T (whatever its rank) contains all false
auto lazy = T(Slice(0,4,2));
// if I use lazy here, it will be all false
T = true;
// now T contains all true
// if I use lazy here, it will be all true
This may be what you want, or it might be unexpected.
In general, this can work cleanly with immutable tensors, but allowing mutation gives the same class of problem as COW strings.
If you allow for your Tensor to implicitly be a double you can return only Tensors from your operator() overload.
operator double() {
return M.size() == 1 ? M[0] : std::numeric_limits<double>::quiet_NaN();
};
That should allow for
double a = B(3,4);
Tensor<> a = B(Slice(1,2,3),4);
To get the operator() to work with multiple overloads with Slice and integer is another issue. I'd probably just use Slice and create another implicit conversion so integers can be Slice's, then maybe using the variable argument elipses.
const Tensor<T> & operator() (int numOfDimensions, ...)
Although the variable argument route is kind of a kludge best to just have 8 specializations for 1-8 parameters of Slice.
Here's an interesting question about the various quirks of the C++ language. I have a pair of functions, which are supposed to fill an array of points with the corners of a rectangle. There are two overloads for it: one takes a Point[5], the other takes a Point[4]. The 5-point version refers to a closed polygon, whereas the 4-point version is when you just want the 4 corners, period.
Obviously there's some duplication of work here, so I'd like to be able to use the 4-point version to populate the first 4 points of the 5-point version, so I'm not duplicating that code. (Not that it's much to duplicate, but I have terrible allergic reactions whenever I copy and paste code, and I'd like to avoid that.)
The thing is, C++ doesn't seem to care for the idea of converting a T[m] to a T[n] where n < m. static_cast seems to think the types are incompatible for some reason. reinterpret_cast handles it fine, of course, but is a dangerous animal that, as a general rule, is better to avoid if at all possible.
So my question is: is there a type-safe way of casting an array of one size to an array of a smaller size where the array type is the same?
[Edit] Code, yes. I should have mentioned that the parameter is actually a reference to an array, not simply a pointer, so the compiler is aware of the type difference.
void RectToPointArray(const degRect& rect, degPoint(&points)[4])
{
points[0].lat = rect.nw.lat; points[0].lon = rect.nw.lon;
points[1].lat = rect.nw.lat; points[1].lon = rect.se.lon;
points[2].lat = rect.se.lat; points[2].lon = rect.se.lon;
points[3].lat = rect.se.lat; points[3].lon = rect.nw.lon;
}
void RectToPointArray(const degRect& rect, degPoint(&points)[5])
{
// I would like to use a more type-safe check here if possible:
RectToPointArray(rect, reinterpret_cast<degPoint(&)[4]> (points));
points[4].lat = rect.nw.lat; points[4].lon = rect.nw.lon;
}
[Edit2] The point of passing an array-by-reference is so that we can be at least vaguely sure that the caller is passing in a correct "out parameter".
I don't think it's a good idea to do this by overloading. The name of the function doesn't tell the caller whether it's going to fill an open array or not. And what if the caller has only a pointer and wants to fill coordinates (let's say he wants to fill multiple rectangles to be part of a bigger array at different offsets)?
I would do this by two functions, and let them take pointers. The size isn't part of the pointer's type
void fillOpenRect(degRect const& rect, degPoint *p) {
...
}
void fillClosedRect(degRect const& rect, degPoint *p) {
fillOpenRect(rect, p); p[4] = p[0];
}
I don't see what's wrong with this. Your reinterpret-cast should work fine in practice (i don't see what could go wrong - both alignment and representation will be correct, so the merely formal undefinedness won't carry out to reality here, i think), but as i said above i think there's no good reason to make these functions take the arrays by reference.
If you want to do it generically, you can write it by output iterators
template<typename OutputIterator>
OutputIterator fillOpenRect(degRect const& rect, OutputIterator out) {
typedef typename iterator_traits<OutputIterator>::value_type value_type;
value_type pt[] = {
{ rect.nw.lat, rect.nw.lon },
{ rect.nw.lat, rect.se.lon },
{ rect.se.lat, rect.se.lon },
{ rect.se.lat, rect.nw.lon }
};
for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
*out++ = pt[i];
return out;
}
template<typename OutputIterator>
OutputIterator fillClosedRect(degRect const& rect, OutputIterator out) {
typedef typename iterator_traits<OutputIterator>::value_type value_type;
out = fillOpenRect(rect, out);
value_type p1 = { rect.nw.lat, rect.nw.lon };
*out++ = p1;
return out;
}
You can then use it with vectors and also with arrays, whatever you prefer most.
std::vector<degPoint> points;
fillClosedRect(someRect, std::back_inserter(points));
degPoint points[5];
fillClosedRect(someRect, points);
If you want to write safer code, you can use the vector way with back-inserters, and if you work with lower level code, you can use a pointer as output iterator.
I would use std::vector or (this is really bad and should not be used) in some extreme cases you can even use plain arrays via pointer like Point* and then you shouldn't have such "casting" troubles.
Why don't you just pass a standard pointer, instead of a sized one, like this
void RectToPointArray(const degRect& rect, degPoint * points ) ;
I don't think your framing/thinking of the problem is correct. You don't generally need to concretely type an object that has 4 vertices vs an object that has 5.
But if you MUST type it, then you can use structs to concretely define the types instead.
struct Coord
{
float lat, long ;
} ;
Then
struct Rectangle
{
Coord points[ 4 ] ;
} ;
struct Pentagon
{
Coord points[ 5 ] ;
} ;
Then,
// 4 pt version
void RectToPointArray(const degRect& rect, const Rectangle& rectangle ) ;
// 5 pt version
void RectToPointArray(const degRect& rect, const Pentagon& pent ) ;
I think this solution is a bit extreme however, and a std::vector<Coord> that you check its size (to be either 4 or 5) as expected with asserts, would do just fine.
I guess you could use function template specialization, like this (simplified example where first argument was ignored and function name was replaced by f(), etc.):
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class X
{
};
template<int sz, int n>
int f(X (&x)[sz])
{
cout<<"process "<<n<<" entries in a "<<sz<<"-dimensional array"<<endl;
int partial_result=f<sz,n-1>(x);
cout<<"process last entry..."<<endl;
return n;
}
//template specialization for sz=5 and n=4 (number of entries to process)
template<>
int f<5,4>(X (&x)[5])
{
cout<<"process only the first "<<4<<" entries here..."<<endl;
return 4;
}
int main(void)
{
X u[5];
int res=f<5,5>(u);
return 0;
}
Of course you would have to take care of other (potentially dangerous) special cases like n={0,1,2,3} and you're probably better off using unsigned int's instead of ints.
So my question is: is there a
type-safe way of casting an array of
one size to an array of a smaller size
where the array type is the same?
No. I don't think the language allows you to do this at all: consider casting int[10] to int[5]. You can always get a pointer to it, however, but we can't 'trick' the compiler into thinking a fixed-sized has a different number of dimensions.
If you're not going to use std::vector or some other container which can properly identify the number of points inside at runtime and do this all conveniently in one function instead of two function overloads which get called based on the number of elements, rather than trying to do crazy casts, consider this at least as an improvement:
void RectToPointArray(const degRect& rect, degPoint* points, unsigned int size);
If you're set on working with arrays, you can still define a generic function like this:
template <class T, size_t N>
std::size_t array_size(const T(&/*array*/)[N])
{
return N;
}
... and use that when calling RectToPointArray to pass the argument for 'size'. Then you have a size you can determine at runtime and it's easy enough to work with size - 1, or more appropriate for this case, just put a simple if statement to check if there are 5 elements or 4.
Later if you change your mind and use std::vector, Boost.Array, etc. you can still use this same old function without modifying it. It only requires that the data is contiguous and mutable. You can get fancy with this and apply very generic solutions that, say, only require forward iterators. Yet I don't think this problem is complicated enough to warrant such a solution: it'd be like using a cannon to kill a fly; fly swatter is okay.
If you're really set on the solution you have, then it's easy enough to do this:
template <size_t N>
void RectToPointArray(const degRect& rect, degPoint(&points)[N])
{
assert(N >= 4 && "points requires at least 4 elements!");
points[0].lat = rect.nw.lat; points[0].lon = rect.nw.lon;
points[1].lat = rect.nw.lat; points[1].lon = rect.se.lon;
points[2].lat = rect.se.lat; points[2].lon = rect.se.lon;
points[3].lat = rect.se.lat; points[3].lon = rect.nw.lon;
if (N >= 5)
points[4].lat = rect.nw.lat; points[4].lon = rect.nw.lon;
}
Yeah, there is one unnecessary runtime check but trying to do it at compile time is probably analogous to taking things out of your glove compartment in an attempt to increase your car's fuel efficiency. With N being a compile-time constant expression, the compiler is likely to recognize that the condition is always false when N < 5 and just eliminate that whole section of code.