C C++ array.... need help understanding code - c++

Can you please explain this code? It seems a little confusing to me
Is "a" a double array? I would think it's just an integer, but then in the cout statement it's used as a double array. Also in the for loop condition it says a<3[b]/3-3, it makes no sense to me, however the code compiles and runs. i'm just having trouble understanding it, it seems syntactically incorrect to me
int a,b[]={3,6,5,24};
char c[]="This code is really easy?";
for(a=0;a<3[b]/3-3;a++)
{
cout<<a[b][c];
}

Array accessors are almost syntactic sugar for pointer arithmetic. a[b] is equivalent to b[a] is equivalent to *(a+b).
That said, using index[array] rather than array[index] is utterly horrible and you should never use it.

Wow. This is really funky. This isn't really 2 dimensional array. it works because c is an array and there is an identity in the C language that treats this
b[3]
as the same as this
3[b]
so this code translates into a loop that increments a while a < (24/3-3) since 3[b] is the same as b[3] and b[3] is 24. Then it uses a[b] (which is the same as b[a]) as an index into the array c.
so, un-obfuscated this code is
int a;
int b[] = {3,5,6,24}
char c[] = "This code is really easy?";
for (a = 0; a < 5; a++)
{
cout << c[b[a]];
}
which is broken since b[4] doesn't exist, so the output should be the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 24th characters of the string c or
sco?
followed by some random character or a crash.

No, two variables are declared in the first statement: int a and int b[].
a[b][c] is just a tricky way of saying c[b[a]], that is because of the syntax for arrays: b[0] and 0[b] are equivalent.

int a,b[]={3,6,5,24};
Declares two variables, an int a and an array of ints b
char c[]="This code is really easy?";
Declares an array of char with the given string
for(a=0;a<3[b]/3-3;a++)
Iterates a through the range [0..4]:
3[b] is another way of saying b[3], which is 24.
24 / 3 = 8
8 - 3 = 5
cout << a[b][c];
This outputs the following result:
a[b] is equivalent to b[a], which will be b[0..4]
b[0..4][c] is another way of saying c[b[0..4]]

Well there is a simple trick in the code. a[3] is exactly the same as 3[a] for c compiler.
After knowing this your code can be transformed into more meaningful:
int a,b[]={3,6,5,24};
char c[]="This code is really easy?";
for(a=0;a<b[3]/3-3;a++)
{
cout<<c[b[a]];
}

a<3[b]/3-3 is the same as writing
a < b[3]/3-3
and a[b] is the same is b[a] since a is an integer
sp b[a] is one of the items from {3,6,5,24}
which then means a[b][c] is b[a][c]
which is either c[{3,6,5,24}]

foo[bar] "expands" to "*(foo + bar)" in C. So a[b] is actually the same as b[a] (because addition is commutative), meaning the ath element of the array b. And a[b][c] is the same as c[b[a]] i.e. the ith char in c where i is the ath element in b.

Okay - first, let's tackle the for loop.
When you write b[3], this is equivelent to *(b+3). *(b+3) is also equivelent to *(3+b), which can be written as 3[b]. This basically can be rewritten, more understandably, as:
for(a=0; a < ((b[3]/3) - 3); a++)
Since b[3] is a constant value (24), you can see this as:
for(a=0; a < ((24/3) - 3); a++)
or
for(a=0; a < (8 - 3); a++)
and finally:
for(a=0; a < 5; a++)
In your case, this will make a iterate from 0-4. You then output a[b][c], which can be rewritten as c[b[a]].
However, I don't see how this compiles and runs correctly, since it's accessing c[b[4]] - and b only has 4 elements. This, as written, is buggy.

First: 'a' is not initialized. Let's assume that it is initialized to 0.
'3[b]/3-3' equals 5. The loop will go from 0 to 4 using 'a'. ('3[b]' is 'b[3]')
In the a==4 step 'a[b]' (so 'b[a]') will be out of bounds (bounds of 'b' is 0..3) so it has undefined behavior. On my computer somethimes 'Segmentation fault' sometimes not. Until that point it outputs: "soc?"

Related

Negative array index

I have a pointer which is defined as follows:
A ***b;
What does accessing it as follows do:
A** c = b[-1]
Is it an access violation because we are using a negative index to an array? Or is it a legal operation similar to *--b?
EDIT Note that negative array indexing has different support in C and C++. Hence, this is not a dupe.
X[Y] is identical to *(X + Y) as long as one of X and Y is of pointer type and the other has integral type. So b[-1] is the same as *(b - 1), which is an expression that may or may not be evaluated in a well-formed program – it all depends on the initial value of b! For example, the following is perfectly fine:
int q[24];
int * b = q + 13;
b[-1] = 9;
assert(q[12] == 9);
In general, it is your responsibility as a programmer to guarantee that pointers have permissible values when you perform operations with them. If you get it wrong, your program has undefined behaviour. For example:
int * c = q; // q as above
c[-1] = 0; // undefined behaviour!
Finally, just to reinforce the original statement, the following is fine, too:
std::cout << 2["Good morning"] << 4["Stack"] << 8["Overflow\n"];

Two types of matrix output in C++

I tried many many times, in different compilers, but had the same result. My question is:
In C++, given int a[10]; as the declaration of a, then a[0] and 0[a] mean the same. I claim that:
cout << a[0];
is the same as
cout << 0[a];
Please explain to me why a[i] is the same as i[a] in C++, where i is an integer.
Because array index operations are internally interpreted as *(a+i).
Let's say I declare an array: int a[10]; Now a represents some memory address at the beginning of where the array is in memory, and you can think of the index as an offset from that memory address.
So when applying the index operation to the array, the value is defined as follows: a[i] = *(a+i) By the commutative property of addition, you can see that a[0] = 0[a] because of how the index operation is defined by the language.

Print elements in an array [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Confused about C macro expansion and integer arithmetic
A riddle (in C)
The output of the following C program is to print the elements in the array. But when actually run, it doesn't do so.
#include<stdio.h>
#define TOTAL_ELEMENTS (sizeof(array) / sizeof(array[0]))
int array[] = {23,34,12,17,204,99,16};
int main()
{
int d;
for(d=-1;d <= (TOTAL_ELEMENTS-2);d++)
printf("%d\n",array[d+1]);
return 0;
}
Why is that?
sizeof() returns unsigned int and so in the <= comparison, d gets converted to unsigned int. -1 when converted to unsigned int is 0xffffff. Since 0xffffff > (7-2), for-loop body won't be executed even once.
This fails because sizeof is returning a value of type size_t, which is unsigned. This causes the comparison to promote the -1 to unsigned, which is generally a very large value and thus make the comparison fail.
You should receive warnings for the sign mismatch.
The point is the type of value sizeof returns.
It's a size_t, which is an unsigned type, so converting -1 to that type for the comparison produces the maximal value of the type, which is far larger than 5.
for(d=-1;d <= ((int)TOTAL_ELEMENTS-2);d++)
I guess this is more clear:
for(d = 0; d < TOTAL_ELEMENTS; d++)
printf("%d\n",array[d]);
And size_t case should not be a problem anymore.
Your original problem works, when I do the following:
#define TOTAL_ELEMENTS 7
int array[] = {23,34,12,17,204,99,16};
int main()
{
int d;
for(d=-1; d <= (TOTAL_ELEMENTS - 2); d++)
printf("%d\n",array[d+1]);
return 0;
}
This has something to do with comparing a negative number d=-1 with (TOTAL_ELEMENTS-2). I believe it might be sizeof, butI will leave finding out why as an exercise.
Leaving your original #define as it was --
#define TOTAL_ELEMENTS (sizeof(array) / sizeof(array[0]))
-- but using zero-based indexing also worked.
I'm not sure why your original TOTAL_ELEMENTS definition caused the loop not to print.
A more standard way to write this loop which works would be
for(d = 0; d < TOTAL_ELEMENTS; d++)
...
as was pointed out by correctly by several others here already, the problem lies with signed/unsigned values being compared. This construct would have avoided the problem.

Sequence Point - Xor Swap on Array get wrong result

I learned using Xor operator to swap two integers,like:
int a = 21;
int b = 7;
a^=b^=a^=b;
I would finally get a=7 and b=21.
I try to use xor operator on array like this way:
int main()
{
int a[] = {7,21};
a[0]^=a[1]^=a[0]^=a[1];
cout << a[0] <<',' <<a[1];
return 0;
}
The output is 0,7
I compile the code on Xcode and g++, they have the same issue.
Xor swap on array works fine with multiple lines:
int main()
{
int a[] = {7,21};
a[0]^=a[1];
a[1]^=a[0];
a[0]^=a[1];
cout << a[0] <<',' <<a[1];
return 0;
}
I would get output as 21,7
Here is the information what I already find:
- the issue is about sequence point: Array + XOR swap fails
- even for simple integers, they may have side affect to this undefined behavior: Why is this statement not working in java x ^= y ^= x ^= y;
- some other issue on xor swap: Weird XOR swap behavior while zeroing out data
So I should avoid using xor swap, instead, swap with temp would guarantee correct result.
But I still not very clear about what happen on a[0]^=a[1]^=a[0]^=a[1]; what is the sequence point issue with it?
I could not figure out what's the different on compiler between a[0]^=a[1]^=a[0]^=a[1]; and a^=b^=a^=b; ?
My doubt is:
" How does compiler output 0,7 for a[0]^=a[1]^=a[0]^=a[1];. "
I know this is sequence pointer issue, I could understand why printf("%d,%d",i++, i++); is undefined as some compiler parse parameter of function from left to right, and some do it from right to left.
But I do not know what is the problem on a[0]^=a[1]^=a[0]^=a[1];, it looks just the same as a^=b^=a^=b;. So I'd like to know how it works with array. So that I would know more about kind like "sequence pointer on index of array"
You cannot modify a variable more than once without an intervening sequence point, if you do so, it is Undefined Behavior.
a^=b^=a^=b;
Trying to modify the values of a and b in the above statement breaks this rule and you end up with an Undefined Behavior.
Note that Undefined Behavior means that any behavior is possible and you can get any output.
Good Reads:
Undefined Behavior and Sequence Points
C-Faq

assignment operation confusion

What is the output of the following code:
int main() {
int k = (k = 2) + (k = 3) + (k = 5);
printf("%d", k);
}
It does not give any error, why? I think it should give error because the assignment operations are on the same line as the definition of k.
What I mean is int i = i; cannot compile.
But it compiles. Why? What will be the output and why?
int i = i compiles because 3.3.1/1 (C++03) says
The point of declaration for a name is immediately after its complete declarator and before its initializer
So i is initialized with its own indeterminate value.
However the code invokes Undefined Behaviour because k is being modified more than once between two sequence points. Read this FAQ on Undefined Behaviour and Sequence Points
int i = i; first defines the variable and then assigns a value to it. In C you can read from an uninitialized variable. It's never a good idea, and some compilers will issue a warning message, but it's possible.
And in C, assignments are also expressions. The output will be "10", or it would be if you had a 'k' there, instead of an 'a'.
Wow, I got 11 too. I think k is getting assigned to 3 twice and then once to 5 for the addition. Making it just int k = (k=2)+(k=3) yields 6, and int k = (k=2)+(k=4) yields 8, while int k = (k=2)+(k=4)+(k=5) gives 13. int k = (k=2)+(k=4)+(k=5)+(k=6) gives 19 (4+4+5+6).
My guess? The addition is done left to right. The first two (k=x) expressions are added, and the result is stored in a register or on the stack. However, since it is k+k for this expression, both values being added are whatever k currently is, which is the second expression because it is evaluated after the other (overriding its assignment to k). However, after this initial add, the result is stored elsewhere, so is now safe from tampering (changing k will not affect it). Moving from left to right, each successive addition reassigns k (not affected the running sum), and adds k to the running sum.