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I am still getting errors due to library functions being undefined
I'm still getting errors due to library functions being undefined, even though I'm explicitly requesting the right libraries while linking. Many linkers make one pass over the list of object files and libraries you specify, and extract from libraries only those modules which satisfy references which...
2015-07-14, 1474👍, 0💬

Was 2000 a leap year?
Was 2000 a leap year? Q: Is (year % 4 == 0) an accurate test for leap years? (Was 2000 a leap year?) A: No, it's not accurate (and yes, 2000 was a leap year). The actual rules for the present Gregorian calendar are that leap years occur every four years, but not every 100 years, except that they do ...
2015-01-05, 1473👍, 0💬

Why isnt there a numbered, multi-level break statement to break out
Why isn't there a numbered, multi-level break statement to break out of several loops at once? What am I supposed to use instead, a goto? A:First, remember why it is that break and continue exist at all--they are, in effect, ``structured gotos'' used in preference to goto (and accepted as alternativ...
2015-01-30, 1471👍, 0💬

fopen isnt letting me open files like "$HOME/.profile" and "~/.myrcfile".
fopen isn't letting me open files like "$HOME/.profile" and "~/.myrcfile". Under Unix, at least, environment variables like $HOME, along with the home-directory notation involving the ~ character, are expanded by the shell, and there's no mechanism to perform these expansions automatically when you ...
2015-04-06, 1470👍, 0💬

I have some old code that tries to construct identifiers with a macro like ...
I have some old code that tries to construct identifiers with a macro like #define Paste(a, b) a/**/b but it doesn't work any more. It was an undocumented feature of some early preprocessor implementations (notably Reiser's) that comments disappeared entirely and could therefore be used for token pa...
2016-01-27, 1469👍, 0💬

Does C have an equivalent to Pascals with statement?
Does C have an equivalent to Pascals with statement? No. The way in C to get quick and easy access to the fields of a structure is to declare a little local structure pointer variable (which, it must be admitted, is not quite as notationally convenient as a with statement and doesn't save quite as m...
2015-01-14, 1469👍, 0💬

I am appalled that the ANSI Standard leaves so many issues undefined ...
I'm appalled that the ANSI Standard leaves so many issues undefined. Isn't a Standard's whole job to standardize these things? It has always been a characteristic of C that certain constructs behaved in whatever way a particular compiler or a particular piece of hardware chose to implement them. Thi...
2015-11-18, 1468👍, 0💬

How can I call a function with an argument list built up at run time?
How can I call a function with an argument list built up at run time? There is no guaranteed or portable way to do this. Instead of an actual argument list, you might consider passing an array of generic (void *) pointers. The called function can then step through the array, much like main() might s...
2015-06-03, 1468👍, 0💬

How can I do PEEK and POKE in C?
How can I access memory (a memory-mapped device, or graphics memory) located at a certain address? How can I do PEEK and POKE in C? Set a pointer, of the appropriate type, to the right number (using an explicit cast to assure the compiler that you really do intend this nonportable conversion): unsig...
2015-03-20, 1466👍, 0💬

Why cant I open a file by its explicit path?
Why can't I open a file by its explicit path? The call fopen("c:\newdir\file.dat", "r") is failing. The file you actually requested--with the characters \n and \f in its name--probably doesn't exist, and isn't what you thought you were trying to open. In character constants and string literals, the ...
2015-04-08, 1465👍, 0💬

What is the difference between ...
What's the difference between const MAXSIZE = 100; and #define MAXSIZE 100 A preprocessor #define gives you a true compile-time constant. In C, const gives you a run-time object which you're not supposed to try to modify; ``const'' really means ``readonly''.
2016-02-18, 1464👍, 0💬

Is C a great language, or what?
Is C a great language, or what? Where else could you write something like a+++++b ? A: Well, you can't meaningfully write it in C, either. The rule for lexical analysis is that at each point during a straightforward left-to-right scan, the longest possible token is determined, without regard to whet...
2015-01-26, 1464👍, 0💬

Why is my simple program, which hardly does more than print
Why is my simple program, which hardly does more than print ``Hello, world!'' in a window, compiling to such a huge executable (several hundred K)? Should I #include fewer header files? What you're seeing is the current (poor) state of the ``art'' in library design. As run-time libraries accrete mor...
2015-07-06, 1463👍, 0💬

What is assert and when would I use it?
What is assert and when would I use it? It is a macro, defined in &lt;assert.h>, for testing ``assertions''. An assertion essentially documents an assumption being made by the programmer, an assumption which, if violated, would indicate a serious programming error. For example, a function which ...
2015-01-12, 1463👍, 0💬

How can I find out how much memory is available?
How can I find out how much memory is available? Your operating system may provide a routine which returns this information, but it's quite system-dependent. (Also, the number may vary over time.) If you're trying to predict whether you'll be able to allocate a certain amount of memory, just try it-...
2015-03-30, 1462👍, 0💬

What are the complete rules for header file searching?
What are the complete rules for header file searching? The exact behavior is implementation-defined (which means that it is supposed to be documented; Typically, headers named with &lt;> syntax are searched for in one or more standard places. Header files named with "" syntax are first searched ...
2016-02-12, 1460👍, 0💬

How can I convert integers to binary or hexadecimal?
How can I convert integers to binary or hexadecimal? Make sure you really know what you're asking. Integers are stored internally in binary, although for most purposes it is not incorrect to think of them as being in octal, decimal, or hexadecimal, whichever is convenient. The base in which a number...
2015-02-13, 1460👍, 0💬

How can I read a directory in a C program?
How can I read a directory in a C program? See if you can use the opendir and readdir functions, which are part of the POSIX standard and are available on most Unix variants. Implementations also exist for MS-DOS, VMS, and other systems. (MS-DOS also has FINDFIRST and FINDNEXT routines which do esse...
2015-04-01, 1459👍, 0💬

Here is a neat trick for checking whether two strings are equal
Q: Here's a neat trick for checking whether two strings are equal: if(!strcmp(s1, s2)) Is this good style? It is not particularly good style, although it is a popular idiom. The test succeeds if the two strings are equal, but the use of ! (``not'') suggests that it tests for inequality. Another opti...
2015-05-15, 1458👍, 0💬

What is Hungarian Notation? Is it worthwhile?
What is Hungarian Notation? Is it worthwhile? Hungarian Notation is a naming convention, invented by Charles Simonyi, which encodes information about a variable's type (and perhaps its intended use) in its name. It is well-loved in some circles and roundly castigated in others. Its chief advantage i...
2015-05-08, 1457👍, 0💬

I am checking a string to see if it matches a particular value...
I'm checking a string to see if it matches a particular value. Why isn't this code working? char *string; ... if(string == "value") { /* string matches "value" */ ... } Strings in C are represented as arrays of characters, and C never manipulates (assigns, compares, etc.) arrays as a whole. The == o...
2016-03-11, 1456👍, 0💬

What if a built-in logical or relational operator `returns something other than 1? ....
Isn't #defining TRUE to be 1 dangerous, since any nonzero value is considered ``true'' in C? What if a built-in logical or relational operator ``returns'' something other than 1? It is true (sic) that any nonzero value is considered true in C, but this applies only ``on input'', i.e. where a Boolean...
2016-02-29, 1456👍, 0💬

People keep saying that the behavior of ...
People keep saying that the behavior of i = i++ is undefined, but I just tried it on an ANSI-conforming compiler, and got the results I expected. A compiler may do anything it likes when faced with undefined behavior (and, within limits, with implementation-defined and unspecified behavior), includi...
2015-11-18, 1454👍, 0💬

This program crashes before it even runs!
This program crashes before it even runs! (When single-stepping with a debugger, it dies before the first statement in main.) You probably have one or more very large (kilobyte or more) local arrays. Many systems have fixed-size stacks, and even those which perform dynamic stack allocation automatic...
2015-05-29, 1453👍, 0💬

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