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Which is more efficient, a switch statement or an if else chain?
Which is more efficient, a switch statement or an if else chain? The differences, if any, are likely to be slight. The switch statement was designed to be efficiently implementable, though the compiler may choose to use the equivalent of an if/else chain (as opposed to a compact jump table) if the c... 2015-02-04, 1659👍, 0💬

What are pragmas and what are they good for?
What are pragmas and what are they good for? The #pragma directive provides a single, well-defined ``escape hatch'' which can be used for all sorts of (nonportable) implementation-specific controls and extensions: source listing control, structure packing, warning suppression (like lint's old /* NOT... 2015-12-11, 1657👍, 0💬

Why does everyone say not to use gets?
Why does everyone say not to use gets? Unlike fgets(), gets() cannot be told the size of the buffer it's to read into, so it cannot be prevented from overflowing that buffer if an input line is longer than expected--and Murphy's Law says that, sooner or later, a larger-than-expected input line will ... 2015-10-16, 1655👍, 0💬

How can a process change an environment variable in its caller?
How can a process change an environment variable in its caller? It may or may not be possible to do so at all. Different operating systems implement global name/value functionality similar to the Unix environment in different ways. Whether the ``environment'' can be usefully altered by a running pro... 2015-03-11, 1653👍, 0💬

How do I get an accurate error status return from system on MS-DOS?
How do I get an accurate error status return from system on MS-DOS? You can't; COMMAND.COM doesn't tend to provide one. If you don't need COMMAND.COM's services (i.e. if you're just trying to invoke a simple program, without I/O redirection and such) try one of the spawn routines, instead. 2015-03-16, 1652👍, 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, 1651👍, 0💬

Does C have anything like the `substr extract substrin routine present in other languages?
Does C have anything like the `substr extract substrin routine present in other languages? Not as such. To extract a substring of length LEN starting at index POS in a source string, use something like char dest[LEN+1]; strncpy(dest, &source[POS], LEN); dest[LEN] = '\0'; /* ensure \0 termination... 2016-03-07, 1650👍, 0💬

How can I get random integers in a certain range?
How can I get random integers in a certain range? The obvious way, rand() % N /* POOR */ (which tries to return numbers from 0 to N-1) is poor, because the low-order bits of many random number generators are distressingly non-random. A better method is something like (int)((double)rand() / ((double)... 2015-07-29, 1650👍, 0💬

How can I increase the allowable number of simultaneously open files?
I'm getting an error, ``Too many open files''. How can I increase the allowable number of simultaneously open files? A: There are typically at least two resource limitations on the number of simultaneously open files: the number of low-level ``file descriptors'' or ``file handles'' available in the ... 2015-04-03, 1649👍, 0💬

Where can I get an ANSI-compatible lint?
Where can I get an ANSI-compatible lint? Products called PC-Lint and FlexeLint are available from Gimpel Software. The Unix System V release 4 lint is ANSI-compatible, and is available separately (bundled with other C tools) from UNIX Support Labs or from System V resellers. Another ANSI-compatible ... 2015-05-05, 1648👍, 0💬

If fflush wont work, what can I use to flush input?
If fflush wont work, what can I use to flush input? It depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to get rid of an unread newline or other unexpected input after calling scanf you really need to rewrite or replace the call to scanf. Alternatively, you can consume the rest of a partially-r... 2015-10-12, 1646👍, 0💬

I think somethings wrong with my compiler ...
I think something's wrong with my compiler: I just noticed that sizeof('a') is 2, not 1 (i.e. not sizeof(char)). Perhaps surprisingly, character constants in C are of type int, so sizeof('a') is sizeof(int) (though this is another area where C++ differs). 2016-03-04, 1645👍, 0💬

What does it mean when the linker says that _end is undefined?
What does it mean when the linker says that _end is undefined? That message is a quirk of the old Unix linkers. You get an error about _end being undefined only when other symbols are undefined, too--fix the others, and the error about _end will disappear. 2015-07-06, 1644👍, 0💬

I am trying to define a few simple little function-like macros ...
I'm trying to define a few simple little function-like macros such as #define square(x) x * x but they're not always working. There are three important rules to remember when defining function-like macros: 1. The macro expansion must always be parenthesized to protect any lower-precedence operators ... 2016-02-26, 1643👍, 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, 1642👍, 0💬

If NULL and 0 are equivalent as null pointer constants, which should I use?
If NULL and 0 are equivalent as null pointer constants, which should I use? Many programmers believe that NULL should be used in all pointer contexts, as a reminder that the value is to be thought of as a pointer. Others feel that the confusion surrounding NULL and 0 is only compounded by hiding 0 b... 2015-05-11, 1640👍, 0💬

How can I invoke another program (a standalone executable, or an operating system command) from within a C program?
How can I invoke another program (a standalone executable, or an operating system command) from within a C program? Use the library function system, which does exactly that. Some systems also provide a family of spawn routines which accomplish approximately the same thing. system is more ``portable'... 2015-03-18, 1640👍, 0💬

I have got this tricky preprocessing I want to do and I cant figure out a way to do it.
I have got this tricky preprocessing I want to do and I cant figure out a way to do it. C's preprocessor is not intended as a general-purpose tool. (Note also that it is not guaranteed to be available as a separate program.) Rather than forcing it to do something inappropriate, you might want to wri... 2016-01-19, 1635👍, 0💬

How can I suppress the dreaded MS-DOS Abort, Retry, Ignore? message?
How can I suppress the dreaded MS-DOS Abort, Retry, Ignore? message? Among other things, you need to intercept the DOS Critical Error Interrupt, interrupt 24H. See the comp.os.msdos.programmer 2015-04-06, 1635👍, 0💬

How can I flush pending input so that a user ...
How can I flush pending input so that a user's typeahead isn't read at the next prompt? Will fflush(stdin) work? fflush is defined only for output streams. Since its definition of ``flush'' is to complete the writing of buffered characters (not to discard them), discarding unread input would not be ... 2015-10-12, 1634👍, 0💬

Does C have anything like the `substr (extract substring) routine present in other languages?
Does C have anything like the `substr (extract substring) routine present in other languages? Not as such. To extract a substring of length LEN starting at index POS in a source string, use something like char dest[LEN+1]; strncpy(dest, &amp;source[POS], LEN); dest[LEN] = '\0'; /* ensure \0 term... 2015-08-19, 1633👍, 0💬

How can I swap two values without using a temporary?
How can I swap two values without using a temporary? The standard hoary old assembly language programmer's trick is: a ^= b; b ^= a; a ^= b; But this sort of code has little place in modern, HLL programming. Temporary variables are essentially free, and the idiomatic code using three assignments, na... 2015-02-06, 1633👍, 0💬

I have a varargs function which accepts a float parameter
I have a varargs function which accepts a float parameter. Why isn't va_arg(argp, float) working? In the variable-length part of variable-length argument lists, the old ``default argument promotions'' apply: arguments of type float are always promoted (widened) to type double, and types char and sho... 2015-06-08, 1632👍, 0💬

How can I read/write structures from/to data files?
How can I read/write structures from/to data files? It is relatively straightforward to write a structure out using fwrite: fwrite(&amp;somestruct, sizeof somestruct, 1, fp); and a corresponding fread invocation can read it back in. What happens here is that fwrite receives a pointer to the stru... 2015-09-18, 1631👍, 0💬

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.NET C C++ CSS DBA General HTML Java JavaScript JSP JUnit MySQL Networking Oracle Perl Perl PHP PL/SQL RSS Software QA SQL Server Struts Unix Windows XHTML XML