Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Welcome to Software Development on Codidact!

Will you help us build our independent community of developers helping developers? We're small and trying to grow. We welcome questions about all aspects of software development, from design to code to QA and more. Got questions? Got answers? Got code you'd like someone to review? Please join us.

Post History

66%
+2 −0
Q&A Is omitting braces for single statements bad practice?

While there are already good answers, i want to give yet another reason to always use {}: Macros. Lets consider this code: #include <stdio.h> #define FOO(n) puts(n[1]); puts(n[0]); in...

posted 1y ago by H_H‭  ·  edited 1y ago by H_H‭

Answer
#2: Post edited by user avatar H_H‭ · 2023-08-21T13:28:30Z (about 1 year ago)
  • While there are already good answers, i want to give yet another reason to always use `{}`: Macros.
  • Lets consider this code:
  • ```
  • #include <stdio.h>
  • #define FOO(n) puts(n[1]); puts(n[0]);
  • int main(int argc, char **argv)
  • {
  • if(argc>1)
  • FOO(argv);
  • }
  • ```
  • You may expect that the Macro `FOO` is only executed when `argc>1`, but no, the code gets expanded to:
  • ```
  • ...
  • if(argc>1)
  • puts(n[1]); puts(n[0]);
  • ....
  • ```
  • Which is the same as:
  • ```
  • ...
  • if(argc>1)
  • puts(n[1]);
  • puts(n[0]);
  • ....
  • ```
  • Which probably wasn't the intention. While the macro `FOO` is written in a bad way (because it allows this error), this error could still have been prevented by using `{}` for the `if`.
  • While there are already good answers, i want to give yet another reason to always use `{}`: Macros.
  • Lets consider this code:
  • ```
  • #include <stdio.h>
  • #define FOO(n) puts(n[1]); puts(n[0]);
  • int main(int argc, char **argv)
  • {
  • if(argc>1)
  • FOO(argv);
  • }
  • ```
  • You may expect that the code inside the macro `FOO` is only executed when `argc>1`, but no, some of the code is always executed. The code gets expanded to:
  • ```
  • ...
  • if(argc>1)
  • puts(n[1]); puts(n[0]);
  • ....
  • ```
  • Which is the same as:
  • ```
  • ...
  • if(argc>1)
  • puts(n[1]);
  • puts(n[0]);
  • ....
  • ```
  • Which probably wasn't the intention. While the macro `FOO` is written in a bad way (because it allows this error), this error could still have been prevented by using `{}` for the `if`.
#1: Initial revision by user avatar H_H‭ · 2023-08-21T13:25:22Z (about 1 year ago)
While there are already good answers, i want to give yet another reason to always use `{}`: Macros.

Lets consider this code:

```
#include <stdio.h>

#define FOO(n) puts(n[1]); puts(n[0]);

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  if(argc>1)
    FOO(argv);
}

```

You may expect that the Macro `FOO` is only executed when `argc>1`, but no, the code gets expanded to:
```
...
  if(argc>1)
    puts(n[1]); puts(n[0]);
....
```
Which is the same as:
```
...
  if(argc>1)
    puts(n[1]); 
  puts(n[0]);
....
```

Which probably wasn't the intention. While the macro `FOO` is written in a bad way (because it allows this error), this error could still have been prevented by using `{}` for the `if`.