Explain why the output is : Didn't enters loop

Question

#include <stdio.h> 

int main() 

{ 

int i; 

for (i = -1; i < sizeof(i); i++) { 

printf("%d\n", i); 

} 

return 0; 

}

Answer 1

This is a nice question. It had me thinking for a bit. So let's see what's going on here.

sizeof(i) returns the size of the variable i. This wold typically be 4 bytes as int typically means a 32-bit integral number.

so your loop would be this

for (i = -1; i < 4; i++)

So why do we not enter the loop?

It is, because we have forgotten about types!

i is of type signed 32-bit int.

sizeof(i) returns a type size_t, which is typically an unsigned 64-bit int.

The computer cannot compare signed and unsigned types without casting one to the other and since the unsigned 64-bit int is larger than the signed 32-bit int, that will be the type.

So the loop actually looks like this:

for (int i = -1; (unsigned long int)i < 4ul; i++)

4ul is the numeric literal 4 with the type of unsigned long int.

So the question is, what happens when you cast a signed int to an unsigned long int?

-1 is 0xFFFFFFFF (See how signed numbers work.)

But if you look at 0xFFFFFFFF as an unsigned number, then it is 4,294,967,295.

So the loop really is

for (i = 4294967295; i < 4; i++)

Now, it's not surprising that we never enter the body of the loop.

I hope this helped. Keep on coding! :)