Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables

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From	Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables
Date	Sun, 09 Feb 2025 22:57:06 -0800
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Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> writes:
> On 10.02.2025 05:14, Andrey Tarasevich wrote:
>> On Sun 2/9/2025 6:35 PM, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>>>> The "return 0;" is unnecessary but harmless in C99 and later.
>>>
>>> That - returning a value when a function is declared to return
>>> one - is actually a [maybe picky] coding-habit of mine. :-)
>> 
>> This is, of course, a purely stylistic matter. But still... `main` is
>> special.
>
> I know.
>
>> And it kinda makes sense to acknowledge it special nature by
>> not doing explicit `return 0` from `main`. `main` looks cleaner without it.
>
> Now I'm astonished by that comment (to say the least).
>
> I'm regularly returning status and error information to the calling
> instance to act upon it. And you're saying that I should not return
> any value? Or only values that are different from 0? Or only 0 if I
> also return other values? - Whatever; that sounds all wrong to me.
> Or is 'return' deprecated or depreciated and we should now rewrite
> our source code and replace every 'return' by 'exit()', or use now
> only 'exit()' in the first place instead?
>
> I don't think you will convince me to not return 0 only because in
> the special case that there's nothing specified the current language
> standards defines that per default it implicitly provides that value
> for me.

Having a "return 0;" at the end of main() is neither obsolescent nor
deprecated.  It's still perfectly valid, with the expected semantics.

The only that changed in C99 is that reaching the closing "}" of
the main function does an implicit "return 0;".  This change was
borrowed from C++.

I do tend to dislike the change; it feels like an unnecessary special
case, and I used to advise people to add an explicit "return 0;"
anyway.  This was partly because C99 compilers were relatively rare,
and there were advantages to writing code that still worked with
C90-only compilers.

I usually omit the "return 0;", but I don't object to including it --
though I will occasionally mention in passing that it's "unnecessary
but harmless".  If nothing else, the history is interesting (at
least to me).

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */

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Thread

Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-09 08:50 +0100
  Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Andrey Tarasevich <noone@noone.net> - 2025-02-09 00:06 -0800
    Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-09 10:54 +0100
      Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2025-02-09 02:25 -0800
        Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-09 18:17 +0100
          Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2025-02-09 16:38 -0800
            Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-10 03:35 +0100
              Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2025-02-09 23:03 -0500
              Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Andrey Tarasevich <noone@noone.net> - 2025-02-09 20:14 -0800
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-10 07:43 +0100
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2025-02-09 22:57 -0800
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-10 19:33 +0100
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2025-02-10 14:17 -0800
      Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-09 12:39 +0200
        Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-09 18:18 +0100
          Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-09 19:57 +0200
            Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-09 19:10 +0100
            Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2025-02-09 16:46 -0800
              Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-10 02:56 +0100
      Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) - 2025-02-09 14:29 +0000
        Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-09 18:19 +0100
          Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Andrey Tarasevich <noone@noone.net> - 2025-02-09 09:29 -0800
            Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-09 18:46 +0100
              Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-09 18:53 +0100
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2025-02-09 15:55 -0500
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) - 2025-02-10 01:36 +0000
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-10 03:01 +0100
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2025-02-10 11:39 +0100
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-10 18:57 +0100
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2025-02-10 19:19 +0100
              Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-09 20:19 +0200
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Opus <ifonly@youknew.org> - 2025-02-10 02:44 +0100
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-10 12:38 +0200
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Opus <ifonly@youknew.org> - 2025-02-10 23:08 +0100
          Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2025-02-09 15:50 -0800
            Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-10 03:12 +0100
              Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-10 07:27 +0100
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2025-02-09 22:49 -0800
                Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-10 19:14 +0100
      Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Andrey Tarasevich <noone@noone.net> - 2025-02-09 07:15 -0800
        Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-02-09 18:20 +0100
        Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2025-02-09 15:34 -0500
      Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2025-02-09 15:27 -0500
    Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2025-02-09 15:16 -0500
    Re: Two questions on arrays with size defined by variables Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2025-02-15 08:19 -0800

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