Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ?

From	Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ?
Date	2013-01-13 15:39 -0800
Organization	None to speak of
Message-ID	<lnfw24d55f.fsf@nuthaus.mib.org> (permalink)
References	(8 earlier) <kcqfa7$vb7$1@dont-email.me> <lnobguhwql.fsf@nuthaus.mib.org> <kcsq2q$8je$1@dont-email.me> <lnk3rihu51.fsf@nuthaus.mib.org> <kcv9cb$a2g$1@dont-email.me>

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Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> writes:
> On 1/12/2013 18:13, Keith Thompson wrote:
[...]
>> I still fail to understand why you think the code in question is weird
>> or, as you wrote, "is sufficient cause to tell the programmer to have
>> their head checked".
>>
>> How would you re-write
>>
>>      for (i = 0; i < sizeof arr / sizeof arr[0]; i += 10)
>>
>> to make it less weird?
>>
>
> On its own, it looks like it's about to work with every 10th element of 
> 'arr'.  Since all elements should be initialized, I'd suggest dealing 
> with the "every tenth" case in the same place (loop) as the rest of the 
> elements are dealt with.  Sometimes, I agree, it doesn't make sense to 
> do so.  But if it does, then noticing this code and thinking twice about 
> it doesn't seem to hurt.

Let's assume that we really want to deal only with every 10th element
rather than second-guessing the intent.

> The loop body for this could very well initialize ten elements at a 
> time, but I'd probably advance 'i' by 1 instead of by 10, and use the '% 
> 10' operator in the loop's body, if need be.  From looking at just this 
> loop, I'd think that some bodies would be rather contrived, especially 
> because of the 'sizeof' count computation instead of 'n', or some such.

So you'd rather iterate over every element of the array, and then
test i%10 to decide whether to process the current one?

    for (i = 0; i < sizeof arr / sizeof arr[0]; i ++) {
        if (i % 10 == 0) {
            /* ... */
        }
    }

I find that more verbose, less clear, and almost certainly less
efficient (unless the compiler is clever enough to transform it
into the first form).  All to solve a problem that is not a problem
at all.

If there's some concern about i overflowing the upper limit of its
type (INT_MAX or SIZE_MAX), I'd probably precompute the last index
I want to look at and use that to control the loop.  But I see no
point in doing so just to avoid letting i exceed the upper bound
of the array, when the code explicitly avoids accessing anything
outside the array bounds.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"

Thread

[MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? m.labanowicz@gmail.com - 2013-01-09 07:26 -0800
  Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2013-01-09 11:30 -0500
  Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2013-01-09 11:58 -0500
    Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2013-01-09 12:27 -0600
    Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-09 11:22 -0800
  Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-09 14:39 -0500
  Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? m.labanowicz@gmail.com - 2013-01-10 02:40 -0800
    Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-10 08:31 -0500
      Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-10 08:49 -0500
        Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? m.labanowicz@gmail.com - 2013-01-10 06:48 -0800
          Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-10 10:33 -0500
      Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-11 08:19 -0800
        Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-11 12:46 -0500
          Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-11 14:04 -0800
            Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2013-01-11 22:42 +0000
              Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2013-01-12 01:44 +0000
            Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-11 19:30 -0500
              Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-11 20:11 -0500
              Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2013-01-12 01:17 +0000
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-11 20:46 -0500
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2013-01-12 03:14 +0000
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-12 14:17 -0800
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-12 18:02 -0500
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-12 15:13 -0800
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-13 16:36 -0500
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-13 15:39 -0800
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-13 19:17 -0500
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-13 16:57 -0800
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-13 20:50 -0500
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-13 19:08 -0800
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-14 00:00 -0500
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2013-01-14 21:21 +0000
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-14 17:50 -0500
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2013-01-14 01:23 +0000
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-13 21:04 -0500
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-13 19:13 -0800
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2013-01-14 21:37 +0000
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-11 18:28 -0800
              Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2013-01-11 18:40 -0800
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-12 04:30 -0500
    Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2013-01-10 14:37 +0000
      Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? m.labanowicz@gmail.com - 2013-01-10 06:51 -0800
        Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? m.labanowicz@gmail.com - 2013-01-10 07:41 -0800
          Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2013-01-10 16:55 +0000
          Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2013-01-10 17:41 -0500
            Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? m.labanowicz@gmail.com - 2013-01-11 03:03 -0800
              Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? m.labanowicz@gmail.com - 2013-01-11 04:14 -0800
                Re: [MUDFLAP] Is sizeof(ARRAY[0]) equivalent to sizeof(*ARRAY) ? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2013-01-11 08:32 -0500

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