HP C A.06.05 Reference Manual

Expressions and Operators

Comma Operator (,)

Chapter 5 103

Comma Operator (,)

Syntax

exp1

exp2

Arguments

exp1

Any expression.

exp2

Any expression.

Description

Use the comma operator to separate two expressions that are to be evaluated one right after

the other. The comma operator is popular within for loops, as demonstrated by the following

example:

for (i = 10, j = 4; i * j < n; i++, j++);

In the preceding example, the comma operator allows you to initialize both i and j at the

beginning of the loop. The comma operator also allows you to increment i and j together at

the end of each loop iteration.

All expressions return values. When you use a comma operator, the expression returns the

value of the rightmost expression. For example, the following statement sets variable j to 2:

j = (x = 1, y = 2);

Assignments such as these, however, are considered poor programming style. You should

conﬁne use of the comma operator to for loops.