bool to int conversion

c++ c c99
pic11 picture pic11 · Mar 20, 2011 · Viewed 146k times · Source

How portable is this conversion. Can I be sure that both assertions pass?

int x = 4<5;
assert(x==1);

x = 4>5;
assert(x==0);

Don't ask why. I know that it is ugly. Thank you.

Answer

Nawaz picture Nawaz · Mar 20, 2011 
int x = 4<5;

Completely portable. Standard conformant. bool to int conversion is implicit!

§4.7/4 from the C++ Standard says (Integral Conversion)

If the source type is bool, the value false is converted to zero and the value true is converted to one.

As for C, as far as I know there is no bool in C. (before 1999) So bool to int conversion is relevant in C++ only. In C, 4<5 evaluates to int value, in this case the value is 1, 4>5 would evaluate to 0.

EDIT: Jens in the comment said, C99 has _Bool type. bool is a macro defined in stdbool.h header file. true and false are also macro defined in stdbool.h.

§7.16 from C99 says,

The macro bool expands to _Bool.

[..] true which expands to the integer constant 1, false which expands to the integer constant 0,[..]

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