What is the meaning of '==' in C?

== is a test for equality. = is an assignment.

Any good C book should cover this (fairly early on in the book I would imagine).

For example:

int i = 3;                       // sets i to 3.
if (i == 3) printf("i is 3\n");  // prints it.

Just watch out for the heinous:

if (i = 4) { }

which is valid C and frequently catches people out. This actually assigns 4 to the variable i and uses that as the truth value in the if statement. This leads a lot of people to use the uglier but safer:

if (4 == i) {}

which, if you accidentally use = instead of ==, is a compile-time error rather than something that will bite you on the backside while your program is running :-)

The logical-or operator is two vertical bar characters, one after the other, not a single character. Here it is lined up with a logical-and, and a variable called b4:

||
&&
b4

No magic there.


a == b is a test if a and b are equal.

a = b is called an assignment, which means to set the variable a to having the same value as b.

(You type | with Shift-\ in the US keyboard layout.)


== tests equality = assigns a value

neither are related to ||

Tags:

C

Syntax