Re: Simple question regarding the use of ;


"Stephen Sprunk" <stephen@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MgV6l.4136$jZ1.316@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Andrew wrote:
Hello,
I have been doing some microprocessor programming, and I have run into
some variations in the way people use the semi-colon. Please tell me
the difference between these two statements.

1. while(1)
{
value = read_adc(1);
}

2. while(1)
{
value = read_adc(1);
};

Is the semi-colon on statement 2 doing anything? The code seems to

A semicolon terminates a simple statement, as in "value = read_adc(1);". A
compound statement is enclosed by '{' and '}' and contains zero or more
simple or compound statement; there is no need for a ';' to terminate a
compound statement, because the '}' does that.

I'm not sure that was the reason. Otherwise you could say the last (simple) statement in a {...} block doesn't need a terminating semicolon because the } does that job too. Then the semicolon reverts to a statement separator.

I think that {...} statements not needing a semicolon terminator is just
another oddity of C.

--
Bartc

.

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