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235

if statement == false (i.imgflip.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by tatterdemalion to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If reading the code as non-programming logic, that conclusion makes sense, yes. However, if, in most syntaxes, is a type of flow control. What it wraps has no meaning to the if statement itself. Reading it through the lens of an interpreter/compiler makes it clear. The statement is approximately:

If and only if a is equal to 1, do the thing {
  The thing is: assign the variable b with the value 1
}

To one not familiar with how programs are executed, it would make sense that the return value could be 1. But understanding how flow control works in programming, makes this interpretation a challenge.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't think you're picking up what I'm putting down. I'm not arguing that the return value can be 1, I'm well aware that it can't — I wrote the function so that it will always return 0. It only returns 1 if we make an incorrect assumption (and mix up semantics with formal logic, but that's another conversation), the incorrect assumption being "if is equivalent to if, and only if"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sorry! I sometimes get carried away on correctness.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I mean, making an assumption and arriving to a contradiction is as correct as a proof gets.