Re: else ladders practice

On 07/11/2024 12:23, Bart wrote:

On 06/11/2024 14:50, David Brown wrote:

C gets it right here.  There is no need for a return type when there is no return

 There is no return for only half the function! A function with a return type is a function that CAN return. If it can't ever return, then make it a procedure.
 Take this function where N can never be zero; is this the right way to write it in C:
     int F(int N) {
        if (N==0) unreachable();
        return abc/N;              // abc is a global with value 100
    }
 If doesn't look right. If I compile it with gcc (using __builtin_unreachable), and call F(0), then it crashes. So it doesn't do much does it?!

It looks like it needs 'else' here. If I put that in, then F(0) returns either 0 or 1, so it returns garbage, whether or not 'unreachable' is used in the branch.
So I'm struggling to see the point of it. Is it just to quieten the 'reaches end of non-void function' warning when used before the final '}'?
In any case, 'unreachable' is a misnomer. 'shouldnt_be_reachable' is more accurate.