Question

A function returns TRUE on failure and FALSE on success.

I see some such functions do this towards end of itself:

return return_code != 0;

or

return (return_code != 0);

And in this function, at each error case, it returns TRUE – which is fine and what it should do in case of error.

But what does above code signify? Is it trying to make sure that return_code is FALSE – explicitly?

Answer 1

Both depend on the value of return_code:

return_code = 0;

return(return_code != 0); // returns false
return(return_code == 0); // returns true

and

return_code = "anything but a zero";

return(return_code != 0); // returns true
return(return_code == 0); // returns false