Question

Having been writing Java code for many years, I was amazed when I saw this C++ statement:

int a,b;
int c = (a=1, b=a+2, b*3);

My question is: Is this a choice of coding style, or does it have a real benefit? (I am looking for a practicle use case)

I think the compiler will see it the same as the following:

int a=1, b=a+2;
int c = b*3;

(What’s the offical name for this? I assume it’s a standard C/C++ syntax.)

Answer 1

It’s the comma operator, used twice. You are correct about the result, and I don’t see much point in using it that way.