Question

I am trying to write a code for a problem in C. The code is as follows:

#include<stdio.h>
int cop(int a,int b)
{
    int c,d,e,f,g;
    if(a>b)
    {   
        c=a;
        a=b;
        b=c;
    }
    while(c!=0)
    {
        c=b%a;
        b=a;
        a=c;
    }
    return b;
}

int main()
{
    int i=1, j=1, k, a, b, c, d, e, f, g=1;

    scanf("%d",&k);
    int q=0;
    for(q=k;q>0;q--)
    {
        scanf("%d",&a);
        while(g==1)
        {
            b=j+i;
            i=j;
            j=b;
            g=cop(j,a);
            printf("%d\n",g);
        }
        printf("%d %d\n",g,j);
        j=1;i=1;g=1;
    }

return 0;
}       

When I give input as 3 3 5 161 it was printing

1
3
3 3
1
1
5
5 5
1
1
1
1
1
7
7 21

and when i comment out the statement printf("%d\n",g) and execute with the same input i get the output as follows:

3 3
5 3
161 3

So, my doubt is why I am not getting:-

3 3
5 5
7 21

Answer 1

foo.c: In function 'cop':
foo.c:4: warning: 'c' may be used uninitialized in this function

Does this help?

You’re depending on an uninitialized value in your function (in some cases). This means that the extra call to printf could dirty a register or a stack value and that will change how your function behaves.

Strictly speaking it’s an undefined behavior and you just got a lesson on how undefined behavior can look like – unrelated function calls change how the undefined behavior behaves.