Question

I personally use while(true) for endless loops, but I’ve seen examples online that use for(;;). Practically speaking, are there any differences between the two, or is it just a stylistic thing?

Answer 1

No difference. I checked the IL. I wrote two function as following.

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        System.Console.ReadLine();
    }

    static void EndlessWhile()
    {
        while (true)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Hello");
        }
    }

    static void EndlessFor()
    {
        for (; ; )
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Hello");
        }
    }
}

// IL of both the functions are mentioned below.

.method private hidebysig static void  EndlessWhile() cil managed
{
  // Code size       20 (0x14)
  .maxstack  1
  .locals init ([0] bool CS$4$0000)
  IL_0000:  nop
  IL_0001:  br.s       IL_0010
  IL_0003:  nop
  IL_0004:  ldstr      "Hello"
  IL_0009:  call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string)
  IL_000e:  nop
  IL_000f:  nop
  IL_0010:  ldc.i4.1
  IL_0011:  stloc.0
  IL_0012:  br.s       IL_0003
} // end of method Program::EndlessWhile

.method private hidebysig static void  EndlessFor() cil managed
{
  // Code size       20 (0x14)
  .maxstack  1
  .locals init ([0] bool CS$4$0000)
  IL_0000:  nop
  IL_0001:  br.s       IL_0010
  IL_0003:  nop
  IL_0004:  ldstr      "Hello"
  IL_0009:  call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string)
  IL_000e:  nop
  IL_000f:  nop
  IL_0010:  ldc.i4.1
  IL_0011:  stloc.0
  IL_0012:  br.s       IL_0003
} // end of method Program::EndlessFor