What's the best way to do a backwards loop in C/C#/C++?

Question

I need to move backwards through an array, so I have code like this:

for (int i = myArray.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
    // Do something
    myArray[i] =          


        

Answer 1

In C++ you basicially have the choice between iterating using iterators, or indices. Depending on whether you have a plain array, or a std::vector, you use different techniques.

Using std::vector

Using iterators

C++ allows you to do this using std::reverse_iterator:

for(std::vector::reverse_iterator it = v.rbegin(); it != v.rend(); ++it) {
    /* std::cout << *it; ... */
}

Using indices

The unsigned integral type returned by std::vector::size is not always std::size_t. It can be greater or less. This is crucial for the loop to work.

for(std::vector::size_type i = someVector.size() - 1; 
    i != (std::vector::size_type) -1; i--) {
    /* std::cout << someVector[i]; ... */
}

It works, since unsigned integral types values are defined by means of modulo their count of bits. Thus, if you are setting -N, you end up at (2 ^ BIT_SIZE) -N

Using Arrays

Using iterators

We are using std::reverse_iterator to do the iterating.

for(std::reverse_iterator it(a + sizeof a / sizeof *a), itb(a); 
    it != itb; 
    ++it) {
    /* std::cout << *it; .... */
}

Using indices

We can safely use std::size_t here, as opposed to above, since sizeof always returns std::size_t by definition.

for(std::size_t i = (sizeof a / sizeof *a) - 1; i != (std::size_t) -1; i--) {
   /* std::cout << a[i]; ... */
}

Avoiding pitfalls with sizeof applied to pointers

Actually the above way of determining the size of an array sucks. If a is actually a pointer instead of an array (which happens quite often, and beginners will confuse it), it will silently fail. A better way is to use the following, which will fail at compile time, if given a pointer:

template char (& array_size(T(&)[N]) )[N];

It works by getting the size of the passed array first, and then declaring to return a reference to an array of type char of the same size. char is defined to have sizeof of: 1. So the returned array will have a sizeof of: N * 1, which is what we are looking for, with only compile time evaluation and zero runtime overhead.

Instead of doing

(sizeof a / sizeof *a)

Change your code so that it now does

(sizeof array_size(a))