In C++ why can't I write a for() loop like this: for( int i = 1, double i2 = 0;

Question

or, \"Declaring multiple variables in a for loop ist verboten\" ?!

My original code was

 for( int i = 1, int i2 = 1; 
      i2 < mid;
      i++, i         


        

Answer 1

Well, I did some more googling, and I think the answer for C++ is "for() statements are very special places" Ick.

Excerpting from an ISO spec:

for ( for-init-statement conditionopt ; expressionopt ) statement

where

for-init-statement:
expression-statement
simple-declaration

and they have to specify that

[Note: a for-init-statement ends with a semicolon. ] 

So the C++ syntax spec. is specifically hacked so that only one decl-spec (i.e. type) is allowed in the first slot. Looks like our attempts to argue from basic principles were doomed. Thanks for all the responses.