Uses of C comma operator [duplicate]

Answer 1

I've used it for a macro to "assign a value of any type to an output buffer pointed to by a char*, and then increment the pointer by the required number of bytes", like this:

#define ASSIGN_INCR(p, val, type)  ((*((type) *)(p) = (val)), (p) += sizeof(type))

Using the comma operator means the macro can be used in expressions or as statements as desired:

if (need_to_output_short)
    ASSIGN_INCR(ptr, short_value, short);

latest_pos = ASSIGN_INCR(ptr, int_value, int);

send_buff(outbuff, (int)(ASSIGN_INCR(ptr, last_value, int) - outbuff));

It reduced some repetitive typing but you do have to be careful it doesn't get too unreadable.

Please see my overly-long version of this answer here.