What is the difference between if(CONST==variable) or if(variable==CONST)?

Question

Is there a difference in the order of the comparison operator?

#define CONST_VALUE 5

int variable;

...

if ( variable == CONST_VALUE )   // Method 1
...

O         


        

Answer 1

Others already pointed out the reason. = / == confusion. I prefer the first version because it follows the thought process more closely. Some compiler alleviate the confusion of = and == by giving a warning when it encounters something like

if(a=b)

in this case if you really wanted to do the assignation you're forced to write

if((a=b)) 

which I would write then as

if( (a=b) != 0) 

to avoid the confusion.

This said, we had in our code 1 case where we had a =/== confusion and writing it the other way round wouldn't not have aided as it was a comparison between vars.