In a “for” statement, should I use `!=` or `<`?

Question

I\'ve seen both of these two for statements:

for(i=0;i<10;i++) 

for(i=0;i!=10;i++)

I know they all stop when i reaches 10 , bu

Answer 1

!= would allow the test to evaluate true if the value of i exceeds 10, while < would cause it to evaluate false if i exceeded 10 or merely became equal to it.

If the value of i might change within the body of the loop, this could be a consideration.

If, however, you're just looking to do something a set number of times, < is more descriptive, but either would suffice. != should, for simple step-through-10-items-and-do-grunt-work kinds of loops, be considered suboptimal in terms of being explicit about your intent.