Should I use C(99) booleans ? ( also c++ booleans in c++ ?)

Question

I haven't done much c programming but when I do when I need a false I put 0 when I want true I put 1, (ex. while(1)), in other cases I use things like "while(ptr)" or "if(x)".

Should I try using C99 booleans, should I recommend them to others if I'm helping people new to programming learn c basics(thinking of cs 1?? students)?

I'm pretty sure the Visual Studio compiler supports c99 bools, but do a lot of projects (open source and c apps in industry) compile for c89? If I don't use C bools should I at least do something like #define TRUE 1 #define FALSE 0?

Also what about c++ Booleans (for c++)?

Answer 1

Yes, you should use the language abstractions when they are available. When I use an older C compiler I still create some abstraction of a bool. Using literals in your code is a very poor practice.

Answer 2

In C++ there is no reason to not use it. In C, i only use int for this task, without any #define or something like that. Variable-names like isDefinition are clear enough to indicate what's going on, in my opinion.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with defining your own bool or using the ones of <stdbool.h>.

Answer 3

C++ booleans are fine as they are part of the language and are supported by basically any C++ compiler these days.

C99 booleans seem like a good idea but just keep in mind whether the code you write today will ever need to be used in a C89 project...

Answer 4

The compiler can do better optimization when it knows a variable is boolean. Also when using ints it's easier to introduce bugs when used in a bitwise context, as ints can be inadvertently set to values other than 1

Answer 5

Use bool in C++. It has been there for years and every C++ compiler supports it, Use it in C if your code requires other C99 features. Don't use it in pre-C99 code, since any non-zero value will be interpreted as true, and using defines may lead to bugs that are hard to track down (some C library functions are documented to return any non-zero int value, and even if it's generally poor practice to write something like

if (var==TRUE) { ... }

things like this may break, and might even behave differently under different compilers/operating systems.