Compound Arithmetic STMT

[kylomas]

AI Experts,

I have the following code fragment which yields the expected result, but, I vaguely recall reading a thread cautioning against compound arithmetic.

I think that this works because "order of precedence" is not a factor as all operators are evaluated equaly. Is this correct or is this producing coincidentally correct results (luck)?

for $j = ubound($array) - 1 - $target - 1 to 0 step - 1
            $str &= $array[ubound($array) - 1 - $j]
        Next

This code is from a solution that I offered in this post

kylomas

[BrewManNH]

Assuming $target = 5 and Ubound($array) = 26 for this example, the math would go like this at each step

• 26 - 1 (Ubound($array) - 1)
• 25 - 5 (25 - $target)
• 20 - 1 = 19 (20 - 1)

If that's how you were expecting the math to work out then you're correct. If on the other hand you were expecting the result to work out this way you would need some parentheses.

• 26 -1 (Ubound($array) - 1)
• 5 - 1 ($target -1)
• 25 - 4 = 21 (result of step 1 minus the result of step 2)

Edited January 26, 2011 by BrewManNH

[kylomas]

brewmanh,

Yes, of course. I think my question was more of syntax, however, your illustration helps seperate the forest from the trees.

kylomas