Help with understanding

[Shipoopi]

There's this line of code that I don't understand:

  int a=0, b=2, c=4;
if (a = c-b)
cout<< b << endl;
else
cout<< c << endl;
cout << (a == b-c);

First, a isn't equal to c-b, so why would it cout b? and also I thought the last line would cout a 2, but that's not the case. can someone please explain why?

[wildblue]

if (a = c-b)

this assigns the value of c-b to a. is this supposed to compare equality (==)?


edit:
this will print the result of comparison, 0 = false, 1 = true
cout << (a == b-c);

[Shipoopi]

So just want to be clear:

the first a = c-b assigns the value 2 to a

and because the value has been assigned, the printed result of a == c-b becomes true?

second question, kinda unrelated

what does *(arr+i) mean?

[wildblue]

Is that if condition correct? You usually don't want to assign values in an if condition, you want to compare values. Is it meant to compare the value of a (0) to c-b (2)?

a == c-b isn't the comparison being done there, it's a == b-c.

[Shipoopi]

No, the IF statement isn't comparing the value, it's actually assigning a to c-b. It's my first time seeing it, so wasn't sure how to approach it.

[wildblue]

First, a isn't equal to c-b, so why would it cout b?

You seemed to be expecting it to be making a comparison and that's what would usually happen in an if condition. It's a common typo to use = when == should be used, that's why I asked if the code was intended to assign or compare.