Incrementing in C++ - When to use x++ or ++x?

Question

I'm currently learning C++ and I've learned about the incrementation a while ago. I know that you can use "++x" to make the incrementation before and "x++" to do it after.

Still, I really don't know when to use either of the two... I've never really used "++x" and things always worked fine so far - so, when should I use it?

Example: In a for loop, when is it preferable to use "++x"?

Also, could someone explain exactly how the different incrementations (or decrementations) work? I would really appreciate it.

Answer 1

I agree with @BeowulfOF, though for clarity I would always advocate splitting the statements so that the logic is absolutely clear, i.e.:

i++;
x += i;

or

x += i;
i++;

So my answer is if you write clear code then this should rarely matter (and if it matters then your code is probably not clear enough).

Answer 2

Scott Meyers tells you to prefer prefix except on those occasions where logic would dictate that postfix is appropriate.

"More Effective C++" item #6 - that's sufficient authority for me.

For those who don't own the book, here are the pertinent quotes. From page 32:

From your days as a C programmer, you may recall that the prefix form of the increment operator is sometimes called "increment and fetch", while the postfix form is often known as "fetch and increment." The two phrases are important to remember, because they all but act as formal specifications...

And on page 34:

If you're the kind who worries about efficiency, you probably broke into a sweat when you first saw the postfix increment function. That function has to create a temporary object for its return value and the implementation above also creates an explicit temporary object that has to be constructed and destructed. The prefix increment function has no such temporaries...

Answer 3

It's not a question of preference, but of logic.

x++ increments the value of variable x after processing the current statement.

++x increments the value of variable x before processing the current statement.

So just decide on the logic you write.

x += ++i will increment i and add i+1 to x. x += i++ will add i to x, then increment i.

Answer 4

I just want to notice that the geneated code is offen the same if you use pre/post incrementation where the semantic (of pre/post) doesn't matter.

example:

pre.cpp:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
  int i = 13;
  i++;
  for (; i < 42; i++)
    {
      std::cout << i << std::endl;
    }
}

post.cpp:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{

  int i = 13;
  ++i;
  for (; i < 42; ++i)
    {
      std::cout << i << std::endl;
    }
}

_

$> g++ -S pre.cpp
$> g++ -S post.cpp
$> diff pre.s post.s   
1c1
<   .file   "pre.cpp"
---
>   .file   "post.cpp"

Answer 5

Postfix form of ++,-- operator follows the rule use-then-change ,

Prefix form (++x,--x) follows the rule change-then-use.

Example 1:

When multiple values are cascaded with << using cout then calculations(if any) take place from right-to-left but printing takes place from left-to-right e.g., (if val if initially 10)

 cout<< ++val<<" "<< val++<<" "<< val;

will result into

12    10    10 

Example 2:

In Turbo C++, if multiple occurrences of ++ or (in any form) are found in an expression, then firstly all prefix forms are computed then expression is evaluated and finally postfix forms are computed e.g.,

int a=10,b;
b=a++ + ++a + ++a + a;
cout<<b<<a<<endl;

It's output in Turbo C++ will be

48 13

Whereas it's output in modern day compiler will be (because they follow the rules strictly)

45 13

• Note: Multiple use of increment/decrement operators on same variable in one expression is not recommended. The handling/results of such
  expressions vary from compiler to compiler.

Answer 6

From cppreference when incrementing iterators:

You should prefer pre-increment operator (++iter) to post-increment operator (iter++) if you are not going to use the old value. Post-increment is generally implemented as follows:

   Iter operator++(int)   {
     Iter tmp(*this); // store the old value in a temporary object
     ++*this;         // call pre-increment
     return tmp;      // return the old value   }

Obviously, it's less efficient than pre-increment.

Pre-increment does not generate the temporary object. This can make a significant difference if your object is expensive to create.