#include <stdint.h> for (uint32_t i=0; i <= UINT32_MAX; i++) { // whatever }
Is it ok? No, because value of uint32_t will never exceed UINT32_MAX = 0xffffffff. Of course we can use larger types, like uint64_t, but on 32-bit machines this requires some additional instructions. For example gcc 4.7 compiled following code:
void loop1(void (*fun)()) { for (uint64_t i=0; i <= UINT32_MAX; i++) { fun(); } }
to:
00000000: 0: 57 push %edi 1: bf 01 00 00 00 mov $0x1,%edi 6: 56 push %esi 7: 31 f6 xor %esi,%esi 9: 53 push %ebx a: 8b 5c 24 10 mov 0x10(%esp),%ebx e: 66 90 xchg %ax,%ax 10: ff d3 call *%ebx 12: 83 c6 ff add $0xffffffff,%esi 15: 83 d7 ff adc $0xffffffff,%edi 18: 89 f8 mov %edi,%eax 1a: 09 f0 or %esi,%eax 1c: 75 f2 jne 10 1e: 5b pop %ebx 1f: 5e pop %esi 20: 5f pop %edi 21: c3 ret
TBH, I have no idea, why such weird sequence has been generated (add, adc, or, jnz). The simplest and portable solution is to detect wrap-around 32-bit value after increment:
uint32_t i=0; while (1) { // loop body i += 1; if (i == 0) // wrap-around break; }
In assembly code it's even simpler, because CPU sets the carry flag:
xor %eax, %eax loop: ; loop body add $1, %eax jnc loop