Error: 'for' loop initial declaration used outside c99 mode

[Pedro Pinto]

When compiling my program i got this error:

Error: 'for' loop initial declaration used outside c99 mode
What is it and how can i solve it?

Thanks in advance!

Regards

[Keith Thompson]

"Pedro Pinto" <ku*****@gmail.comwrites:

When compiling my program i got this error:

Error: 'for' loop initial declaration used outside c99 mode
What is it and how can i solve it?

It's an error message about some code that you failed to show us. In
general, you can't expect us to know what the problem is unless you
show us the actual code as well as the error message.

In this case, you've lucked out. You probably have something like this:

...
for (int i = 0; i < N; i ++) {
...
}
...

which declares the loop variable as part of the for loop itself. This
feature was added to the language with the C99 standard; it's not
supported in C90.

You can either use C99 mode (but beware: gcc doesn't fully support
C99; see <http://gcc.gnu.org/c99status.html>), or you can re-write
the code to be compatible with C90:

...
int i;
...
for (i = 0; i < N; i ++) {
...
}
...

which is legal C99 as well.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) ks***@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

[james of tucson]

Pedro Pinto wrote:

When compiling my program i got this error:

Error: 'for' loop initial declaration used outside c99 mode
What is it and how can i solve it?

You're coming to C from a Java background, aren't you?

This is illegal in most C dialects; it is a legal C++ declaration, and
so may be accepted if you are compiling C with a C++ compiler:

for( int k=0; k<10; k++){}

I do like that syntax since it's such a common idiom to have a loop
iterator only in the scope of the loop.

[Pedro Pinto]

james of tucson escreveu:

Pedro Pinto wrote:

When compiling my program i got this error:

Error: 'for' loop initial declaration used outside c99 mode
What is it and how can i solve it?

You're coming to C from a Java background, aren't you?

This is illegal in most C dialects; it is a legal C++ declaration, and
so may be accepted if you are compiling C with a C++ compiler:

for( int k=0; k<10; k++){}

I do like that syntax since it's such a common idiom to have a loop
iterator only in the scope of the loop.

Hi again!

Yes, the issue was that i was declaring the int i inside the for! =)

And yes, i first started programming in Java, thus my dificulties in
understanding certain apects of C! Thanks a million

[Richard Bos]

james of tucson <jmcgill@[go_ahead_and_spam_me].arizona.eduwrote:

Pedro Pinto wrote:

When compiling my program i got this error:

Error: 'for' loop initial declaration used outside c99 mode

What is it and how can i solve it?

You're coming to C from a Java background, aren't you?

This is illegal in most C dialects; it is a legal C++ declaration, and
so may be accepted if you are compiling C with a C++ compiler:

Unless you severely hobble your C, that is not generally possible.

for( int k=0; k<10; k++){}

A better solution is to _read_ the error message. It clearly (and
correctly) states that this construct is not legal ISO C outside C99;
the obvious (and also correct) conclusion is that it _is_ legal ISO C99.
There are two reasonable solutions to this problem:

- stick with C89 (or even pre-ANSI C), and move the declaration outside
the for loop, to the beginning of any available block (probably the
function block);
- read the documentation of your compiler, which evidently does have a
C99 mode, and use that mode.

Richard

[Ian Collins]

Richard Bos wrote:

james of tucson <jmcgill@[go_ahead_and_spam_me].arizona.eduwrote:

>>Pedro Pinto wrote:

>>>When compiling my program i got this error:

Error: 'for' loop initial declaration used outside c99 mode

What is it and how can i solve it?

You're coming to C from a Java background, aren't you?

This is illegal in most C dialects; it is a legal C++ declaration, and
so may be accepted if you are compiling C with a C++ compiler:

Unless you severely hobble your C, that is not generally possible.

Severely hobble is going a bit far, just avoid the subset of C that
doesn't intersect with C++.
--
Ian Collins.

[Richard Bos]

Ian Collins <ia******@hotmail.comwrote:

Richard Bos wrote:

james of tucson <jmcgill@[go_ahead_and_spam_me].arizona.eduwrote:

>This is illegal in most C dialects; it is a legal C++ declaration, and
so may be accepted if you are compiling C with a C++ compiler:

Unless you severely hobble your C, that is not generally possible.

Severely hobble is going a bit far, just avoid the subset of C that
doesn't intersect with C++.

That's what I said. No properly written malloc() calls, for starters.

Richard

[Andrew Poelstra]

On Thu, 2006-11-02 at 21:42 -0800, Pedro Pinto wrote:

When compiling my program i got this error:

Error: 'for' loop initial declaration used outside c99 mode

This means that you did

for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
....

Where you declared the variable i after you executed some
statements. The mixing of declarations and code is illegal
in C90 (the "old" standard), but is legal in C99 (the new
standard).

--
Andrew Poelstra <http://www.wpsoftware.net>
For email, use 'apoelstra' at the above site.
"You're only smart on the outside." -anon.

[Ian Collins]

Richard Bos wrote:

Ian Collins <ia******@hotmail.comwrote:

>>Richard Bos wrote:

>>>james of tucson <jmcgill@[go_ahead_and_spam_me].arizona.eduwrote:

This is illegal in most C dialects; it is a legal C++ declaration, and
so may be accepted if you are compiling C with a C++ compiler:

Unless you severely hobble your C, that is not generally possible.

Severely hobble is going a bit far, just avoid the subset of C that
doesn't intersect with C++.

That's what I said. No properly written malloc() calls, for starters.

Which may be a small price to pay.

Just to put a few things in perspective, let me describe a real life
situation where compiling an embedded C application with a C++ compiler
on the development platform (note: *not* on the target) helped the
development process.

There were three main reasons, firstly I wanted to test device drivers
down to simulated device level. To do this I provided two definitions
of the device registers, in C a struct of bit fields and in C++ a struct
of structs where each bit was a member function, so setting a bit caused
the simulation to react as the real device would.

Second, the test rig had to work with misaligned data (sent to and from
a target system) the host compiler did not support, so again in C the
packets were represented as structs of POD and in C++ as structs of
structs that packed and unpacked the data.

Third, we wanted the extra static type safety offered by C++. We made
heavy use of enums as function parameters and the stricter conversion
rules prevented inappropriate types being passed.

This may be a specialised case, but I have used the same techniques for
many years in the development and testing of embedded systems.

None of this host based testing is a substitute for rigorous acceptance
testing of the target system, built with the target C compiler, it
merely augments it and helps with the development.

--
Ian Collins.