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Comment by tom_mellior | Hacker News Reader

I don't have a copy of K&R handy, but I feel like I would remember if it really had an example like this nested three levels deep. I would be grateful if someone could check.

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§ 1.5.3 Line Counting

  #include <stdio.h>

  /* count lines in input */
  main()
  {
      int c, nl;
      nl = 0;
      while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
          if (c == '\n')
              ++nl;
      printf("%d\n", nl);
  }

§ 1.5.4 Word Counting

  #include <stdio.h>

  #define IN   1  /* inside a word */
  #define OUT  0  /* outside a word */

  /* count lines, words, and characters in input */
  main()
  {
      int c, nl, nw, nc, state;

      state = OUT;
      nl = nw = nc = 0;
      while ((c = getchar()) != EOF) {
          ++nc;
          if (c == '\n')
              ++nl;
          if (c == ' ' || c == '\n' || c == '\t')
              state = OUT;
          else if (state == OUT) {
              state = IN;
              ++nw;
          }
      }
      printf("%d %d %d\n", nl, nw, nc);
  }

Also, see § 1.6 Arrays, § 2.8 Increment and Decrement Operators, etc.

By the way, I would always use brace while working on a team project where there are other developers involved. But this is a one-time, personal, and hobby project where I am the only developer and I prefer to choose the K&R style when nobody else is involved.

Wow, that was quick, thanks. Though the first example is only two levels deep and also less complex than your code in question, which has a loop in the else part of an if in a loop...

The second example uses braces (as it must), so it's not an example of what I was asking for.

Okay, I was counting the nesting depth incorrectly. Here are a few more examples:

§ 3.8 Goto and labels

  found = 0;
  for (i = 0; i < n && !found; i++)
      for (j = 0; j < m && !found; j++)
          if (a[i] == b[j])
              found = 1;

  if (found)
      /* got one: a[i-1] == b[j-1] */
      ...
  else
      /* didn't find any common element */

§ 6.3 Arrays of Structures

  /* count C keywords */
  main()
  {
      int n;
      char word[MAXWORD];

      while (getword(word, MAXWORD) != EOF)
          if (isalpha(word[0]))
              if ((n = binsearch(word, keytab, NKEYS)) >= 0)
                  keytab[n].count++;
      for (n = 0; n < NKEYS; n++)
          if (keytab[n].count > 0)
              printf("%4d %s\n",
                  keytab[n].count, keytab[n].word);
      return 0;
  }

Thanks. I still find these a bit more palatable than your loop-in-an-else-in-a-loop (there are no elses and no loops inside ifs here), but yeah, I can imagine that K&R might have written it the same way as you did.

The second example does lack braces in two nested 'if' statements. Did you ignore that? Granted it is not three levels deep and granted there is a brace in the 'else' part but that's no reason to ignore the fact that K&R does in fact omit the braces for nested 'if-else' statements.

Demanding now that the nesting has to be less than three levels deep to omit braces is just moving the goalposts.

> nested 'if-else' statements

Yeah, "else if" is a special case where I wouldn't put braces even if I prefer them everywhere else.

> Demanding now that the nesting has to be less than three levels deep

I specifically asked for a three levels before, in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19162933, not "now".

Your original critique from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19161365 said this:

> Yes, C doesn't force you to use braces here, but this is really overdoing it.

It said nothing about nesting level depth. The question of nesting level appeared later in a child comment of yours which I believe is moving the goalposts. Sorry, I didn't make this clear in my previous comment.

Having said that, I do agree with you that braces are helpful. But then, we should all decide the pants policy in our own homes: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/nodejs/MWaivVTirPY/0pnRjKsgg...

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