#define TRUE !FALSE vs #define TRUE 1

Question

Putting aside the fact that since c99 the stdbool.h has existed, when defining macros to handle Boolean types in C is there any difference between the following?

#define FALSE 0

#define TRUE 1       // Option 1 
#define TRUE !FALSE  // Option 2

From the live example here, it doesn't seem to make a difference. Is there a technical benefit to either option? (Not including the fact that the second example would work better with c++ bool objects.)

Answer 1

ISO C and C99 both define ! like so.

The result of the logical negation operator ! is 0 if the value of its operand compares unequal to 0, 1 if the value of its operand compares equal to 0. The result has type int . The expression !E is equivalent to (0==E).

So !0 evaluates to 1. Given a standards compliant C compiler both your options will have the same result. In addition there's no runtime penalty, compilers will constant fold !0 to 1 at compile time.

---

If you want to take this to the logical extreme and make no assumptions about what true or false are...

#define TRUE  (1==1)
#define FALSE (!TRUE)

This has the advantage of always being true no matter the language. For example, in shell 0 is usually considered "true" or "not an error".

This sort of thing is an anachronism from a time when C did not have an agreed upon standard. For example, the first edition of Code Complete advocates this on page 369. When it was published back in 1993 there was a good chance your C compiler was not going to be ISO compliant and stdbool.h did not exist. "Code Complete" is also intended for the polyglot programmer working in many different languages. Some, like shell and Lisp, define truth differently.

Answer 2

There is no benefit to option 2, as ! 0 is guaranteed by the C standard to evaluate to 1.

Defining TRUE in that manner is a staple of old sources, presumably in an attempt to follow the style guide that calls for avoiding "magical constants" whenever possible.

Answer 3

#define FALSE 0

#define TRUE 1       // Option 1 
#define TRUE !FALSE  // Option 2

There is no difference in the values. Both 1 and !0 are constant expressions of type int with the same value, 1 (by the Standard's definition of the semantics of the ! operator).

There is a possible difference in that the second definition is not properly parenthesized. Remember that macro expansion is performed textually. Expanding an unparenthesized macro in the middle of an expression can lead to operator precedence problems. I've written up a contrived example here.

Since the unary ! operator has very high precedence, you're not likely to run into a problem. The only case I can think of is if you use it as a prefix to the indexing operator. For example, given:

int arr[] = { 10, 20 };

Option 1 gives:

TRUE[arr] == 20

while option 2 gives:

TRUE[arr] == 0

To see why, remember that array indexing is commutative (see this question and my answer, and that the indexing operator [] binds more tightly than !.

The lessons here are:

1. For any macro that's intended to be used as an expression, the entire macro definition should be enclosed in parentheses -- even if you can't think of a case where it would matter.

2. Keep It Simple. In C, 0 is the only false value, and 1 is the canonical true value. (Any non-zero value is "true", but the built-in "Boolean" operators always yield 0 or 1.) Using the ! operator to define TRUE in terms of FALSE (or vice versa) is just an unnecessary complication.

Use <stdbool.h> if you can. If you can't (because you're stuck with a pre-C99 compiler), I recommend this:

typedef enum { false, true } bool;

It's not quite the same as C99's _Bool / bool (conversions to this bool type aren't normalized to 0 or 1), but it's close enough for almost all purposes.

Answer 4

Not much difference.

#define TRUE 1 has a slight advantage over #define TRUE !FALSE in that 1 is a single item unaffected by operator precedence.

!FALSE could be (!FALSE) to cope with arcane code that attempts to use ++ -- [] . ->, which have higher precedence next to FALSE.

Answer 5

In the C language, TRUE is properly defined as (!FALSE) because while zero (0) is FALSE and FALSE is zero (0), any other value is TRUE. You can use almost any variable as a boolean expression, and if it is non-zero the value of the expression is TRUE. A NULL pointer is zero for just that reason. So is the end-of-string character ('\0'). There is a great deal of code written to take advantage of that fact. Consider:

while ( *d++ = *s++ ); 

The copy will end when the end-of-string character is copied. This idiom is very common. Never mind the buffer size issues.

This is one reason why it is a bad idea to test for equality to TRUE if you do not have a modern dedicated boolean type where the only possible values are TRUE and FALSE. I suggest you make it a habit to test for inequality to FALSE anyway, for safety's sake. You may not always get to work with the new and shiny.

Answer 6

No much difference. But I think #define TRUE 1 is better.

If you use #define TRUE !FALSE:

FALSE is 0 and TRUE is all numbers expect 0.

If you use #define TRUE 1:

FALSE is 0 and TRUE is 1. No problem.

Answer 7

They are just same.

• !0 is 1 so !FALSE is 1

#define TRUE !FALSE has no technical benefit at all although it existed for along time and appeared many where.

#define TRUE !FALSE can be misunderstood, one could think that TRUE represents every value which not 0.

• Only 1 equals to TRUE, others values like 2,3, 255... (which !=0) does not equal to TRUE

To prevent this misunderstanding, many organizations require not using #define TRUE !FALSE any more or comparison to TRUE should be changed to !FALSE:

// Should not     
if (var_bool == TRUE) {
...
}

//Should    
if (var_bool != FALSE) {
...
}