Question

What are four different C instructions to increment a variable?

1) ++x
2) x++
3) x += 1
4) x = x + 1

Answer 1

In C programming, a variable can be incremented using pre-increment (++x), post-increment (x++), addition assignment (x += 1), or simple addition (x = x + 1), all of which increase the variable's value by one.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question revolves around various C programming instructions to increment a variable. In C, incrementing a variable can be done using several methods. Here are four different ways you can increase the value of a variable (in this case x) by one:

1. Pre-increment: ++x; This instruction increases x by one before using its value.
2. Post-increment: x++; This instruction increases x by one after using its current value.
3. Addition assignment: x += 1; This instruction adds one to x, effectively incrementing it.
4. Simple addition: x = x + 1; This instruction also increases x by one through simple arithmetic addition.

All of these instructions will leave x incremented by one, but pre-increment and post-increment can have different side effects if used in expressions, due to the order in which the variable is incremented and evaluated.