Is there a technical reason to use > (<) instead of != when incrementing by 1 in a 'for' loop?

Question

I almost never see a `for` loop like this: for (int i = 0; 5 != i; ++i) {}Is there a technical reason to use `>` or `<` instead of `!=` when incrementing by 1 in a `for` loop? Or this is more of a convention?

Answer 1

Well, it better describes your loop condition doesn't it - and kinda feels safer, no ;-)

// 1) from 1 to 10

for(int i = 1 ; i < 11 ; ++i ) {

// loop body

}

// 2) from 1 to i NOT 11 ??

for(int i = 1 ; i != 11 ; ++i ) {

// loop body

}

Why do I view the first loop implementation as "safer"?

Well,imagine that some odd processing on the loop caused the value of i to be set beyond 11 ...

loop condition #2 would allow us to spin into infinity - loop condition #1 would not.

But primarily, coding is largely about expressing our intent.

for(int i = 1 ; i < 11 ; ++i ) {}

is unambiguous and articulates out intent better than

for(int i = 1 ; i != 11 ; ++i ) {}