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Re: st: Help needed to understand behavior of Mata's


From   [email protected] (William Gould, Stata)
To   Statalist <[email protected]>
Subject   Re: st: Help needed to understand behavior of Mata's
Date   Tue, 16 May 2006 09:11:08 -0500

Concerning Joseph Coveney's <[email protected]> question about 

>       : i = 1
>
>       : (i, ++i, i, i++, i)
>              1   2   3   4   5
>           +---------------------+
>         1 |  2   2   2   2   2  |
>           +---------------------+
>
> and
>
>       : i = 1
>
>       : (i, i, ++i, i, i++, i)
>              1   2   3   4   5   6
>           +-------------------------+
>         1 |  1   1   2   2   2   2  |
>           +-------------------------+

I have now changed -help [M-2] op_increment- help file from talking about
bad style to saying, don't do it:

    ++i, i++, --i, and i-- should be the only reference to i in the
    expression.  Do not code, for instance.

            x[i++] = y[i]

            x[++i] = y[i]

            x[i] = y[i++]

            x[i] = y[++i]

    The value of i in the above expressions is formally undefined; whatever is
    its value, you cannot depend on that value being obtained by earlier or
    later versions of the compiler.  Instead code

            i++ ; x[i] = y[i]

    or code 

            x[i] = y[i] ; i++

    according to the desired outcome.

    It is, however, perfectly reasonable to code 

            x[i++] = y[j++]

    That is, multiple ++ and -- operators may occur in the same expression, it
    is multiple references to the target of the ++ and -- that must be
    avoided.

The fact is that when and where ++ and -- operators are actually evaluated 
is devlish to figure out:  ++ and -- are designed to be fast, and it all 
depends on efficiency considerations.  All you know for certain is 
that when you code 

      ... x[i++] ...

is that x[i] will be used in the expression and that i will be incremented 
sometime after that, in that expression.  When you code 

      ... x[++i] ...

you know that i will be incremented sometime before x[i] is evaulated.

Moreover, it's even more complicated, because Mata does not always evaluate
expressions from left to right.  When you code,

        (<exp1>) <op> (<exp2>)

one naturally assumes that Mata compiles <exp1> before <exp2>, and thus
evaluates <exp1> before <exp2>.  That may not be true.  Based on efficiency
and other considerations, Mata can decide to evaluate <exp2> first.

-- Bill
[email protected]
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