++i will increment the value of i, and then return the incremented value.
i = 1; j = ++i; (i is 2, j is 2)
i++ will increment the value of i, but return the original value that i held before being incremented.
i = 1; j = i++; (i is 2, j is 1)
For a for loop, either works. ++i seems more common, perhaps because that is what is used in
In any case, follow the guideline "prefer ++i over i++" and you won't go wrong.
There's a couple of comments regarding the efficiency of ++i and i++. In any non-student-project compiler, there will be no performance difference. You can verify this by looking at the generated code, which will be identical.
The efficiency question is interesting... here's my attempt at an answer:
(First, it is far from obvious that ++i is more efficient than i++, at least where integer variables are concerned.
And :So the question one should be asking is not which of these two operations is faster, it is which of these two operations expresses more accurately what you are trying to accomplish. I submit that if you are not using the value of the expression, there is never a reason to use i++ instead of ++i, because there is never a reason to copy the value of a variable, increment the variable, and then throw the copy away.
So, if the resulting value is not used, I would use ++i. But not because it is more efficient: because it correctly states my intent.)
As operator++() is a function and the compiler can't know to optimize away the creation of a temporary object to hold the intermediate value.https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24853/c-what-is-the-difference-between-i-and-istackoverflow.com