–> (Goes to) in C/ C++

–> is called as “Goes to” in C/ C++ and compiles fine in every compiler including GCC and MSVN. This operator (–>) is not described in any C/ C++ standards as it is not an actual operator rather than a mix of two operators (–) and (>).

Program 1:

Below is the program to illustrate the goes to ‘–>’ operator:

C

// C program to illustrate the use of
// goes to (-->) operator
#include <stdio.h>

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    // Initialize a variable x
    int x = 10;

    // x goes to 0
    while (x-- > 0) {
        printf("%d ", x);
    }

    // Print value of x after
    // loop exists
    printf("\n%d ", x);
}

C++

// C++ program to illustrate the use
// of goes to (-->) operator
#include <stdio.h>

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    // Initialize a variable x
    int x = 10;

    // x goes to 0
    while (x-- > 0) {
        cout << ' ' << x;
    }

    // Print value of x after
    // loop exists
    cout << "\n"
         << x;
}

Output:

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 
-1

Explanation: As compilers try to parse expressions to the biggest token by using the left-right rule.  So, here the tokens are:

• Token 1: x
• Token 2: —
• Token 3: >
• Token 4: 0

And the code compiles as:

((x–) > 0)

Program 2:

Below is the program to mix other conditional operators with postfix and prefix increment or decrement like (>–):

C

// C program to illustrate the use
// of goes to (-->) operator
#include <stdio.h>

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    // Initialize a variable x
    int x = 10;

    // x goes to 0
    while (0 < --x) {
        printf("%d ", x);
    }

    // Print value of x after
    // loop exists
    printf("\n%d ", x);
}

C++

// C++ program to illustrate the use
// of goes to (-->) operator
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    // Initialize a variable x
    int x = 10;

    // x goes to 0
    while (0 < --x) {
        cout << ' ' << x;
    }

    // Print value of x after
    // loop exists
    cout << '\n'
         << x;
}

Output:

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 
0

Below is the variation of the postfix and prefix increment/decrement that can be used with this operator:

	Postfix	Prefix
Decrement	–>	>–
	–>=	>=–
Increment	++>	>++
	++>=	>=++

Program 3: Below is the program to illustrate the use of the (–) operator:

C

// C program to illustrate the use
// of goes to (--) operator
#include <stdio.h>

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    // Initialize a variable x
    int x = 10;

    while (x--) {
        printf("%d ", x);
    }

    // Print value of x after
    // loop exists
    printf("\n%d ", x);
}

C++

// C++ program to illustrate the use
// of goes to (--) operator
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    // Initialize a variable x
    int x = 10;

    // x goes to 0
    while (x--) {
        cout << ' ' << x;
    }

    // Print value of x after
    // loop exists
    cout << ' ' << x;
}

Output:

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 
-1

Program 4:

The value of increment and decrement in prefix operations in C++ can be controlled as shown in the below program:

C++

// C++ program to illustrate the use
// of (----------) operator
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    // Initialize a variable x
    int x = 100;

    while (0 < --------------------x) {
        cout << x << " ";
    }

    // Print the value of x
    // after the loop exists
    cout << endl
         << x;

    return 0;
}

Output:

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 
0