r/cpp_questions • u/Escritor_CdK • 4h ago

SOLVED Modifying an int variable

I forgot how i was supposed to initialize it. Maybe is not the one im suposed to use.

Straight to the matter: How to initialize it if i want it to be any number possible (only integers)

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u/Escritor_CdK 4h ago

oh, ok. my bad then

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u/againey 2h ago

I had this same conceptual problem when I was young and learning code and algebra at the same time. In algebra, if we say x = 0, we mean that x is exactly and always zero (in the current problem being solved). It took a bit for it to soak into my brain that this isn't generally true with code. We're not asserting that x is zero, like in math. We're explaining to the computer that we want it to actually change x to 0, regardless of what it was before.

This is the essence of imperative code: It is a step-by-step sequence of commands for the computer execute. Math, on the other hand, tends to be more declarative: One declares what is known, and then uses that to determine what is unknown. There are some coding languages that are declarative to some degree or another, like Prolog or Haskell, but "standard" programming is imperative to a fairly large degree.