Why choosing for (;;){} over while(1)? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Is “for(;;)” faster than “while (TRUE)”? If not, why do people use it?

I see this

for (;;)
{
  // Some code here
} 

quite often. But what benefits does it offer and why just not choose while(1){}?

Answer 1

They produce identical code. There are a couple of reasons why you might prefer for (;;) but it is all just personal preference:

1. Some compilers will warn you about conditions that are always true. for(;;) will not have that problem.

2. for (;;) literally reads as "Just loop forever!", whereas while (true) still appears to have some kind of condition.

I say pick one and stick with it. It doesn't matter as long as you don't switch between them arbitrarily.

Answer 2

This is the form of the forever loop that Kernighan and Ritchie used in their book^*. There is absolutely no other reason to prefer one form over the other.

^* Section 3.5 on While and For loops, example number four.