why does this print? (C language)

Question

Why does the following code run the while loop? I thought "mid = term" is an assignment, not a condition? Please explain. Thanks.

#include <stdio.h>

main ()
{
    int mid = 4, term = 4;

    while ( mid = term)
    printf("%d\n", --term);
}

Answer 1

The result of an assignment is the value. Therefore the expression evaluates to 4 or a non-zero and thus, in C, TRUE.