I'm new to C, what does it mean when you make a variable equal to another variable and 0.0 at the same time?

Question

Code provided in my lecture

I'm very curious about how does the "term" variable work in the first line of code when it codes: double pi = 0.0, term;

I also am unable to run this code on VSCode IDE Error Code C4578

I can't seem to find an answer on Google, so I came here. On the error of running the code, I tried to change numbers (adding decimal places) because it says its a data conversion problem with abs(). I think its something with abs() only outputing int datatype, is there anyway to fix it?

Thank u so much if you are seeing this, its my first time coding ;)

Answer 1

In double pi = 0.0, term;, pi = 0.0 and term are separate items. Equivalent code is double pi = 0.0;, which defines pi to be a double and initializes it to zero, and double term;, which defines term and does not specify an initial value for it.

The error “'initializing': conversion from 'double' to 'int', possible loss of data'” is from the line int places = 10.0;, which specifies a double value, 10.0, for an int object, places. To eliminate the warning, change this to int places = 10;.

In C, abs is a function for the int type. The fact that this code uses it with a double operand, term, indicates this is C++ code, and the file name, L2.1-2.3.cpp, also indicates this is C++ code. You seem to have requested your compiler to compile it as C code, which is why it gives you the message “'abs': conversion from 'double' to 'int', possible loss of data”. You should change whatever setting is telling your compiler to compile this as C code.