compiler-warning-level-4-c4127.md

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Learn more about: Compiler Warning (level 4) C4127	Compiler Warning (level 4) C4127	10/16/2019	C4127	C4127	f59ded9e-5227-45bd-ac43-2aa861581363

Compiler Warning (level 4) C4127

conditional expression is constant

Remarks

The controlling expression of an if statement or while loop evaluates to a constant. Because of their common idiomatic usage, beginning in Visual Studio 2015 update 3, trivial constants such as 1 or true do not trigger the warning, unless they are the result of an operation in an expression.

If the controlling expression of a while loop is a constant because the loop exits in the middle, consider replacing the while loop with a for loop. You can omit the initialization, termination test and loop increment of a for loop, which causes the loop to be infinite, just like while(1), and you can exit the loop from the body of the for statement.

Example

The following sample shows two ways C4127 is generated, and shows how to use a for loop to avoid the warning:

// C4127.cpp
// compile with: /W4
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
   if (true) {}           // OK in VS2015 update 3 and later
   if (1 == 1) {}         // C4127
   while (42) { break; }  // C4127

   // OK
   for ( ; ; ) {
      printf("test\n");
      break;
   }
}

This warning can also be generated when a compile-time constant is used in a conditional expression:

#include <string>

using namespace std;

template<size_t S, class T>
void MyFunc()
{
   if (sizeof(T) >= S) // C4127. "Consider using 'if constexpr' statement instead"
   {
   }
}

class Foo
{
   int i;
   string s;
};

int main()
{
   Foo f;
   MyFunc<4, Foo>();
}