[c] Why GDB jumps unpredictably between lines and prints variables as "<value optimized out>"?

Typically, boolean values that are used in branches immediately after they're calculated like this are never actually stored in variables. Instead, the compiler just branches directly off the condition codes that were set from the preceding comparison. For example,

int a = SomeFunction();
bool result = --a >= 0; // use subtraction as example computation
if ( result ) 
{
   foo(); 
}
else
{
   bar();
}
return;

Usually compiles to something like:

call .SomeFunction  ; calls to SomeFunction(), which stores its return value in eax
sub eax, 1 ; subtract 1 from eax and store in eax, set S (sign) flag if result is negative
jl ELSEBLOCK ; GOTO label "ELSEBLOCK" if S flag is set
call .foo ; this is the "if" black, call foo()
j FINISH ; GOTO FINISH; skip over the "else" block
ELSEBLOCK: ; label this location to the assembler
call .bar
FINISH: ; both paths end up here
ret ; return

Notice how the "bool" is never actually stored anywhere.

Examples related to c

conflicting types for 'outchar' Can't compile C program on a Mac after upgrade to Mojave Program to find largest and second largest number in array Prime numbers between 1 to 100 in C Programming Language In c, in bool, true == 1 and false == 0? How I can print to stderr in C? Visual Studio Code includePath "error: assignment to expression with array type error" when I assign a struct field (C) Compiling an application for use in highly radioactive environments How can you print multiple variables inside a string using printf?

Examples related to optimization

Why does C++ code for testing the Collatz conjecture run faster than hand-written assembly? Measuring execution time of a function in C++ GROUP BY having MAX date How to efficiently remove duplicates from an array without using Set Storing JSON in database vs. having a new column for each key Read file As String How to write a large buffer into a binary file in C++, fast? Is optimisation level -O3 dangerous in g++? Why is processing a sorted array faster than processing an unsorted array? MySQL my.cnf performance tuning recommendations

Examples related to compiler-construction

fatal error C1010 - "stdafx.h" in Visual Studio how can this be corrected? Compilation error: stray ‘\302’ in program etc What is difference between sjlj vs dwarf vs seh? What is the difference between a token and a lexeme? How to compile makefile using MinGW? C++ variable has initializer but incomplete type? It is more efficient to use if-return-return or if-else-return? Could not load file or assembly ... The parameter is incorrect How do I compile the asm generated by GCC? Visual Studio: LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file

Examples related to gdb

How to install gdb (debugger) in Mac OSX El Capitan? Step out of current function with GDB How do I get the backtrace for all the threads in GDB? Counter exit code 139 when running, but gdb make it through gdb: how to print the current line or find the current line number? How do I pass a command line argument while starting up GDB in Linux? GDB: break if variable equal value How to attach a process in gdb gdb fails with "Unable to find Mach task port for process-id" error gdb: "No symbol table is loaded"

Examples related to compilation

WARNING: API 'variant.getJavaCompile()' is obsolete and has been replaced with 'variant.getJavaCompileProvider()' How to enable C++17 compiling in Visual Studio? How can I use/create dynamic template to compile dynamic Component with Angular 2.0? Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler for Python 3.4 C compile : collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status Error:java: invalid source release: 8 in Intellij. What does it mean? Eclipse won't compile/run java file IntelliJ IDEA 13 uses Java 1.5 despite setting to 1.7 OPTION (RECOMPILE) is Always Faster; Why? (.text+0x20): undefined reference to `main' and undefined reference to function