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308: Mainline

Note that the value of the Boolean expression, n != 0, is 0, meaning false, if and only if the value of n is 0. Accordingly, the following while statements are equivalent:

while (n != 0) 
  ... 
  
while (n) 
  ... 

Thus, testing n to see whether it is not 0 is viewed by some C++ programmers as a form of lily gilding; such programmers use n rather than n != 0.

Other C++ programmers much prefer n != 0 because they believe that it is important to maintain a visible distinction between 0 viewed as a number and 0 viewed as a truth value.