The number of commands in while loop

Question

I'm curious about the minimum number of commands that need to exist inside a while loop.

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
  int x = 1;
  while (x==0){
  };
  printf("program end");
  return 0;
}

Is this program valid? I created this code to demonstrate a "self-terminating program."

I also created the following code to demonstrate a "not self-terminating program."

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
  int x = 1;
  while (x!=0){
  };
  printf("program end");
  return 0;
}

I would like to know if these two programs are valid in terms of the number of commands in the while loop, since there are no commands inside the while loop in either program.

Thank you for your assistance.

Answer 1

There is no minimum code needed inside the while loop. Your first example will never go into the while loop as the condition is not met and just print "program end" and return 0, whereas the second example will go into the while loop and never leave as x!=0 will always return true. There is no code inside the loop, so it will just continue to check the condition infinitely, never reaching the rest of the code.

FYI, an empty loop is usually not going to be helpful or useful code, as most of the time, even if the condition is true, it won't actually do anything and just get stuck in the loop like your second example.