Skip to Main Content
Idaho State University home

Glossary

Filter:
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z All
C
C*
C1
C2
C3
C3I
C4
CA
Can
Cat
CBA
CBC
CCB
CCI
CCO
CDR
CDS
CF
CFD
CFE
CI
CIA
CIK
CIP
CK
CKG
CKL
CM
CMP
CMS
CN
CNK
COR
CPC
Cpi
CPS
CPU
CRB
CRC
CRO
CRP
CSA
CSC
CSE
CSM
CSO
CSS
CTY
CUP
CVA
CWC
Can't Happen*
  • The traditional program comment for code executed under a condition that should never be true, for example a file size computed as negative. Often, such a condition being true indicates data corruption or a faulty algorithm; it is almost always handled by emitting a fatal error message and terminating or crashing, since there is little else that can be done. Some case variant of "can't happen" is also often the text emitted if the `impossible' error actually happens! Although "can't happen" events are genuinely infrequent in production code, programmers wise enough to check for them habitually are often surprised at how frequently they are triggered during development and how many headaches checking for them turns out to head off. See also firewall code (sense2)