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MISRA C:2012 Rule 4.2

Trigraphs should not be used

Description

Rule Definition

Trigraphs should not be used1 .

Rationale

You denote trigraphs with two question marks followed by a specific third character (for instance,'??-' represents a '~' (tilde) character and '??)' represents a ']'). These trigraphs can cause accidental confusion with other uses of two question marks.

Note

Digraphs (<: :>, <% %>, %:, %:%:) are permitted because they are tokens.

Polyspace Implementation

The Polyspace® analysis converts trigraphs to the equivalent character for the defect analysis. However, Polyspace also raises a MISRA™ violation.

The standard requires that trigraphs must be transformed before comments are removed during preprocessing. Therefore, Polyspace raises a violation of this rule even if a trigraph appears in code comments.

Troubleshooting

If you expect a rule violation but do not see it, refer to Diagnose Why Coding Standard Violations Do Not Appear as Expected.

Check Information

Group: Character Sets and Lexical Conventions
Category: Advisory
AGC Category: Advisory

Version History

Introduced in R2014b


1 All MISRA coding rules and directives are © Copyright The MISRA Consortium Limited 2021.

The MISRA coding standards referenced in the Polyspace Bug Finder™ documentation are from the following MISRA standards:

  • MISRA C:2004

  • MISRA C:2012

  • MISRA C:2023

  • MISRA C++:2008

  • MISRA C++:2023

MISRA and MISRA C are registered trademarks of The MISRA Consortium Limited 2021.