前提条件和后置条件

断言的一个用例是前置条件和后置条件。这对于按合同维护不变量和设计非常有用。例如，长度始终为零或正数，因此该函数必须返回零或正值。

#include <stdio.h>
/* Uncomment to disable `assert()` */
/* #define NDEBUG */
#include <assert.h>

int length2 (int *a, int count)
{
    int i, result = 0;

    /* Precondition: */
    /* NULL is an invalid vector */
    assert (a != NULL);
    /* Number of dimensions can not be negative.*/ 
    assert (count >= 0);

    /* Calculation */
    for (i = 0; i < count; ++i) 
    {
        result = result + (a[i] * a[i]);
    }

    /* Postcondition: */
    /* Resulting length can not be negative. */
    assert (result >= 0);
    return result;
}

#define COUNT 3

int main (void)
{
    int a[COUNT] = {1, 2, 3};
    int *b = NULL;
    int r;
    r = length2 (a, COUNT);
    printf ("r = %i\n", r);
    r = length2 (b, COUNT);
    printf ("r = %i\n", r);
    return 0;
}