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Sun Studio 12: C User's Guide

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Appendix F ISO C Data Representations

This appendix describes how ISO C represents data in storage and the mechanisms for passing arguments to functions. It is intended as a guide to programmers who want to write or use modules in languages other than C and have those modules interface with C code.

F.1 Storage Allocation

The following table shows the data types and how they are represented.

Note –

Storage allocated on the stack (identifiers with internal, or automatic, linkage) should be limited to two gigabytes or less.

Table F–1 Storage Allocation for Data Types


Data Type	Internal Representation
`char` elements	A single 8-bit byte aligned on a byte boundary.
`short` integers	Halfword (two bytes or 16 bits), aligned on a two-byte boundary
`int`	32 bits (four bytes or one word), aligned on a four-byte boundary
`long`	32 bits on v8 and x86 (four bytes or one word), aligned on a four-byte boundary 64 bits on v9 (eight bytes or two words) aligned on an eight-byte boundary)
`pointer`	32 bits on v8 and x86 (four bytes or one word), aligned on a four-byte boundary 64 bits on v9 (eight bytes or two words) aligned on an eight-byte boundary)
`long long` [`long long` is not available in `-Xc` mode with `-xc99=none`.]	(SPARC) 64 bits (eight bytes or two words), aligned on an eight-byte boundary (x86) 64 bits (eight bytes or two words), aligned on a four-byte boundary
`float`	32 bits (four bytes or one word), aligned on a four-byte boundary. A `float` has a `sign` bit, 8-bit exponent, and 23-bit fraction.
`double`	64 bits (eight bytes or two words), aligned on an eight-byte boundary (SPARC) or aligned on a four-byte boundary (x86). A `double` element has a `sign` bit, an 11-bit exponent and a 52-bit fraction.
`long` `double`	v8 (SPARC) 128 bits (16 bytes or four words), aligned on an eight-byte boundary. A `long` `double` element has a `sign` bit, a 15-bit exponent and a 112-bit fraction. v9 (SPARC) 128 bits (16 bytes or four words), aligned on a 16 byte boundary. A `long` `double` element has a `sign` bit, a 15-bit exponent and a 112-bit fraction. (x86) 96 bits (12 bytes or three words) aligned on a four-byte boundary. A `long` `double` element has a `sign` bit, a 16-bit exponent, and a 64-bit fraction. 16 bits are unused.

F.2 Data Representations

Bit numbering of any given data element depend on the architecture in use: SPARCstation^TM machines use bit 0 as the least significant bit, with byte 0 being the most significant byte. The tables in this section describe the various representations.

F.2.1 Integer Representations

Integer types used in ISO C are short, int, long, and long long:

Table F–2 Representation of short


Bits	Content
8- 15	Byte 0 (SPARC) Byte 1 (x86)
0- 7	Byte 1 (SPARC) Byte 0 (x86)

Table F–3 Representation of int


Bits	Content
24- 31	Byte 0 (SPARC) Byte 3 (x86)
16- 23	Byte 1 (SPARC) Byte 2 (x86)
8- 15	Byte 2 (SPARC) Byte 1 (x86)
0- 7	Byte 3 (SPARC) Byte 0 (x86)

Table F–4 Representation of long on x86 and SPARC v8 versus SPARC v9


Bits	Content
24- 31	Byte 0 (SPARC) v8 Byte 4 (SPARC) v9 Byte 3 (x86)
16- 23	Byte 1 (SPARC) v8 Byte 5 (SPARC) v9 Byte 2 (x86)
8- 15	Byte 2 (SPARC) v8 Byte 6 (SPARC) v9 Byte 1 (x86)
0- 7	Byte 3 (SPARC) v8 Byte 7 (SPARC) v9 Byte 0 (x86)

Note –

long long is not available in -Xc mode.

Table F–5 Representation of long long


Bits	Content
56- 63	Byte 0 (SPARC) Byte 7 (x86)
48- 55	Byte 1 (SPARC) Byte 6 (x86)
40- 47	Byte 2 (SPARC) Byte 5 (x86)
32- 39	Byte 3 (SPARC) Byte 4 (x86)
24- 31	Byte 4 (SPARC) Byte 3 (x86)
16- 23	Byte 5 (SPARC) Byte 2 (x86)
8- 15	Byte 6 (SPARC) Byte 1 (x86)
0- 7	Byte 7 (SPARC) Byte 0 (x86)

F.2.2 Floating-Point Representations

float, double, and long double data elements are represented according to the ISO IEEE 754-1985 standard. The representation is:

(-1)^s(e^- bias⁾¥2 j.f

where:

s = sign
e = biased exponent
j is the leading bit, determined by the value of e. In the case of long double (x86), the leading bit is explicit; in all other cases, it is implicit.
f = fraction
u means that the bit can be either 0 or 1.

The following tables show the position of the bits.

Table F–6 float Representation


Bits	Name
31	Sign
23- 30	Exponent
0- 22	Fraction

Table F–7 double Representation


Bits	Name
63	Sign
52- 62	Exponent
0- 51	Fraction

Table F–8 long double Representation (SPARC)


Bits	Name
127	Sign
112- 126	Exponent
0- 111	Fraction

Table F–9 long double Representation (x86)


Bits	Name
80- 95	Unused
79	Sign
64- 78	Exponent
63	Leading bit
0- 62	Fraction

For further information, refer to the Numerical Computation Guide.

F.2.3 Exceptional Values

float and double numbers are said to contain a “hidden,” or implied, bit, providing for one more bit of precision than would otherwise be the case. In the case of long double, the leading bit is implicit (SPARC) or explicit (x86); this bit is 1 for normal numbers, and 0 for subnormal numbers.

Table F–10 float Representations


normal number (0<e<255):	(`-1`)^Sign2^{(exponent- 127)}1.`f`
subnormal number (e=0, f!=0):	(`-1`)^Sign2^(-126)0.`f`
zero (e=0, f=0):	(`-1`)^Sigⁿ0.0
signaling NaN	s=u, e=255(max); f=.0uuu-uu; at least one bit must be nonzero
quiet NaN	s=u, e=255(max); f=.1uuu-uu
Infinity	s=u, e=255(max); f=.0000-00 (all zeroes)

Table F–11 double Representations


normal number (0<e<2047):	(`-1`)^Sign2^{(exponent- 1023)}1.`f`
subnormal number (e=0, f!=0):	(`-1`)^Sign2^(-1022)0.`f`
zero (e=0, f=0):	(`-1`)^Sign0.0
signaling NaN	s=u, e=2047(max); f=.0uuu-uu; at least one bit must be nonzero
quiet NaN	s=u, e=2047(max); f=.1uuu-uu
Infinity	s=u, e=2047(max); f=.0000-00 (all zeroes)

Table F–12 long double Representations


normal number (0<e<32767):	(`-1`)^Sign2^{(exponent- 16383)}1.`f`
subnormal number (e=0, f!=0):	(`-1`)^Sign2^(-16382)0.`f`
zero (e=0, f=0):	(`-1`)^Sign0.0
signaling NaN	s=u, e=32767(max); f=.0uuu-uu; at least one bit must be nonzero
quiet NaN	s=u, e=32767(max); f=.1uuu-uu
Infinity	s=u, e=32767(max); f=.0000-00 (all zeroes)

F.2.4 Hexadecimal Representation of Selected Numbers

The following tables show the hexadecimal representations.

Table F–13 Hexadecimal Representation of Selected Numbers (SPARC)


Value	`float`	`double`	`long double`
+0 -0	00000000 80000000	0000000000000000 8000000000000000	00000000000000000000000000000000 80000000000000000000000000000000
+1.0 -1.0	3F800000 BF800000	3FF0000000000000 BFF0000000000000	3FFF00000000000000000000000000000 BFFF00000000000000000000000000000
+2.0 +3.0	40000000 40400000	4000000000000000 4008000000000000	40000000000000000000000000000000 40080000000000000000000000000000
+Infinity -Infinity	7F800000 FF800000	7FF0000000000000 FFF0000000000000	7FFF00000000000000000000000000000 FFFF00000000000000000000000000000
NaN	7FBFFFFF	7FF7FFFFFFFFFFFF	7FFF7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Table F–14 Hexadecimal Representation of Selected Numbers (x86)


Value	`float`	`double`	`long double`
+0 -0	00000000 80000000	0000000000000000 0000000080000000	00000000000000000000 80000000000000000000
+1.0 -1.0	3F800000 BF800000	000000003FF00000 00000000BFF00000	3FFF8000000000000000 BFFF8000000000000000
+2.0 +3.0	40000000 40400000	0000000040000000 0000000040080000	40008000000000000000 4000C000000000000000
+Infinity -Infinity	7F800000 FF800000	000000007FF00000 00000000FFF00000	7FFF8000000000000000 FFFF8000000000000000
NaN	7FBFFFFF	FFFFFFFF7FF7FFFF	7FFFBFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

For further information, refer to the Numerical Computation Guide.

F.2.5 Pointer Representation

A pointer in C occupies four bytes. A pointer in C occupies eight bytes on SPARC v9 architectures. The NULL value pointer is equal to zero.

F.2.6 Array Storage

Arrays are stored with their elements in a specific storage order. The elements are actually stored in a linear sequence of storage elements.

C arrays are stored in row-major order; the last subscript in a multidimensional array varies the fastest.

String data types are simply arrays of char elements. The maximum number of characters allowed in a string literal or wide string literal (after concatenation) is 4,294,967,295.

See F.1 Storage Allocation for information on the size limit of storage allocated on the stack.

Table F–15 Array Types and Storage


Type	Maximum Number of Elements for SPARC and x86	Maximum Number of Elements for SPARC V9
`char`	4,294,967,295	2,305,843,009,213,693,951
`short`	2,147,483,647	1,152,921,504,606,846,975
`int`	1,073,741,823	576,460,752,303,423,487
`long`	1,073,741,823	288,230,376,151,711,743
`float`	1,073,741,823	576,460,752,303,423,487
`double`	536,870,911	288,230,376,151,711,743
`long` `double`	268,435,451	144,115,188,075,855,871
`long long` [Not valid in `-Xc` mode with `-xc99=none`.]	536,870,911	288,230,376,151,711,743

Static and global arrays can accommodate many more elements.

F.2.7 Arithmetic Operations on Exceptional Values

This section describes the results derived from applying the basic arithmetic operations to combinations of exceptional and ordinary floating-point values. The information that follows assumes that no traps or any other exception actions are taken.

The following table explains the abbreviations:

Table F–16 Abbreviation Usage


Abbreviation	Meaning
Num	Subnormal or normal number
Inf	Infinity (positive or negative)
NaN	Not a number
Uno	Unordered

The following tables describe the types of values that result from arithmetic operations performed with combinations of different types of operands.

Table F–17 Addition and Subtraction Results


	Right Operand: 0	Right Operand: Num	Right Operand: Inf	Right Operand: NaN
Left Operand: 0	0	Num	Inf	NaN
Left Operand: Num	Num	See [Num + Num could be Inf, rather than Num, when the result is too large (overflow). Inf + Inf = NaN when the infinities are of opposite `sign`.]	Inf	NaN
Left Operand: Inf	Inf	Inf	See	NaN
Left Operand: NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN

Table F–18 Multiplication Results


	Right Operand:0	Right Operand:Num	Right Operand:Inf	Right Operand:NaN
Left Operand:0	0	0	NaN	NaN
Left Operand: Num	0	Num	Inf	NaN
Left Operand: Inf	NaN	Inf	Inf	NaN
Left Operand: NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN

Table F–19 Division Results


	Right Operand:0	Right Operand:Num	Right Operand:Inf	Right Operand:NaN
Left Operand:0	NaN	0	0	NaN
Left Operand: Num	Inf	Num	0	NaN
Left Operand: Inf	Inf	Inf	NaN	NaN
Left Operand: NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN

Table F–20 Comparison Results


	Right Operand:0	Right Operand:+Num	Right Operand:+Inf	Right Operand:+NaN
Left Operand:0	=	<	<	Uno
Left Operand: +Num	>	The result of the comparison	<	Uno
Left Operand: +Inf	>	>	=	Uno
Left Operand: +NaN	Uno	Uno	Uno	Uno

Note –

NaN compared with NaN is unordered, and results in inequality. +0 compares equal to- 0.

F.3 Argument-Passing Mechanism

This section describes how arguments are passed in ISO C.

All arguments to C functions are passed by value.
Actual arguments are passed in the reverse order from which they are declared in a function declaration.
Actual arguments which are expressions are evaluated before the function reference. The result of the expression is then placed in a register or pushed onto the stack.

F.3.1 32-Bit SPARC

Functions return integer results in register %o0, float results in register %f0, and double results in registers %f0 and %f1.

long long integers are passed in registers with the higher word order in %oN, and the lower order word in %o(N+1). In-register results are returned in %o0 and %o1, with similar ordering.

All arguments, except doubles and long doubles, are passed as four-byte values. A double is passed as an eight-byte value. The first six four-byte values (double counts as 8) are passed in registers %o0 through %o5. The rest are passed onto the stack. Structures are passed by making a copy of the structure and passing a pointer to the copy. A long double is passed in the same manner as a structure.

Registers described are as seen by the caller.

F.3.1.1 64-Bit SPARC

All integral arguments are passed as eight-byte values.

Floating-point arguments are passed in floating-point registers when possible.

(x86)

Functions return results in the following registers:

Table F–21 Registers Used by x86 Functions to Return Types


Register	Type Returned
int	%eax
`long` `long`	`%edx` and `%eax`
`float`, `double`, and `long` `double`	`%st(0)`
`float _Complex`	`%eax` for the real part and `%edx` for the imaginary part
`double _Complex` and `long double _Complex`	The same as a struct that contains two elements of the corresponding floating point type.

All arguments except structs, unions, long longs, doubles and long doubles are passed as four-byte values; a long long is passed as an eight-byte value, a double is passed as an eight-byte value, and a long double is passed as a 12-byte value.

structs and unions are copied onto the stack. The size is rounded up to a multiple of four bytes. Functions returning structs and unions are passed a hidden first argument, pointing to the location into which the returned struct or union is stored.

Upon return from a function, it is the responsibility of the caller to pop arguments from the stack, except for the extra argument for struct and union returns that is popped by the called function.