Objects and alignment
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An object in C is a region of MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 47 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE in the execution environment, the contents of which can represent values (a value is the meaning of the contents of an object, when interpreted as having a specific MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 46 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE).
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- size (can be determined with MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 44 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE)
- alignment requirement(can be determined by MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 43 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE)(since 哋它亢11)
- MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 41 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE (automatic, static, allocated, thread-local)
- MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 40 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE (equal to storage duration or temporary)
- effective type (see below)
- value (which may be indeterminate)
- optionally, an MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 39 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE that denotes this object.
Objects are created by MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 38 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE, MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 36 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE, MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 35 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE, MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 34 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE, and by non-lvalue expressions that return MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 32 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE.
Object representation
Except for MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 31 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE, objects are composed of contiguous sequences of one or more bytes, each consisting of MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 30 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE bits, and can be copied with MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 29 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE into an object of type unsigned char[n], where n
is the size of the object. The contents of the resulting array are known as object representation.
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If an object representation does not represent any value of the object type, it is known as trap representation. Accessing a trap representation in any way other than reading it through an lvalue expression of character type is undefined behavior. The value of a structure or union is never a trap representation even if any particular member is one.
For the objects of type char, signed char, and unsigned char, every bit of the object representation is required to participate in the value representation and each possible bit pattern represents a distinct value (no padding, trap bits, or multiple representations allowed).
When objects of MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 26 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE (short, int, long, long long) occupy multiple bytes, the use of those bytes is implementation-defined, but the two dominant implementations are big-endian (POWER, Sparc, Itanium) and little-endian (x86, x86_64): a big-endian platform stores the most significant byte at the lowest address of the region of storage occupied by the integer, a little-endian platform stores the least significant byte at the lowest address. See MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 25 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE for detail. See also example below.
Although most implementations do not allow trap representations, padding bits, or multiple representations for integer types, there are exceptions; for example a value of an integer type on Itanium MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 24 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE.
Effective type
Every object has an effective type, which determines which MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 23 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE accesses are valid and which violate the strict aliasing rules.
If the object was created by a MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 21 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE, the declared type of that object is the object's effective type.
If the object was created by an MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 19 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE (including MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 18 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE), it has no declared type. Such object acquires an effective type as follows:
- The first write to that object through an lvalue that has a type other than character type, at which time the type of that lvalue becomes this object's effective type for that write and all subsequent reads.
- MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 17 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE or MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 16 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE copy another object into that object, or copy another object into that object as an array of character type, at which time the effective type of the source object (if it had one) becomes the effective type of this object for that write and all subsequent reads.
- Any other access to the object with no declared type, the effective type is the type of the lvalue used for the access.
Strict aliasing
Given an object with effective type T1, using an lvalue expression (typically, dereferencing a pointer) of a different type T2 is undefined behavior, unless:
- T2 and T1 are MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 15 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE.
- T2 is cvr-qualified version of a type that is MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 13 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE with T1.
- T2 is a signed or unsigned version of a type that is MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 12 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE with T1.
- T2 is an aggregate type or union type type that includes one of the aforementioned types among its members (including, recursively, a member of a subaggregate or contained union).
- T2 is a character type (char, signed char, or unsigned char).
int i = 7; char* pc = (char*)(&i); if (pc[0] == '\x7') // aliasing through char is OK MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 11 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE("This system is little-endian"); else MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 10 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE("This system is big-endian"); float* pf = (float*)(&i); float d = *pf; // UB: float lvalue *p cannot be used to access int
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// int* and double* cannot alias void f1(int* pi, double* pd, double d) { // the read from *pi can be done only once, before the loop for (int i = 0; i < *pi; i++) *pd++ = d; }
struct S { int a, b; }; // int* and struct S* may alias because S is an aggregate type with a member of type int void f2(int* pi, struct S* ps, struct S s) { // read from *pi must take place after every write through *ps for (int i = 0; i < *pi; i++) *ps++ = s; }
Note that MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 07 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE can be used to indicate that two pointers do not alias even if the rules above permit them to be.
Note that type-punning may also be performed through the inactive member of a MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 06 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE.
Alignment
Every complete MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 05 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE has a property called alignment requirement, which is an integer value of type MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 04 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE representing the number of bytes between successive addresses at which objects of this type can be allocated. The valid alignment values are non-negative integral powers of two.
The alignment requirement of a type can be queried with MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 02 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE. |
(since 哋它亢11) |
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#include <stdalign.h> #include <stdio.h> // objects of struct S can be allocated at any address // because both S.a and S.b can be allocated at any address struct S { char a; // size: 1, alignment: 1 char b; // size: 1, alignment: 1 }; // size: 2, alignment: 1 // objects of struct X must be allocated at 4-byte boundaries // because X.n must be allocated at 4-byte boundaries // because int's alignment requirement is (usually) 4 struct X { int n; // size: 4, alignment: 4 char c; // size: 1, alignment: 1 // three bytes padding }; // size: 8, alignment: 4 int main(void) { MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 30 MINUTES 00 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE("sizeof(struct S) = %zu\n", sizeof(struct S)); MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 29 MINUTES 59 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE("alignof(struct S) = %zu\n", alignof(struct S)); MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 29 MINUTES 58 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE("sizeof(struct X) = %zu\n", sizeof(struct X)); MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 29 MINUTES 56 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE("alignof(struct X) = %zu\n", alignof(struct X)); }
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sizeof(struct S) = 2 alignof(struct S) = 1 sizeof(struct X) = 8 alignof(struct X) = 4
Each object type imposes its alignment requirement on every object of that type. The weakest (smallest) alignment is the alignment of the types char, signed char, and unsigned char, and equals 1. The strictest (largest) fundamental alignment of any type is implementation-definedand equal to the alignment of MYMEMORY WARNING: YOU USED ALL AVAILABLE FREE TRANSLATIONS FOR TODAY. NEXT AVAILABLE IN 10 HOURS 29 MINUTES 54 SECONDS VISIT HTTPS://MYMEMORY.TRANSLATED.NET/DOC/USAGELIMITS.PHP TO TRANSLATE MORE(since 哋它亢11).
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Defect reports
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DR | Applied to | Behavior as published | Correct behavior |
---|---|---|---|
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References
- 哋它亢17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):
- 3.15 object (p: 5)
- 6.2.6 Representations of types (p: 33-35)
- 6.2.8 Alignment of objects (p: 36-37)
- 6.5/6-7 Expressions (p: 55-56)
- 哋它亢11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
- 3.15 object (p: 6)
- 6.2.6 Representations of types (p: 44-46)
- 6.2.8 Alignment of objects (p: 48-49)
- 6.5/6-7 Expressions (p: 77)
- 哋它亢99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
- 3.2 alignment (p: 3)
- 3.14 object (p: 5)
- 6.2.6 Representations of types (p: 37-39)
- 6.5/6-7 Expressions (p: 67-68)
- 哋它亢89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):
- 1.6 Definitions of terms