Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ?

From	Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ?
Date	2024-06-23 20:11 -0700
Organization	None to speak of
Message-ID	<87ed8nt4qa.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> (permalink)
References	(8 earlier) <87jzifpth6.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <864j9jh77d.fsf@linuxsc.com> <87r0cntga9.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> <87o77rnrt2.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <20240623191452.334@kylheku.com>

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Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> writes:
> On 2024-06-23, Ben Bacarisse <ben@bsb.me.uk> wrote:
>> I don't want to pre-empt Tim's answer, but the wording that bothers me
>> is
>>
>>   "If the subject sequence begins with a minus sign, the value
>>   resulting from the conversion is negated (in the return type)."
>>
>> For strtoll("-9223372036854775808", 0, 0) the value resulting from the
>> conversion is 9223372036854775808 which can not even be represented in
>> the return type, so how can it be negated "in the return type"?
>
> We have to trust that the specification wants the functions to perform
> error checking, rather than precipitate into undefined behavior or
> implementation-defined results.
>
> If the negation, which is a positive value, cannot be represented in the
> type, that implies it is out of range. The required behavior for a
> positive out-of-range value is to return LLONG_MAX and set errno to
> ERANGE.
>
> The "in the return type" wording sounds like it may be written that way
> to cover the unsigned case, strtoull.
>
> I see in the N3220 draft that the signed and unsigned functions are
> lumped together and the wording is now:
>
> "If the subject sequence begins with a minus sign, the resulting value
> is the negative of the converted value; for functions whose return type
> is an unsigned integer type this action is performed in the return
> type."

I should have checked the C23 draft before.  I see that the wording has
been improved.

(Note that N3220 is actually an early draft of C26.  The latest public
pre-C23 draft is N3149.  The content should be very close; I don't
believe N3220 includes any post-C23 proposed changes.)

It's fairly clear that the "value" referred to in the quoted text is a
mathematical value, which might be outside the representable range of
any C type.  The paragraph describing the returned value confirms this:
"If the correct value is outside the range of representable values ...".

So for strtoll("-9223372036854775808", NULL, 10) the "converted value"
of 9223372036854775808 exceeds LLONG_MAX, but that's ok.  That value is
negated (mathematically) yielding -9223372036854775808, which is equal
to LLONG_MIN.

There's still some ambiguity for strtoull("-9999999999999999999", NULL,
10) (that's well outside the range of a 64-bit integer).  For that to
work as expected, we have to assume that the determination that "the
correct value is outside the range of representable values" happens
*before* the negation "is performed in the return type".  It's not clear
that this problem is worth fixing (doing so would likely make that
section longer and perhaps more confusing).

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */

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Thread

The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2024-06-20 14:06 +0000
  Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2024-06-20 14:46 +0000
    Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-20 14:37 -0700
  Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2024-06-20 14:48 +0000
  Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2024-06-20 15:26 +0000
  Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2024-06-20 22:55 +0000
    Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2024-06-20 23:35 +0000
  Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2024-06-21 13:58 +0000
    Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-21 18:28 +0300
      Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-21 18:53 +0300
        Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2024-06-21 16:14 +0000
          Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2024-06-21 16:54 +0000
            Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-06-22 06:44 +0000
              Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2024-06-22 15:16 +0000
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-06-22 23:21 +0000
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2024-06-22 20:10 -0400
        Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Ben Bacarisse <ben@bsb.me.uk> - 2024-06-21 18:15 +0100
          Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-23 12:19 +0300
            Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Ben Bacarisse <ben@bsb.me.uk> - 2024-06-23 12:38 +0100
              Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-23 15:32 +0300
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Ben Bacarisse <ben@bsb.me.uk> - 2024-06-23 16:30 +0100
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-23 18:47 +0300
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2024-06-23 10:58 -0700
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2024-06-23 21:19 +0000
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2024-06-23 22:28 -0700
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-23 16:01 -0700
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Ben Bacarisse <ben@bsb.me.uk> - 2024-06-24 00:49 +0100
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-23 17:49 -0700
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2024-06-24 02:29 +0000
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2024-06-24 02:31 +0000
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-23 20:12 -0700
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2024-06-24 06:05 +0000
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-23 20:11 -0700
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-24 13:19 +0300
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2024-06-23 22:30 -0700
                Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-06-24 00:48 +0000
        Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2024-06-21 14:38 -0400
          Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2024-06-21 18:43 +0000
            Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-23 11:47 +0300
          Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-22 21:18 +0300
      Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Ben Bacarisse <ben@bsb.me.uk> - 2024-06-21 18:02 +0100
        Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-21 10:38 -0700
          Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-06-22 06:43 +0000
          Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-22 21:04 +0300
            Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-06-22 23:22 +0000
            Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-22 16:43 -0700
    Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-21 19:00 +0300
      Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-21 10:50 -0700
    Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2024-06-22 22:07 +0000
  Re: The difference between strtol() and strtoul() ? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2024-06-23 17:39 +0100

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