Groups > comp.lang.c > #20338

Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs

From	Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs
Date	2012-05-03 12:46 -0700
Organization	None to speak of
Message-ID	<lnobq5nj2o.fsf@nuthaus.mib.org> (permalink)
References	<61f319f8-323e-41ec-938a-8062d532aa6a@a5g2000vbc.googlegroups.com>

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John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> writes:
[...]
>                   struct
>                   {
>                      char a;
>                      union {
>                         int  b;
>                         char c;
>                      };
>                   } mystruct;
>                   mystruct.c = 0x12
>
> Would this union work on every platform??

You have an unnamed union.  Some compilers support this as an extension,
but it's not valid in standard C.

You can fix it like this:

    struct {
        char a;
        union {
            int  b;
            char c;
        } u;
    } mystruct;
    mystruct.u.c = 0x12;

Note that you have to refer to mystruct.u.c, not mystruct.c, since c is
a member of a union which is a member of a struct.

As for whether it "works", that depends on what you want it to do.  It
stores the value 0x12 in mystruct.u.c, which is also the first byte of
mystruct.u.b.  If you access the first byte of mystruct.u.b,
*(char*)&mystruct.u.b, you'll get 0x12.  If you access mystruct.u.b as
an int, you'll get garbage, possibly a trap representation.

I can't think of anything useful you could do with this.  If you want to
access the char value you just stored, you can refer to mystruct.u.c.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
    Will write code for food.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"

Thread

List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 10:04 -0700
  Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2012-05-03 17:38 +0000
    Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 10:50 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> - 2012-05-03 11:09 -0700
        Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 11:18 -0700
          Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> - 2012-05-03 11:24 -0700
            Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 11:35 -0700
              Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 11:56 -0700
              Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> - 2012-05-03 12:16 -0700
                Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 12:20 -0700
                Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-05-03 12:39 -0700
          Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 17:51 -0700
            Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs "Joachim Schmitz" <nospam.jojo@schmitz-digital.de> - 2012-05-08 09:10 +0200
              Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-08 05:31 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2012-05-03 18:11 +0000
        Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 11:29 -0700
          Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2012-05-03 19:19 +0000
            Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 13:31 -0700
              Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 14:18 -0700
                Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 15:20 -0700
            Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2012-05-04 01:47 +0100
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 17:47 -0700
    Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 17:45 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com - 2012-05-08 00:43 -0700
        Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-08 06:17 -0700
  Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-05-03 12:46 -0700
    Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 13:35 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> - 2012-05-03 14:05 -0700
        Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 14:11 -0700
          Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> - 2012-05-03 15:02 -0700
            Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 18:10 -0700
              Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com - 2012-05-08 00:49 -0700
                Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-05-08 06:37 -0400
                Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-08 07:49 -0700
                Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-08 07:25 -0700
              Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> - 2012-05-08 09:46 -0700
          Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-05-03 18:24 -0400
            Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 18:24 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2012-05-03 21:17 +0000
        Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 18:28 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-05-03 15:54 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Old Wolf <oldwolf@inspire.net.nz> - 2012-05-06 22:32 -0700
        Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Jens Gustedt <jens.gustedt@loria.fr> - 2012-05-07 08:26 +0200
        Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 18:31 -0700
    Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Jens Gustedt <jens.gustedt@loria.fr> - 2012-05-03 23:18 +0200
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-05-03 15:58 -0700
  Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs pete <pfiland@mindspring.com> - 2012-05-04 00:25 -0400
    Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs John Reye <jononanon@googlemail.com> - 2012-05-03 22:28 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-05-04 07:33 -0400
        Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 19:20 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 18:50 -0700
    Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 18:42 -0700
      Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs pete <pfiland@mindspring.com> - 2012-05-07 23:45 -0400
        Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-07 23:01 -0700
          Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs pete <pfiland@mindspring.com> - 2012-05-08 06:28 -0400
            Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs pete <pfiland@mindspring.com> - 2012-05-08 06:37 -0400
              Re: List of undefined behaviour and other sneeky bugs Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-08 06:19 -0700

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