Microsoft KB Archive/38026

From BetaArchive Wiki
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Minimum Range Values in the Include File LIMITS.H

Q38026

5.10 6.00 6.00a 6.00ax 7.00 | 5.10 6.00 6.00a | 1.00 1.50 MS-DOS | OS/2 | WINDOWS kbtool kbfasttip ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The information in this article applies to: - Microsoft C for MS-DOS, versions 5.1, 6.0, 6.0a, and 6.0ax - Microsoft C for OS/2, versions 5.1, 6.0, and 6.0a - Microsoft C/C++ for MS-DOS, version 7.0 - Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, versions 1.0 and 1.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The values of SCHAR_MIN, SHRT_MIN, and INT_MIN are off by one in the include file LIMITS.H. For example, even though a signed char can be used to represent values in the range of -128 to 127, LIMITS.H defines SCHAR_MIN, the minimum signed char value, as -127. This is done for ANSI conformance. Section 2.2.4.2.1 of the ANSI specification for the C programming language specifies the minimum values for these integral types. The minimum values chosen were selected to accommodate compiler implementations, which use one's complement or sign-magnitude as well those implementations that use two's complement. The values for SCHAR_MIN, SHRT_MIN, and INT_MIN in the file LIMITS.H supplied with Visual C++ 32-bit Edition, are not off by one. For example, the value of SCHAR_MIN is -128. This allows access to the full range of values that can be represented by the type. This implementation is still ANSI-compliant because section 2.2.4.2.1 of the ANSI specification outlines the following when discussing the sizes of the integral types specified in LIMITS.H: ... Their implementation defined values shall be equal or greater in magnitude (absolute value) to those shown, with the same sign. Additional reference words: kbinf 1.00 1.50 5.10 6.00 6.00a 6.00ax 7.00 KBCategory: kbtool kbfasttip KBSubcategory: TlsMisc

Keywords : kb16bitonly
Issue type :
Technology : kbVCsearch kbAudDeveloper kbPTProdChange kbvc150 kbvc100 kbCCompSearch kbZNotKeyword3 kbCComp510DOS kbCComp600DOS kbCComp600aDOS kbCComp600axDOS kbCComp510OS2 kbCComp600OS2 kbCComp600aOS2 kbCVC700DOS


Last Reviewed: May 6, 2001
© 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.