CS253 Not Fully Specified

What the language definition does not say.

Different types of odd stuff

The C++ standard defines several kinds of not-fully specified things:

Implementation-defined (§1.9.2):

A choice made by the compiler, must be documented

Unspecified behavior (§1.9.3):

A choice made by the compiler, need not be documented

Undefined behavior (§1.9.4):

All bets are off!

Implementation-defined

A choice made by the compiler, which must be documented.

// Maximum value of a double:
double d = 6e307;
cout << d << '\n' << d*2 << '\n' << d*3;

6e+307
1.2e+308
inf

// Signed overflow:
short s = 32767;
cout << ++s;

-32768

Implementation-defined examples

// Character set used:
cout << "\x41\x53\x43\x49\x49\x0a";

ASCII

// Size of variables:
cout << sizeof(int) << '\n';

// Shifting a signed value right:
cout << (-1 >> 4) << '\n';

-1

// Calling system():
system("date");

Wed May  8 10:33:38 MDT 2024

Unspecified

A choice made by the compiler, need not be documented or consistent.

// Comparing addresses of different objects:
int a,b;
cout << boolalpha << (&a < &b);

false

// Order of evaluation of an expression (mostly):

int foo() { cout << "foo\n"; return 0; }

int bar() { cout << "bar\n"; return 0; }

int main() {
    return foo()+bar();
}

foo
bar

Unspecified examples

// Order of evaluation of function arguments:
int foo() { cout << "foo\n"; return 1; }
int bar() { cout << "bar\n"; return 1; }

void ignore_arguments(int, int) { }

int main() {
    ignore_arguments(foo(), bar());
}

bar
foo

Undefined behavior

All bets are off! Anything can happen. Warnings are not required.

// Uninitialized value:
int a[135];
a[30] = 0;
cout << a[100] << '\n';

c.cc:4: warning: 'a[100]' is used uninitialized in this function
-904754336

// Dereferencing a null pointer:
cout << "This HAS to be displayed!\n";
int *p = nullptr;
cout << *p << '\n';

SIGSEGV: Segmentation fault

// Shifting too far:
int amount=35;
cout << (1<<amount);

Undefined examples

// Multiple writes to the same location:
int a = 0;
cout << ++a + ++a;

c.cc:3: warning: operation on 'a' may be undefined
4

// Multiple writes to the same location:
int a=10;
cout << (a=20) * (a=30);

c.cc:3: warning: operation on 'a' may be undefined
900

But Why?

C++ is quite concerned about efficiency.

The size of an int is implementation-defined so that the compiler can use the natural size provided by the architecture.
The size of an double is implementation-defined so that the compiler can use the available hardware floating-point format.
Some things are unspecified in order to give the compiler the maximum freedom to generate code that is the fastest. Perhaps the compiler evaluates function arguments right-to-left because that’s the easiest order to push them onto the stack.

C++’s attitude is “You break the rules, you pay the price.” It doesn’t hold your hand.

CS253: Software Development with C++

Spring 2018

Not Fully Specified