long long int vs. long int vs. int64_t in C++
You don't need to go to 64-bit to see something like this. Consider int32_t
on common 32-bit platforms. It might be typedef
'ed as int
or as a long
, but obviously only one of the two at a time. int
and long
are of course distinct types.
It's not hard to see that there is no workaround which makes int == int32_t == long
on 32-bit systems. For the same reason, there's no way to make long == int64_t == long long
on 64-bit systems.
If you could, the possible consequences would be rather painful for code that overloaded foo(int)
, foo(long)
and foo(long long)
- suddenly they'd have two definitions for the same overload?!
The correct solution is that your template code usually should not be relying on a precise type, but on the properties of that type. The whole same_type
logic could still be OK for specific cases:
long foo(long x);
std::tr1::disable_if(same_type(int64_t, long), int64_t)::type foo(int64_t);
I.e., the overload foo(int64_t)
is not defined when it's exactly the same as foo(long)
.
[edit] With C++11, we now have a standard way to write this:
long foo(long x);
std::enable_if<!std::is_same<int64_t, long>::value, int64_t>::type foo(int64_t);
[edit] Or C++20
long foo(long x);
int64_t foo(int64_t) requires (!std::is_same_v<int64_t, long>);
Do you want to know if a type is the same type as int64_t or do you want to know if something is 64 bits? Based on your proposed solution, I think you're asking about the latter. In that case, I would do something like
template<typename T>
bool is_64bits() { return sizeof(T) * CHAR_BIT == 64; } // or >= 64
So my question is: Is there a way to tell the compiler that a long long int is the also a int64_t, just like long int is?
This is a good question or problem, but I suspect the answer is NO.
Also, a long int
may not be a long long int
.
# if __WORDSIZE == 64 typedef long int int64_t; # else __extension__ typedef long long int int64_t; # endif
I believe this is libc. I suspect you want to go deeper.
In both 32-bit compile with GCC (and with 32- and 64-bit MSVC), the output of the program will be:
int: 0 int64_t: 1 long int: 0 long long int: 1
32-bit Linux uses the ILP32 data model. Integers, longs and pointers are 32-bit. The 64-bit type is a long long
.
Microsoft documents the ranges at Data Type Ranges. The say the long long
is equivalent to __int64
.
However, the program resulting from a 64-bit GCC compile will output:
int: 0 int64_t: 1 long int: 1 long long int: 0
64-bit Linux uses the LP64
data model. Longs are 64-bit and long long
are 64-bit. As with 32-bit, Microsoft documents the ranges at Data Type Ranges and long long is still __int64
.
There's a ILP64
data model where everything is 64-bit. You have to do some extra work to get a definition for your word32
type. Also see papers like 64-Bit Programming Models: Why LP64?
But this is horribly hackish and does not scale well (actual functions of substance, uint64_t, etc)...
Yeah, it gets even better. GCC mixes and matches declarations that are supposed to take 64 bit types, so its easy to get into trouble even though you follow a particular data model. For example, the following causes a compile error and tells you to use -fpermissive
:
#if __LP64__
typedef unsigned long word64;
#else
typedef unsigned long long word64;
#endif
// intel definition of rdrand64_step (http://software.intel.com/en-us/node/523864)
// extern int _rdrand64_step(unsigned __int64 *random_val);
// Try it:
word64 val;
int res = rdrand64_step(&val);
It results in:
error: invalid conversion from `word64* {aka long unsigned int*}' to `long long unsigned int*'
So, ignore LP64
and change it to:
typedef unsigned long long word64;
Then, wander over to a 64-bit ARM IoT gadget that defines LP64
and use NEON:
error: invalid conversion from `word64* {aka long long unsigned int*}' to `uint64_t*'