Issue 0204: size_t and ptrdiff_t as a long long type

This issue has been automatically converted from the original issue lists and some formatting may not have been preserved.

Authors: Canada C Working Group, Raymond Mak (Canada C Working Group)
Date: 1999-09-15
Reference document: ISO/IEC WG14 N893
Submitted against: C99
Status: Fixed
Fixed in: C99 TC1
Converted from: summary-c99.htm, dr_204.htm

Summary

size_t and ptrdiff_t can now be a long long type, which is not necessary for hardwares that do not support 64-bit addressing. Implementors should be encouraged to choose a type for these two that minimizes compatibility problems to existing (32-bit) code.

Suggested Correction

In 7.17 at the end of p2, add the following:

Recommended Practice

The long long type should be used only if no other integer types can represent the value range required by the implementation.

Comment from WG14 on 2000-11-02:

Technical Corrigendum

Add to the end of 7.17:

Recommended Practice

[#4] The types used for size_t and ptrdiff_t should not have an integer conversion rank greater than that of signed long unless the implementation supports objects large enough to make this necessary.