5. Environment

5. Environment
1 An implementation translates C source files and executes C programs in two dataprocessing-
system environments, which will be called the translation environment and
the execution environment in this International Standard. Their characteristics define and
constrain the results of executing conforming C programs constructed according to the
syntactic and semantic rules for conforming implementations.
Forward references: In this clause, only a few of many possible forward references
have been noted.
5.1 Conceptual models
5.1.1 Translation environment
5.1.1.1 Program structure
1 A C program need not all be translated at the same time. The text of the program is kept
in units called source files, (or preprocessing files) in this International Standard. A
source file together with all the headers and source files included via the preprocessing
directive #include is known as a preprocessing translation unit. After preprocessing, a
preprocessing translation unit is called a translation unit. Previously translated translation
units may be preserved individually or in libraries. The separate translation units of a
program communicate by (for example) calls to functions whose identifiers have external
linkage, manipulation of objects whose identifiers have external linkage, or manipulation
of data files. Translation units may be separately translated and then later linked to
produce an executable program.
Forward references: linkages of identifiers (6.2.2), external definitions (6.9),
preprocessing directives (6.10).
5.1.1.2 Translation phases
1 The precedence among the syntax rules of translation is specified by the following
phases.5)
1. Physical source file multibyte characters are mapped, in an implementationdefined
manner, to the source character set (introducing new-line characters for
end-of-line indicators) if necessary. Trigraph sequences are replaced by
corresponding single-character internal representations.
2. Each instance of a backslash character (/) immediately followed by a new-line
character is deleted, splicing physical source lines to form logical source lines.
Only the last backslash on any physical source line shall be eligible for being part
5) Implementations shall behave as if these separate phases occur, even though many are typically folded
together in practice. 

of such a splice. A source file that is not empty shall end in a new-line character,
which shall not be immediately preceded by a backslash character before any such
splicing takes place.
3. The source file is decomposed into preprocessing tokens6) and sequences of
white-space characters (including comments). A source file shall not end in a
partial preprocessing token or in a partial comment. Each comment is replaced by
one space character. New-line characters are retained. Whether each nonempty
sequence of white-space characters other than new-line is retained or replaced by
one space character is implementation-defined.
4. Preprocessing directives are executed, macro invocations are expanded, and
_Pragma unary operator expressions are executed. If a character sequence that
matches the syntax of a universal character name is produced by token
concatenation (6.10.3.3), the behavior is undefined. A #include preprocessing
directive causes the named header or source file to be processed from phase 1
through phase 4, recursively. All preprocessing directives are then deleted.
5. Each source character set member and escape sequence in character constants and
string literals is converted to the corresponding member of the execution character
set; if there is no corresponding member, it is converted to an implementationdefined
member other than the null (wide) character.7)
6. Adjacent string literal tokens are concatenated.
7. White-space characters separating tokens are no longer significant. Each
preprocessing token is converted into a token. The resulting tokens are
syntactically and semantically analyzed and translated as a translation unit.
8. All external object and function references are resolved. Library components are
linked to satisfy external references to functions and objects not defined in the
current translation. All such translator output is collected into a program image
which contains information needed for execution in its execution environment.
Forward references: universal character names (6.4.3), lexical elements (6.4),
preprocessing directives (6.10), trigraph sequences (5.2.1.1), external definitions (6.9).
6) As described in 6.4, the process of dividing a source file’s characters into preprocessing tokens is
context-dependent. For example, see the handling of < within a #include preprocessing directive.
7) An implementation need not convert all non-corresponding source characters to the same execution
character.

5.1.1.3 Diagnostics
1 A conforming implementation shall produce at least one diagnostic message (identified in
an implementation-defined manner) if a preprocessing translation unit or translation unit
contains a violation of any syntax rule or constraint, even if the behavior is also explicitly
specified as undefined or implementation-defined. Diagnostic messages need not be
produced in other circumstances.8)
2 EXAMPLE An implementation shall issue a diagnostic for the translation unit:
char i;
int i;
because in those cases where wording in this International Standard describes the behavior for a construct
as being both a constraint error and resulting in undefined behavior, the constraint error shall be diagnosed.
5.1.2 Execution environments
1 Tw o execution environments are defined: freestanding and hosted. In both cases,
program startup occurs when a designated C function is called by the execution
environment. All objects with static storage duration shall be initialized (set to their
initial values) before program startup. The manner and timing of such initialization are
otherwise unspecified. Program termination returns control to the execution
environment.
Forward references: storage durations of objects (6.2.4), initialization (6.7.8).
5.1.2.1 Freestanding environment
1 In a freestanding environment (in which C program execution may take place without any
benefit of an operating system), the name and type of the function called at program
startup are implementation-defined. Any library facilities available to a freestanding
program, other than the minimal set required by clause 4, are implementation-defined.
2 The effect of program termination in a freestanding environment is implementationdefined.
5.1.2.2 Hosted environment
1 A hosted environment need not be provided, but shall conform to the following
specifications if present.

5.1.2.2.1 Program startup
1 The function called at program startup is named main. The implementation declares no
prototype for this function. It shall be defined with a return type of int and with no
parameters:
int main(void) { /* ... */ }
or with two parameters (referred to here as argc and argv, though any names may be
used, as they are local to the function in which they are declared):
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { /* ... */ }
or equivalent;9) or in some other implementation-defined manner.
2 If they are declared, the parameters to the main function shall obey the following
constraints:
— The value of argc shall be nonnegative.
— argv[argc] shall be a null pointer.
— If the value of argc is greater than zero, the array members argv[0] through
argv[argc-1] inclusive shall contain pointers to strings, which are given
implementation-defined values by the host environment prior to program startup. The
intent is to supply to the program information determined prior to program startup
from elsewhere in the hosted environment. If the host environment is not capable of
supplying strings with letters in both uppercase and lowercase, the implementation
shall ensure that the strings are received in lowercase.
— If the value of argc is greater than zero, the string pointed to by argv[0]
represents the program name; argv[0][0] shall be the null character if the
program name is not available from the host environment. If the value of argc is
greater than one, the strings pointed to by argv[1] through argv[argc-1]
represent the program parameters.
— The parameters argc and argv and the strings pointed to by the argv array shall
be modifiable by the program, and retain their last-stored values between program
startup and program termination.
5.1.2.2.2 Program execution
1 In a hosted environment, a program may use all the functions, macros, type definitions,
and objects described in the library clause (clause 7).

5.1.2.2.3 Program termination
1 If the return type of the main function is a type compatible with int, a return from the
initial call to the main function is equivalent to calling the exit function with the value
returned by the main function as its argument;10) reaching the } that terminates the
main function returns a value of 0. If the return type is not compatible with int, the
termination status returned to the host environment is unspecified.
Forward references: definition of terms (7.1.1), the exit function (7.20.4.3).
5.1.2.3 Program execution
1 The semantic descriptions in this International Standard describe the behavior of an
abstract machine in which issues of optimization are irrelevant.
2 Accessing a volatile object, modifying an object, modifying a file, or calling a function
that does any of those operations are all side effects,11) which are changes in the state of
the execution environment. Evaluation of an expression may produce side effects. At
certain specified points in the execution sequence called sequence points, all side effects
of previous evaluations shall be complete and no side effects of subsequent evaluations
shall have taken place. (A summary of the sequence points is given in annex C.)
3 In the abstract machine, all expressions are evaluated as specified by the semantics. An
actual implementation need not evaluate part of an expression if it can deduce that its
value is not used and that no needed side effects are produced (including any caused by
calling a function or accessing a volatile object).
4 When the processing of the abstract machine is interrupted by receipt of a signal, only the
values of objects as of the previous sequence point may be relied on. Objects that may be
modified between the previous sequence point and the next sequence point need not have
received their correct values yet.
5 The least requirements on a conforming implementation are:
— At sequence points, volatile objects are stable in the sense that previous accesses are
complete and subsequent accesses have not yet occurred.

— At program termination, all data written into files shall be identical to the result that
execution of the program according to the abstract semantics would have produced.
— The input and output dynamics of interactive devices shall take place as specified in
7.19.3. The intent of these requirements is that unbuffered or line-buffered output
appear as soon as possible, to ensure that prompting messages actually appear prior to
a program waiting for input.
6 What constitutes an interactive device is implementation-defined.
7 More stringent correspondences between abstract and actual semantics may be defined by
each implementation.
8 EXAMPLE 1 An implementation might define a one-to-one correspondence between abstract and actual
semantics: at every sequence point, the values of the actual objects would agree with those specified by the
abstract semantics. The keyword volatile would then be redundant.
9 Alternatively, an implementation might perform various optimizations within each translation unit, such
that the actual semantics would agree with the abstract semantics only when making function calls across
translation unit boundaries. In such an implementation, at the time of each function entry and function
return where the calling function and the called function are in different translation units, the values of all
externally linked objects and of all objects accessible via pointers therein would agree with the abstract
semantics. Furthermore, at the time of each such function entry the values of the parameters of the called
function and of all objects accessible via pointers therein would agree with the abstract semantics. In this
type of implementation, objects referred to by interrupt service routines activated by the signal function
would require explicit specification of volatile storage, as well as other implementation-defined
restrictions.
10 EXAMPLE 2 In executing the fragment
char c1, c2;
/* ... */
c1 = c1 + c2;
the ‘‘integer promotions’’ require that the abstract machine promote the value of each variable to int size
and then add the two ints and truncate the sum. Provided the addition of two chars can be done without
overflow, or with overflow wrapping silently to produce the correct result, the actual execution need only
produce the same result, possibly omitting the promotions.
11 EXAMPLE 3 Similarly, in the fragment
float f1, f2;
double d;
/* ... */
f1 = f2 * d;
the multiplication may be executed using single-precision arithmetic if the implementation can ascertain
that the result would be the same as if it were executed using double-precision arithmetic (for example, if d
were replaced by the constant 2.0, which has type double).

EXAMPLE 4 Implementations employing wide registers have to take care to honor appropriate
semantics. Values are independent of whether they are represented in a register or in memory. For
example, an implicit spilling of a register is not permitted to alter the value. Also, an explicit store and load
is required to round to the precision of the storage type. In particular, casts and assignments are required to
perform their specified conversion. For the fragment
double d1, d2;
float f;
d1 = f = expression;
d2 = (float) expressions;
the values assigned to d1 and d2 are required to have been converted to float.
13 EXAMPLE 5 Rearrangement for floating-point expressions is often restricted because of limitations in
precision as well as range. The implementation cannot generally apply the mathematical associative rules
for addition or multiplication, nor the distributive rule, because of roundoff error, even in the absence of
overflow and underflow. Likewise, implementations cannot generally replace decimal constants in order to
rearrange expressions. In the following fragment, rearrangements suggested by mathematical rules for real
numbers are often not valid (see F.8).
double x, y, z;
/* ... */
x = (x * y) * z; // not equivalent tox *= y * z;
z = (x - y) + y ; // not equivalent toz = x;
z = x + x * y; // not equivalent toz = x * (1.0 + y);
y = x / 5.0; // not equivalent toy = x * 0.2;
14 EXAMPLE 6 To illustrate the grouping behavior of expressions, in the following fragment
int a, b;
/* ... */
a = a + 32760 + b + 5;
the expression statement behaves exactly the same as
a = (((a + 32760) + b) + 5);
due to the associativity and precedence of these operators. Thus, the result of the sum (a + 32760) is
next added to b, and that result is then added to 5 which results in the value assigned to a. On a machine in
which overflows produce an explicit trap and in which the range of values representable by an int is
[−32768, +32767], the implementation cannot rewrite this expression as
a = ((a + b) + 32765);
since if the values for a and b were, respectively, −32754 and −15, the sum a + b would produce a trap
while the original expression would not; nor can the expression be rewritten either as
a = ((a + 32765) + b);
or
a = (a + (b + 32765));
since the values for a and b might have been, respectively, 4 and −8 or −17 and 12. However, on a machine
in which overflow silently generates some value and where positive and negative overflows cancel, the
above expression statement can be rewritten by the implementation in any of the above ways because the
same result will occur.

EXAMPLE 7 The grouping of an expression does not completely determine its evaluation. In the
following fragment
#include <stdio.h>
int sum;
char *p;
/* ... */
sum = sum * 10 - '0' + (*p++ = getchar());
the expression statement is grouped as if it were written as
sum = (((sum * 10) - '0') + ((*(p++)) = (getchar())));
but the actual increment of p can occur at any time between the previous sequence point and the next
sequence point (the ;), and the call to getchar can occur at any point prior to the need of its returned
value.
Forward references: expressions (6.5), type qualifiers (6.7.3), statements (6.8), the
signal function (7.14), files (7.19.3).

5.2 Environmental considerations
5.2.1 Character sets
1 Tw o sets of characters and their associated collating sequences shall be defined: the set in
which source files are written (the source character set), and the set interpreted in the
execution environment (the execution character set). Each set is further divided into a
basic character set, whose contents are given by this subclause, and a set of zero or more
locale-specific members (which are not members of the basic character set) called
extended characters. The combined set is also called the extended character set. The
values of the members of the execution character set are implementation-defined.
2 In a character constant or string literal, members of the execution character set shall be
represented by corresponding members of the source character set or by escape
sequences consisting of the backslash / followed by one or more characters. A byte with
all bits set to 0, called the null character, shall exist in the basic execution character set; it
is used to terminate a character string.
3 Both the basic source and basic execution character sets shall have the following
members: the 26 uppercase letters of the Latin alphabet
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
the 26 lowercase letters of the Latin alphabet
a b c d e f g h i j k l m
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
the 10 decimal digits
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
the following 29 graphic characters
! " # % & ' ( ) * + , - . / :
; < = > ? [ / ] ^ _ { | } ~
the space character, and control characters representing horizontal tab, vertical tab, and
form feed. The representation of each member of the source and execution basic
character sets shall fit in a byte. In both the source and execution basic character sets, the
value of each character after 0 in the above list of decimal digits shall be one greater than
the value of the previous. In source files, there shall be some way of indicating the end of
each line of text; this International Standard treats such an end-of-line indicator as if it
were a single new-line character. In the basic execution character set, there shall be
control characters representing alert, backspace, carriage return, and new line. If any
other characters are encountered in a source file (except in an identifier, a character
constant, a string literal, a header name, a comment, or a preprocessing token that is never
§5.2.1 Environment 17
ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E) ©ISO/IEC
converted to a token), the behavior is undefined.
4 Aletter is an uppercase letter or a lowercase letter as defined above; in this International
Standard the term does not include other characters that are letters in other alphabets.
5 The universal character name construct provides a way to name other characters.
Forward references: universal character names (6.4.3), character constants (6.4.4.4),
preprocessing directives (6.10), string literals (6.4.5), comments (6.4.9), string (7.1.1).
5.2.1.1 Trigraph sequences
1 All occurrences in a source file of the following sequences of three characters (called
trigraph sequences12)) are replaced with the corresponding single character.
??= #
??( [
??/ /
??) ]
??' ^
??< {
??! |
??> }
??- ~
No other trigraph sequences exist. Each ? that does not begin one of the trigraphs listed
above is not changed.
2 EXAMPLE The following source line
printf("Eh???/n");
becomes (after replacement of the trigraph sequence ??/)
printf("Eh?/n");
5.2.1.2 Multibyte characters
1 The source character set may contain multibyte characters, used to represent members of
the extended character set. The execution character set may also contain multibyte
characters, which need not have the same encoding as for the source character set. For
both character sets, the following shall hold:
— The basic character set shall be present and each character shall be encoded as a
single byte.
— The presence, meaning, and representation of any additional members is localespecific.
— A multibyte character set may have a state-dependent encoding, wherein each
sequence of multibyte characters begins in an initial shift state and enters other
locale-specific shift states when specific multibyte characters are encountered in the
sequence. While in the initial shift state, all single-byte characters retain their usual
interpretation and do not alter the shift state. The interpretation for subsequent bytes
12) The trigraph sequences enable the input of characters that are not defined in the Invariant Code Set as
described in ISO/IEC 646, which is a subset of the seven-bit US ASCII code set.
18 Environment §5.2.1.2
©ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E)
in the sequence is a function of the current shift state.
— A byte with all bits zero shall be interpreted as a null character independent of shift
state.
— A byte with all bits zero shall not occur in the second or subsequent bytes of a
multibyte character.
2 For source files, the following shall hold:
— An identifier, comment, string literal, character constant, or header name shall begin
and end in the initial shift state.
— An identifier, comment, string literal, character constant, or header name shall consist
of a sequence of valid multibyte characters.
5.2.2 Character display semantics
1 The active position is that location on a display device where the next character output by
the fputc function would appear. The intent of writing a printing character (as defined
by the isprint function) to a display device is to display a graphic representation of
that character at the active position and then advance the active position to the next
position on the current line. The direction of writing is locale-specific. If the active
position is at the final position of a line (if there is one), the behavior of the display device
is unspecified.
2 Alphabetic escape sequences representing nongraphic characters in the execution
character set are intended to produce actions on display devices as follows:
/a (alert) Produces an audible or visible alert without changing the active position.
/b (backspace) Moves the active position to the previous position on the current line. If
the active position is at the initial position of a line, the behavior of the display
device is unspecified.
/f ( form feed) Moves the active position to the initial position at the start of the next
logical page.
/n (new line) Moves the active position to the initial position of the next line.
/r (carriage return) Moves the active position to the initial position of the current line.
/t (horizontal tab) Moves the active position to the next horizontal tabulation position
on the current line. If the active position is at or past the last defined horizontal
tabulation position, the behavior of the display device is unspecified.
/v (vertical tab) Moves the active position to the initial position of the next vertical
tabulation position. If the active position is at or past the last defined vertical
tabulation position, the behavior of the display device is unspecified.
§5.2.2 Environment 19
ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E) ©ISO/IEC
3 Each of these escape sequences shall produce a unique implementation-defined value
which can be stored in a single char object. The external representations in a text file
need not be identical to the internal representations, and are outside the scope of this
International Standard.
Forward references: the isprint function (7.4.1.8), the fputc function (7.19.7.3).
5.2.3 Signals and interrupts
1 Functions shall be implemented such that they may be interrupted at any time by a signal,
or may be called by a signal handler, or both, with no alteration to earlier, but still active,
invocations’ control flow (after the interruption), function return values, or objects with
automatic storage duration. All such objects shall be maintained outside the function
image (the instructions that compose the executable representation of a function) on a
per-invocation basis.
5.2.4 Environmental limits
1 Both the translation and execution environments constrain the implementation of
language translators and libraries. The following summarizes the language-related
environmental limits on a conforming implementation; the library-related limits are
discussed in clause 7.
5.2.4.1 Translation limits
1 The implementation shall be able to translate and execute at least one program that
contains at least one instance of every one of the following limits:13)
— 127 nesting levels of blocks
— 63 nesting levels of conditional inclusion
— 12 pointer, array, and function declarators (in any combinations) modifying an
arithmetic, structure, union, or incomplete type in a declaration
— 63 nesting levels of parenthesized declarators within a full declarator
— 63 nesting levels of parenthesized expressions within a full expression
— 63 significant initial characters in an internal identifier or a macro name (each
universal character name or extended source character is considered a single
character)
— 31 significant initial characters in an external identifier (each universal character name
specifying a short identifier of 0000FFFF or less is considered 6 characters, each
universal character name specifying a short identifier of 00010000 or more is
considered 10 characters, and each extended source character is considered the same
13) Implementations should avoid imposing fixed translation limits whenever possible.
20 Environment §5.2.4.1
©ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E)
number of characters as the corresponding universal character name, if any)14)
— 4095 external identifiers in one translation unit
— 511 identifiers with block scope declared in one block
— 4095 macro identifiers simultaneously defined in one preprocessing translation unit
— 127 parameters in one function definition
— 127 arguments in one function call
— 127 parameters in one macro definition
— 127 arguments in one macro invocation
— 4095 characters in a logical source line
— 4095 characters in a character string literal or wide string literal (after concatenation)
— 65535 bytes in an object (in a hosted environment only)
— 15 nesting levels for #included files
— 1023 case labels for a switch statement (excluding those for any nested switch
statements)
— 1023 members in a single structure or union
— 1023 enumeration constants in a single enumeration
— 63 lev els of nested structure or union definitions in a single struct-declaration-list
5.2.4.2 Numerical limits
1 An implementation is required to document all the limits specified in this subclause,
which are specified in the headers <limits.h> and <float.h>. Additional limits are
specified in <stdint.h>.
Forward references: integer types <stdint.h> (7.18).
5.2.4.2.1 Sizes of integer types <limits.h>
1 The values given below shall be replaced by constant expressions suitable for use in #if
preprocessing directives. Moreover, except for CHAR_BIT and MB_LEN_MAX, the
following shall be replaced by expressions that have the same type as would an
expression that is an object of the corresponding type converted according to the integer
promotions. Their implementation-defined values shall be equal or greater in magnitude
(absolute value) to those shown, with the same sign.
14) See ‘‘future language directions’’ (6.11.3).
§5.2.4.2.1 Environment 21
ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E) ©ISO/IEC
— number of bits for smallest object that is not a bit-field (byte)
CHAR_BIT 8
— minimum value for an object of type signed char
SCHAR_MIN -127 // -(27 - 1)
— maximum value for an object of type signed char
SCHAR_MAX +127 // 27 - 1
— maximum value for an object of type unsigned char
UCHAR_MAX 255 // 28 - 1
— minimum value for an object of type char
CHAR_MIN see below
— maximum value for an object of type char
CHAR_MAX see below
— maximum number of bytes in a multibyte character, for any supported locale
MB_LEN_MAX 1
— minimum value for an object of type short int
SHRT_MIN -32767 // -(215 - 1)
— maximum value for an object of type short int
SHRT_MAX +32767 // 215 - 1
— maximum value for an object of type unsigned short int
USHRT_MAX 65535 // 216 - 1
— minimum value for an object of type int
INT_MIN -32767 // -(215 - 1)
— maximum value for an object of type int
INT_MAX +32767 // 215 - 1
— maximum value for an object of type unsigned int
UINT_MAX 65535 // 216 - 1
— minimum value for an object of type long int
LONG_MIN -2147483647 // -(231 - 1)
— maximum value for an object of type long int
LONG_MAX +2147483647 // 231 - 1
— maximum value for an object of type unsigned long int
ULONG_MAX 4294967295 // 232 - 1
— minimum value for an object of type long long int
LLONG_MIN -9223372036854775807 // -(263 - 1)
22 Environment §5.2.4.2.1
©ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E)
— maximum value for an object of type long long int
LLONG_MAX +9223372036854775807 // 263 - 1
— maximum value for an object of type unsigned long long int
ULLONG_MAX 18446744073709551615 // 264 - 1
2 If the value of an object of type char is treated as a signed integer when used in an
expression, the value of CHAR_MIN shall be the same as that of SCHAR_MIN and the
value of CHAR_MAX shall be the same as that of SCHAR_MAX. Otherwise, the value of
CHAR_MIN shall be 0 and the value of CHAR_MAX shall be the same as that of
UCHAR_MAX.15) The value UCHAR_MAX shall equal 2CHAR_BIT - 1.
Forward references: representations of types (6.2.6), conditional inclusion (6.10.1).
5.2.4.2.2 Characteristics of floating types <float.h>
1 The characteristics of floating types are defined in terms of a model that describes a
representation of floating-point numbers and values that provide information about an
implementation’s floating-point arithmetic.16) The following parameters are used to
define the model for each floating-point type:
s sign (±1)
b base or radix of exponent representation (an integer > 1)
e exponent (an integer between a minimum emin and a maximum emax)
p precision (the number of base-b digits in the significand)
fk nonnegative integers less than b (the significand digits)
2 Afloating-point number (x) is defined by the following model:
x = sbe
p
k=1 S fkb-k , emin £ e £ emax
3 In addition to normalized floating-point numbers ( f1 > 0 if x ¹ 0), floating types may be
able to contain other kinds of floating-point numbers, such as subnormal floating-point
numbers (x ¹ 0, e = emin, f1 = 0) and unnormalized floating-point numbers (x ¹ 0,
e > emin, f1 = 0), and values that are not floating-point numbers, such as infinities and
NaNs. A NaN is an encoding signifying Not-a-Number. A quiet NaN propagates
through almost every arithmetic operation without raising a floating-point exception; a
signaling NaN generally raises a floating-point exception when occurring as an
15) See 6.2.5.
16) The floating-point model is intended to clarify the description of each floating-point characteristic and
does not require the floating-point arithmetic of the implementation to be identical.
§5.2.4.2.2 Environment 23
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arithmetic operand.17)
4 The accuracy of the floating-point operations (+, -, *, /) and of the library functions in
<math.h> and <complex.h> that return floating-point results is implementationdefined.
The implementation may state that the accuracy is unknown.
5 All integer values in the <float.h> header, except FLT_ROUNDS, shall be constant
expressions suitable for use in #if preprocessing directives; all floating values shall be
constant expressions. All except DECIMAL_DIG, FLT_EVAL_METHOD, FLT_RADIX,
and FLT_ROUNDS have separate names for all three floating-point types. The floatingpoint
model representation is provided for all values except FLT_EVAL_METHOD and
FLT_ROUNDS.
6 The rounding mode for floating-point addition is characterized by the implementationdefined
value of FLT_ROUNDS:18)
-1 indeterminable
0 toward zero
1 to nearest
2 toward positive infinity
3 toward negative infinity
All other values for FLT_ROUNDS characterize implementation-defined rounding
behavior.
7 The values of operations with floating operands and values subject to the usual arithmetic
conversions and of floating constants are evaluated to a format whose range and precision
may be greater than required by the type. The use of evaluation formats is characterized
by the implementation-defined value of FLT_EVAL_METHOD:19)
-1 indeterminable;
0 evaluate all operations and constants just to the range and precision of the
type;
17) IEC 60559:1989 specifies quiet and signaling NaNs. For implementations that do not support
IEC 60559:1989, the terms quiet NaN and signaling NaN are intended to apply to encodings with
similar behavior.
18) Evaluation of FLT_ROUNDS correctly reflects any execution-time change of rounding mode through
the function fesetround in <fenv.h>.
19) The evaluation method determines evaluation formats of expressions involving all floating types, not
just real types. For example, if FLT_EVAL_METHOD is 1, then the product of two float
_Complex operands is represented in the double _Complex format, and its parts are evaluated to
double.
24 Environment §5.2.4.2.2
©ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E)
1 evaluate operations and constants of type float and double to the
range and precision of the double type, evaluate long double
operations and constants to the range and precision of the long double
type;
2 evaluate all operations and constants to the range and precision of the
long double type.
All other negative values for FLT_EVAL_METHOD characterize implementation-defined
behavior.
8 The values given in the following list shall be replaced by constant expressions with
implementation-defined values that are greater or equal in magnitude (absolute value) to
those shown, with the same sign:
— radix of exponent representation, b
FLT_RADIX 2
— number of base-FLT_RADIX digits in the floating-point significand, p
FLT_MANT_DIG
DBL_MANT_DIG
LDBL_MANT_DIG
— number of decimal digits, n, such that any floating-point number in the widest
supported floating type with pmax radix b digits can be rounded to a floating-point
number with n decimal digits and back again without change to the value,
ìíî
pmax log10 b
é1 + pmax log10 bù
if b is a power of 10
otherwise
DECIMAL_DIG 10
— number of decimal digits, q, such that any floating-point number with q decimal digits
can be rounded into a floating-point number with p radix b digits and back again
without change to the q decimal digits,
ìíî
p log10 b
ë(p - 1) log10 bû
if b is a power of 10
otherwise
FLT_DIG 6
DBL_DIG 10
LDBL_DIG 10
§5.2.4.2.2 Environment 25
ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E) ©ISO/IEC
— minimum negative integer such that FLT_RADIX raised to one less than that power is
a normalized floating-point number, emin
FLT_MIN_EXP
DBL_MIN_EXP
LDBL_MIN_EXP
— minimum negative integer such that 10 raised to that power is in the range of
normalized floating-point numbers, é
ê log10 bemin-1ù
ú
FLT_MIN_10_EXP -37
DBL_MIN_10_EXP -37
LDBL_MIN_10_EXP -37
— maximum integer such that FLT_RADIX raised to one less than that power is a
representable finite floating-point number, emax
FLT_MAX_EXP
DBL_MAX_EXP
LDBL_MAX_EXP
— maximum integer such that 10 raised to that power is in the range of representable
finite floating-point numbers, ëlog10((1 - b-p)bemax )û
FLT_MAX_10_EXP +37
DBL_MAX_10_EXP +37
LDBL_MAX_10_EXP +37
9 The values given in the following list shall be replaced by constant expressions with
implementation-defined values that are greater than or equal to those shown:
— maximum representable finite floating-point number, (1 - b-p)bemax
FLT_MAX 1E+37
DBL_MAX 1E+37
LDBL_MAX 1E+37
10 The values given in the following list shall be replaced by constant expressions with
implementation-defined (positive) values that are less than or equal to those shown:
— the difference between 1 and the least value greater than 1 that is representable in the
given floating point type, b1-p
FLT_EPSILON 1E-5
DBL_EPSILON 1E-9
LDBL_EPSILON 1E-9
26 Environment §5.2.4.2.2
©ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E)
— minimum normalized positive floating-point number, bemin-1
FLT_MIN 1E-37
DBL_MIN 1E-37
LDBL_MIN 1E-37
Recommended practice
11 Conversion from (at least) double to decimal with DECIMAL_DIG digits and back
should be the identity function.
12 EXAMPLE 1 The following describes an artificial floating-point representation that meets the minimum
requirements of this International Standard, and the appropriate values in a <float.h> header for type
float:
x = s16e
6
k=1 S fk16-k , -31 £ e £ +32
FLT_RADIX 16
FLT_MANT_DIG 6
FLT_EPSILON 9.53674316E-07F
FLT_DIG 6
FLT_MIN_EXP -31
FLT_MIN 2.93873588E-39F
FLT_MIN_10_EXP -38
FLT_MAX_EXP +32
FLT_MAX 3.40282347E+38F
FLT_MAX_10_EXP +38
13 EXAMPLE 2 The following describes floating-point representations that also meet the requirements for
single-precision and double-precision normalized numbers in IEC 60559,20) and the appropriate values in a
<float.h> header for types float and double:
x f = s2e
24
k=1 S fk2-k , -125 £ e £ +128
xd = s2e
53
k=1 S fk2-k , -1021 £ e £ +1024
FLT_RADIX 2
DECIMAL_DIG 17
FLT_MANT_DIG 24
FLT_EPSILON 1.19209290E-07F // decimal constant
FLT_EPSILON 0X1P-23F // hex constant
FLT_DIG 6
FLT_MIN_EXP -125
FLT_MIN 1.17549435E-38F // decimal constant
FLT_MIN 0X1P-126F // hex constant
20) The floating-point model in that standard sums powers of b from zero, so the values of the exponent
limits are one less than shown here.
§5.2.4.2.2 Environment 27
ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E) ©ISO/IEC
FLT_MIN_10_EXP -37
FLT_MAX_EXP +128
FLT_MAX 3.40282347E+38F // decimal constant
FLT_MAX 0X1.fffffeP127F // hex constant
FLT_MAX_10_EXP +38
DBL_MANT_DIG 53
DBL_EPSILON 2.2204460492503131E-16 // decimal constant
DBL_EPSILON 0X1P-52 // hex constant
DBL_DIG 15
DBL_MIN_EXP -1021
DBL_MIN 2.2250738585072014E-308 // decimal constant
DBL_MIN 0X1P-1022 // hex constant
DBL_MIN_10_EXP -307
DBL_MAX_EXP +1024
DBL_MAX 1.7976931348623157E+308 // decimal constant
DBL_MAX 0X1.fffffffffffffP1023 // hex constant
DBL_MAX_10_EXP +308
If a type wider than double were supported, then DECIMAL_DIG would be greater than 17. For
example, if the widest type were to use the minimal-width IEC 60559 double-extended format (64 bits of
precision), then DECIMAL_DIG would be 21.
Forward references: conditional inclusion (6.10.1), complex arithmetic
<complex.h> (7.3), floating-point environment <fenv.h> (7.6), mathematics
<math.h> (7.12).