Defning SIZE_MAX

http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t658743-defning-size_max.html

 

#define MY_SIZE_MAX ((size_t)-1)

(ozbear) writes: > In another thread related to size_t and SIZE_MAX, a #define > was suggested for SIZE_MAX where is it not predefined. > > The #define was: > > #define MY_SIZE_MAX ((size_t)-1) > > I have tried this on my system in a printf and it yields a > reasonable value but I do not fully understand how it it > evaluated. size_t is a /type/, defined on my system as > > typedef unsigned int size_t; > > The part I do not understand is the the meaning of subtracting 1 > from a /type/ rather than an expression? How does the compiler > evaluate this? As Ian Collins already posted, it's a cast, not a subtraction. Looking at the expression in painful detail from the inside out: ``1'' is an integer constant. ``-1'' is an expression consisting of a unary "-" applied to ``1''. It's value is -1, and its type is int. ``(size_t)-1'' is a cast expression, specifying that the result of the expression ``-1'' is to be converted to type size_t. Given the the rules for converting a signed int value to an unsigned type, the result is the maximum value of type size_t. Finally, we put parentheses around the whole thing because it's a macro definition. -- Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst- <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst> Nokia "We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this." -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"