A Few More Issues of data types in C programming language

Having seen all the variations of the primary types let us take a look at some more related issues.
(a) We saw earlier that size of an integer is compiler dependent. This is even true in case of chars and floats. Also, depending upon the microprocessor for which the compiler targets its code the accuracy of floating point calculations may change. For example, the result of 22.0/7.0 would be reported moreaccurately by VC++ compiler as compared to TC/TC++ compilers. This is because TC/TC++ targets its compiled code to 8088/8086 (16-bit) microprocessors. Since these microprocessors do not offer floating point support, TC/TC++ performs all float operations using a software piece called Floating Point Emulator. This emulator has limitations and hence produces less accurate results. Also, this emulator becomes part of the EXE file, thereby increasing its size. In addition to this increased size there is a performance penalty since this bigger code would take more time to execute.

(b) If you look at ranges of chars and ints there seems to be one extra number on the negative side. This is because a negative number is always stored as 2’s compliment of its binary. For example, let us see how -128 is stored. Firstly, binary of 128 is calculated (10000000), then its 1’s compliment is obtained (01111111). A 1’s compliment is obtained by changing all 0s to 1s and 1s to 0s. Finally, 2’s compliment of this number, i.e. 10000000, gets stored. A 2’s compliment is obtained by adding 1 to the 1’s compliment. Thus, for -128, 10000000 gets stored. This is an 8-bit number and it can be easily accommodated in a char. As against this, +128 cannot be stored in a char because its binary 010000000 (left-most 0 is for positive sign) is a 9-bit number. However +127 can be stored as its binary 01111111 turns out to be a 8-bit number.

(c) What happens when we attempt to store +128 in a char? The first number on the negative side, i.e. -128 gets stored. This is because from the 9-bit binary of +128, 010000000, only the right-most 8 bits get stored. But when 10000000 is stored the left-most bit is 1 and it is treated as a sign bit. Thus the value of the number becomes -128 since it is indeed the binary of -128, as can be understood from (b) above. Similarly, you can verify that an attempt to store +129 in a char results in storing -127 in it. In general, if we exceed the range from positive side we end up on the negative side. Vice versa is also true. If we exceed the range from negative side we end up on positive side.