Re:Everything in C is undefined behavior
by jstimpfle on Wednesday May 20, 2026 @10:15AM
(#48208223)
IIRC computation of the address is done by computing offset from base pointer as a multiplication in (32-bit) int, (like p + (i * sizeof (Foo)). The right term might overflow, but due to signed overflow being UB, the compiler is able to assume that it does not, so the transformation to do the arithmetic entirely in (64-bit) pointer space is valid.
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Exactly. You as the programmer know that the loop counter won't overflow, and in general, essentially nobody would actually write it that way. But if you don't assume it can't happen, the possibility for signed overflow is everywhere in address computations.
This is also a major blocker for auto-vectorization. Can't coalesce a load of a[i], a[i+1], a[i+2], a[i+3] into a load of a[i:i+3] if there's a possibility that `i+1`, `i+2` or `i+3` wrapped around (thus causing your "contiguous" load to be non-contiguous). This is a big reason why you shouldn't use `unsigned` for loop counters, especially if they're going to be used as an index into an address calculation.
But surely the more natural approach than making this undefined behavior would be making the computation of a[i] take place in 64-bit pointer space rather than 32-bit int space? Why does the compiler need the freedom to emit nasal demons?