This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 115e. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.

2024-11-11

854. Left shift and unsigned extended types

Section: 7.6.7  [expr.shift]     Status: CD2     Submitter: Daniel Krügler     Date: 5 April, 2009

[Voted into WP at October, 2009 meeting.]

According to 7.6.7 [expr.shift] paragraph 2,

The value of E1 << E2 is E1 (interpreted as a bit pattern) left-shifted E2 bit positions; vacated bits are zero-filled. If E1 has an unsigned type, the value of the result is E1 multiplied by the quantity 2 raised to the power E2, reduced modulo ULLONG_MAX+1 if E1 has type unsigned long long int, ULONG_MAX+1 if E1 has type unsigned long int, UINT_MAX+1 otherwise.

This specification does not allow for extended types with rank greater than long long; in particular, it says that the value of a shifted unsigned extended type is truncated as if it were the same width as an unsigned int.

It's unclear that the second sentence has any normative value; it might be better to relegate it to a note or omit it than to correct it.

Proposed resolution (July, 2009):

Change 7.6.7 [expr.shift] paragraphs 2-3 as follows:

The value of E1 << E2 is E1 (interpreted as a bit pattern) left-shifted E2 bit positions; vacated bits are zero-filled. If E1 has an unsigned type, the value of the result is E1 multiplied by the quantity 2 raised to the power E2 × 2E2, reduced modulo ULLONG_MAX+1 if E1 has type unsigned long long int, ULONG_MAX+1 if E1 has type unsigned long int, UINT_MAX+1 otherwise. [Note: the constants ULLONG_MAX, ULONG_MAX, and UINT_MAX are defined in the header <climits>. —end note] one more than the maximum value representable in the result type. Otherwise, if E1 has a signed type and nonnegative value, and E1 × 2E2 is representable in the result type, then that is the resulting value; otherwise, the behavior is undefined.

The value of E1 >> E2 is E1 right-shifted E2 bit positions. If E1 has an unsigned type or if E1 has a signed type and a nonnegative value, the value of the result is the integral part of the quotient of E1 divided by the quantity 2 raised to the power E2 / 2E2. If E1 has a signed type and a negative value, the resulting value is implementation-defined.