INT16-C. Do not make assumptions about representation of signed integers

Although many common implementations use a two's complement representation of signed integers, the C Standard declares such use as implementation-defined and allows all of the following representations:

• Sign and magnitude
• Two's complement
• One's complement

This is a specific example of MSC14-C. Do not introduce unnecessary platform dependencies.

Noncompliant Code Example

One way to check whether a number is even or odd is to examine the least significant bit, but the results will be inconsistent. Specifically, this example gives unexpected behavior on all one's complement implementations:

int value;

if (scanf("%d", &value) == 1) {
  if (value & 0x1 != 0) {
    /* Take action if value is odd */
  }
}

Compliant Solution

The same thing can be achieved compliantly using the modulo operator:

int value;

if (scanf("%d", &value) == 1) {
  if (value % 2 != 0) {
    /* Take action if value is odd */
  }
}

Compliant Solution

Using bitwise operators is safe on unsigned integers:

unsigned int value;

if (scanf("%u", &value) == 1) {
  if (value & 0x1 != 0) {
    /* Take action if value is odd */
  }
}

Risk Assessment

Incorrect assumptions about integer representation can lead to execution of unintended code branches and other unexpected behavior.

Automated Detection