INT15-A. Take care when converting from pointer to integer or integer to pointer

While it has been common practice to use integers and pointers interchangeably in C, the C99 standard states that pointer to integer and integer to pointer conversions are implementation defined.

According to C99 [[ISO/IEC 9899-1999:TC2]], the only value that can be considered interchangeable between pointers and integers is the constant 0. Except in this case, conversions between integers and pointers may have undesired consequences depending on the implementation:

An integer may be converted to any pointer type. Except as previously specified, the result is implementation-defined, might not be correctly aligned, might not point to an entity of the referenced type, and might be a trap representation.

This is because the mapping functions for converting a pointer to an integer or an integer to a pointer are intended to be consistent with the addressing structure of the execution environment.

Non-Compliant Code Example

In this non-compliant code example, the pointer ptr is used in an arithmetic operation that is eventually converted to an integer value. As previously stated, the result of this assignment and following assignment to ptr2 are implementation defined.

unsigned int myint = 0;
unsigned int *ptr = &myint;
/* ... */
unsigned int number = ptr + 1;
unsigned int *ptr2 = ptr;

Compliant Solution

A union can be used to give raw memory access to both an integer and a pointer. This is an efficient approach, as the structure only requires as much storage as the larger of the two fields.

union intpoint {
  unsigned int *pointer;
  unsigned int number;
} intpoint;
/* ... */
intpoint mydata = 0xcfcfcfcf;
/* ... */
unsigned int num = mydata.number + 1;
unsigned int *ptr = mydata.pointer;

Non-Compliant Code Example

It is sometimes necessary in low level kernel or graphics code to access memory at a specific location, requiring a literal integer to pointer to conversion. In this non-compliant code, a pointer is set directly to an integer constant, where it is unknown whether the result will be as intended.

unsigned int *ptr = 0xcfcfcfcf;

The result of this assignment is implementation defined, might not be correctly aligned, might not point to an entity of the referenced type, and might be a trap representation.

Compliant Solution

Adding an explicit cast may help the compiler convert the integer value into a valid pointer.

unsigned int *ptr = (unsigned int *)0xcfcfcfcf;

Risk Analysis

Converting from pointer to integer or vice versa results in unportable code and may create unexpected pointers to invalid memory locations.

References

[[ISO/IEC 9899-1999:TC2]] Section 6.3.2.3, "Pointers"