Pointers On C: Instructor's Guide
Pointers On C: Instructor's Guide
Pointers On C: Instructor's Guide
Instructor’s Guide
Pointers on C—Instructor´s Guide i
Contents
Chapter 1 A Quick Start ........................................................................................................ 1
Chapter 2 Basic Concepts ...................................................................................................... 7
Chapter 3 Data ....................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 4 Statements ............................................................................................................. 15
Chapter 5 Operators and Expressions .................................................................................... 23
Chapter 6 Pointers .................................................................................................................. 29
Chapter 7 Functions ............................................................................................................... 37
Chapter 8 Arrays .................................................................................................................... 43
Chapter 9 Strings, Characters, and Bytes .............................................................................. 55
Chapter 10 Structures and Unions ........................................................................................... 69
Chapter 11 Dynamic Memory Allocation ................................................................................ 75
Chapter 12 Using Structures and Pointers ............................................................................... 79
Chapter 13 Advanced Pointer Topics ...................................................................................... 87
Chapter 14 The Preprocessor ................................................................................................... 93
Chapter 15 Input/Output Functions .......................................................................................... 95
Chapter 16 Standard Library .................................................................................................... 119
Chapter 17 Classic Abstract Data Types ................................................................................. 129
Chapter 18 Runtime Environment ........................................................................................... 145
1
A Quick Start
1.1 Questions
1. To make the program easier to read, which in turn makes it easier to maintain later.
3. It is easier to see what a named constant represents, if it is well named, than a literal constant,
which merely displays its value.
4. "%d %s %g\n"
6. The programmer can put in subscript checks where they are needed; in places where the sub-
script is already known to be correct (for example, from having been checked earlier), there is no
overhead expended in checking it again. But the real reason they are omitted is the fact that sub-
scripts are implemented as pointer expressions, which are described in Chapter 8.
7. More characters would be copied than are actually needed; however, the output_col would be
updated properly, so the next range of characters would be copied into the output array at the
proper place, replacing any extra characters from the preceding operation. The only potential
problem is that the unbounded strcpy might copy more characters into the output array than it
has room to hold, destroying some other variables.
/*
** Print the message "Hello world!" to the standard output.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
void
main( void )
1
2 Chapter 1 A Quick Start
{
printf( "Hello world!\n" );
}
3. Many students will attempt to read the input file line by line, which is unnecessarily complicated.
Other common errors are to forget to initialize the sum to -1, or to declare it an integer rather
than a character. Finally, be sure the variable used to read the characters is an integer; if it is a
character variable, the program will stop on systems with signed characters when the input con-
tains the binary value 0377 (which, when promoted to an integer, is -1 and equal to EOF). Note
that the overflow renders this program nonportable, but we don’t know enough yet to avoid it.
/*
** This program copies its standard input to the standard output, and computes
** a checksum of the characters. The checksum is printed after the input.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int
main( void )
{
int c;
char sum = –1;
/*
** Read the characters one by one, and add them to the sum.
*/
while( (c = getchar()) != EOF ){
putchar( c );
sum += c;
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
4. The basis of this program is an array which holds the longest string found so far, but a second
array is required to read each line. The buffers are declared 1001 characters long to hold the
data plus its terminating NUL byte. The only tricky thing is the initialization to prevent garbage
from being printed when the input is empty.
/*
** Reads lines of input from the standard input and prints the longest line that
** was found to the standard output. It is assumed that no line will exceed
** 1000 characters.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int
main( void )
{
char input[ MAX_LEN ];
int len;
char longest[ MAX_LEN ];
int longest_len;
/*
** Initialize length of the longest line found so far.
*/
longest_len = –1;
/*
** Read input lines, one by one.
*/
while( gets( input ) != NULL ){
/*
** Get length of this line. If it is longer than the previous
** longest line, save this line.
*/
len = strlen( input );
if( len > longest_len ){
longest_len = len;
strcpy( longest, input );
}
}
/*
** If we saved any line at all from the input, print it now.
*/
if( longest_len >= 0 )
puts( longest );
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
6. The statements
/*
** Make sure we have an even number of inputs ...
*/
if( num % 2 != 0 ){
puts( "Last column number is not paired." );
4 Chapter 1 A Quick Start
exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
are removed from the read_column_numbers function, and the rearrange function is
modified as follows. Note that the computation of nchars is moved after the test that checks
whether the starting column is within the bounds of the input string.
/*
** Process a line of input by concatenating the characters from the indicated
** columns. The output line is then NUL terminated.
*/
void
rearrange( char *output, char const *input, int const n_columns,
int const columns[] )
{
int col; /* subscript for columns array */
int output_col; /* output column counter */
int len; /* length of input line */
/*
** Process each pair of column numbers.
*/
for( col = 0; col < n_columns; col += 2 ){
int nchars;
/*
** If the input line isn’t this long or the output array is
** full, we’re done.
*/
if( columns[col] >= len || output_col == MAX_INPUT – 1 )
break;
/*
** Compute how many characters to copy.
*/
if( col + 1 < n_columns )
nchars = columns[col + 1] – columns[col] + 1;
else
nchars = len – columns[col + 1];
/*
** If there isn’t room in the output array, only copy what will
** fit.
*/
if( output_col + nchars > MAX_INPUT – 1 )
nchars = MAX_INPUT – output_col – 1;
/*
** Copy the relevant data.
*/
strncpy( output + output_col, input + columns[col], nchars );
output_col += nchars;
}
output[output_col] = ’\0’;
}
2.1 Questions
1. The outside comment ends at the end of the first enclosed comment. This makes the variable i
undefined in the rest of the function; the phrase End of commented–out code will be a syn-
tax error, and the final closing */ will be illegal.
2. Advantages:
a. When you want to modify a function, it is easy to determine which file it is in.
b. You can safely use longer function names. Depending on the limits of your particular sys-
tem, internal must be distinct from one another somewhere in the first 31 characters or
more, whereas external names must be distinct from one another in the first six characters.
Disadvantages:
a. Depending on how powerful your editor is, it may be harder to locate a particular piece of
code in a large file than a small one.
b. Depending on your operating system, the type of editor you are using, and the size of the
file, it may be more time consuming to edit a large file than a small one.
c. If you make a mistake in your editor, it is easy to lose the whole program.
d. Even if you change only one function, the entire program must be recompiled, which takes
longer than recompiling only the modified function.
e. It is harder to reuse general purpose functions from the program if they are buried in with
all the code that is specific to that problem.
3. "\"Blunder\?\?!??\""
Note that the final pair of questions marks need not be escaped, as the next character does not
form a trigraph.
5. The preprocessor replaces the comment with a single space, which makes the resulting statement
illegal.
6. Nothing. There are no conflicts with the C keywords or between the last two identifiers because
they are all differ in the case of their characters.
7
8 Chapter 2 Basic Concepts
9. The answer will vary from system to system, but on a UNIX system
cc main.c list.c report.c
/*
** Main program to test the increment and negate functions.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
main( void )
{
printf( "%d %d\n", increment( 10 ), negate( 10 ) );
printf( "%d %d\n", increment( 0 ), negate( 0 ) );
printf( "%d %d\n", increment( –10 ), negate( –10 ) );
}
/*
** A function to increment a value and return it.
*/
int
increment( int value )
{
return value + 1;
}
/*
** A function to negate a value and return it.
*/
int
negate( int value )
{
return –value;
}
3.1 Questions
Note to instructor: The first few questions ask the students to investigate some behaviors on their
own implementation. The answers given describe what the Standard says about each situation;
this is far more detailed than students are likely discover on their own. You may wish to use
some of the material in these answers in your presentation.
1. Depends; look in <limits.h> for the definitions. The location of this include file may vary; on
UNIX systems it is typically found in the directory /usr/include. For Borland compilers, look
in the include directory found where the compiler was installed.
2. Depends; look in <float.h> for the definitions. See above for the location of this file.
4. Many compilers will give a warning message. The Standard defines the runtime behavior
roughly this way: if the value to be assigned is small enough to fit in the shorter variable, its
value is preserved; otherwise, it is implementation dependent. The carefully worded description
implies that the implementation may simply discard the high-order bits that don’t fit, which on
most machines gives the most efficient object code. This is obviously not portable.
5. When you compile it, you may get a warning message. The runtime behavior is defined in much
the same manner as for integers: If the value fits in the smaller variable, it works; otherwise it is
implementation dependent. With floating-point values, though, a value “doesn’t fit” only if its
exponent is larger than the shorter type can hold. If the exponent fits, there is still the mantissa,
which might have more significance than the shorter type can maintain. In this case, the value is
replaced with nearest value that can be represented in the shorter variable; it is implementation
dependent whether this rounds, truncates, or does something else.
6. enum Change { PENNY = 1, NICKEL = 5, DIME = 10,
QUARTER = 25, HALF_DOLLAR = 50, DOLLAR = 100 };
Though the problem did not require it, this declaration gives each symbol a value indicating its
actual worth. This would facilitate arithmetic on these values.
8. Depends on the implementation; consult the documentation.
9. It is needed only for characters, and even then only on machines where the default character is
unsigned. It is allowed in other contexts (e.g., signed int) only for consistency.
11
12 Chapter 3 Data
void
y( void )
{
}
int a = 1;
void
x( void )
{
int c = 3;
static float d = 4;
}
24. There is one error: The declaration of c in line 6 conflicts with the function parameter c. Some
compilers have been seen to flag line 24 as an error, saying it conflicts with the declaration in
line 20. This should not be an error, as the scope of y from line 20 runs out at line 22, so there
is no conflict.
Name (Line) Storage Class Scope Linkage Initial Value
w (1) static 1–8, 17–31 internal 5
x (2) static 2–18, 23–31 external Note a
func1 (4) – 4–31 external –
a (4) auto 5–18, 23 none Note b
Pointers on C—Instructor´s Guide 13
Note a:
If the variable is not initialized in any other declaration, it will have an initial value of zero.
Note b:
The initial value of a function parameter is the argument that was passed when the function
was called.
Note c:
The extern keyword doesn’t change the linkage of y that was declared in line 24.
4
Statements
4.1 Questions
2. Trick question! There is no “assignment statement” in C. Assignments are done with an expres-
sion statement that uses the assignment operator, as in:
x = y + z;
3. Yes, it is legal. This is useful if you need to introduce a temporary variable for the enclosed
statements, but wish to restrict access to the variable to only those statements.
5. The integers starting at 0 and ending with 9. The value 10 is not printed.
6. When there are no initialization or adjustment expressions.
7. Despite the indentation, the call to putchar is not in the loop because there are no braces. As a
result, the input is not printed, only the checksum. Note that the only thing printed by putchar
is the end of file indicator; on most systems, this is not a valid character.
8. When the body of the loop must be executed once even if the condition is initially false.
10. Either a for or a while may be used, but not a do.
int n_blank;
int counter;
15
16 Chapter 4 Statements
13. Note: a better solution would be to declare an array of these string literals, as discussed in
Chapter 8.
switch( which_word ){
case 1:
printf( "who" );
break;
case 2:
printf( "what" );
break;
case 3:
printf( "when" );
break;
case 4:
printf( "where" );
break;
case 5:
printf( "why" );
break;
default:
printf( "don’t know" );
break;
}
15. do
eat_hamburger();
while( hungry() );
/*
** Compute and print all the prime numbers from 1 to 100.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
int
main()
{
int number;
int divisor;
/*
** One and two are easy.
*/
printf( "1\n2\n" );
/*
** No other even numbers are prime; look at the remaining odd ones.
*/
for( number = 3; number <= 100; number = number + 2 ){
/*
** See if any divisor from 3 up to the number evenly divides the
** number.
*/
for( divisor = 3; divisor < number; divisor = divisor + 2 ){
if( number % divisor == 0 )
break;
}
/*
** If the loop above stopped because the divisor got too big,
** we’ve got a prime.
*/
if( divisor >= number )
printf( "%d\n", number );
}
}
3. The program should look for numbers that are not a triangle at all: negative numbers and discon-
nected lines such as 25, 1, and 1. If they’re sharp, they will also look for degenerate triangles
such as 10, 6, and 4, which have no area and are thus really just a line. The program should use
floating-point numbers, since there is no reason why a triangle must have sides of integral length.
The logic is greatly simplified by sorting the three numbers before trying to classify them.
18 Chapter 4 Statements
/*
** Classify the type of a triangle given the lengths of its sides.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
float a;
float b;
float c;
float temp;
/*
** Prompt for and read the data.
*/
printf( "Enter the lengths of the three sides of the triangle: " );
scanf( "%f %f %f", &a, &b, &c );
/*
** Rearrange the values so that a is the longest and c is the shortest.
*/
if( a < b ){
temp = a;
a = b;
b = temp;
}
if( a < c ){
temp = a;
a = c;
c = temp;
}
if( b < c ){
temp = b;
b = c;
c = temp;
}
/*
** Now see what kind of triangle it is. Note that if any of the sides
** is <= 0 (and we really only have to check the shortest one for this),
** or if the two shorter sides together are shorter than the longest
** side, it isn’t a triangle at all.
*/
if( c <= 0 || b + c < a )
printf( "Not a triangle.\n" );
else if( a == b || b == c )
printf( "Isosceles.\n" );
else
printf( "Scalene.\n" );
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
5. The LINE_SIZE need only be 128 if gets is used, because the newlines are stripped off. If
they read the input character by character and store the newline, then it must be 129. The initial-
ization of the previous_line array to the first line of the input avoids the special case for the
first line that would otherwise be needed.
/*
** Print one line from each set of duplicate lines in the standard input.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
main()
{
char input[LINE_SIZE], previous_line[LINE_SIZE];
int printed_from_group = FALSE;
6. You must look character by character to get to the starting position to ensure that it is not
beyond the end of the string.
20 Chapter 4 Statements
/*
** Extract the specified substring from the string in src.
*/
int
substr( char dst[], char src[], int start, int len )
{
int srcindex;
int dstindex;
dstindex = 0;
/*
** Copy the desired number of characters, but stop at the NUL if
** we reach it first.
*/
while( len > 0 && src[srcindex] != ’\0’ ){
dst[dstindex] = src[srcindex];
dstindex += 1;
srcindex += 1;
len –= 1;
}
}
/*
** Null–terminate the destination.
*/
dst[dstindex] = ’\0’;
return dstindex;
}
7. Watch for solutions that check for spaces but not for tabs.
This solution is implemented with pointers, but could easily have been done using sub-
scripts. The use of ++ makes the code more compact, but harder to read. Its approach is to
keep two pointers into the string: one from which we get characters, and one to which they are
written. When white space is encountered, the source pointer is advanced but the destination
isn’t. The process continues until the NUL byte is reached in the source. The destination string
is then terminated.
Note that it is ok to overwrite the string because the destination can never become longer
than it originally was.
Pointers on C—Instructor´s Guide 21
/*
** Shrink runs of white space in the given string to a single space.
*/
#define NUL ’\0’
void
deblank( char *string )
{
char *dest;
char *src;
int ch;
/*
** Set source and destination pointers to beginning of the string, then
** move to 2nd character in string.
*/
src = string;
dest = string++;
/*
** Examine each character from the source string.
*/
while( (ch = *src++) != NUL ){
if( is_white( ch ) ){
/*
** We found white space. If we’re at the beginning of
** the string OR the previous char in the dest is not
** white space, store a blank.
*/
if( src == string || !is_white( dest[–1] ) )
*dest++ = ’ ’;
}
else {
/*
** Not white space: just store it.
*/
*dest++ = ch;
}
}
*dest = NUL;
}
int
is_white( int ch )
{
return ch == ’ ’ || ch == ’\t’ || ch == ’\v’ || ch == ’\f’ || ch == ’\n’
|| ch == ’\r’;
}
5.1 Questions
1. The cast is applied to the result of the division, and because both operands are integers, a trun-
cating integer division is done. The value therefore is 2.0. If you wanted to do a floating-point
division, use this expression instead:
(float)25 / 10
7. It prints In range. This is because 1 <= a is true and evaluates to 1; the expression then tests
1 <= 10, which is also true.
It is legal, but doesn’t do what it appears to do. This is a potential pitfall for new program-
mers, but those coming from another language usually don’t make this mistake because it is not
legal in other languages.
8. for( a = f1( x );
b = f2( x + a ), c = f3( a, b ), c > 0;
a = f1( ++x ) ){
statements
}
9. No, it fails if the array contains nonzero values that happen to sum to zero.
10. a. -25
23
24 Chapter 5 Operators and Expressions
b. -25, b = -24 v. 4, a = 4
c. 9, a = 9 w. 1, d = 1
d. 1 x. 3, a = 3, b = 3, c = 3
e. 4 y. -27, c = -15, e = -27
f. -5 z. -65
g. 40 aa. -1
h. -4 bb. 1
i. 1 cc. 1
j. 10, b = 10 dd. 1
k. 0 ee. 0
l. 2 ff. 1
m. -19 gg. 0
n. -17 hh. -25590
o. 24 ii. 1
p. 0 jj. 1, a = 11
q. 1 kk. 0, b = -24
r. 10 ll. 1, b = -24
s. 12, a = 12 mm. 17, c = 3
t. 4, b = 4 nn. 5, a = 5
u. -4, b = -4 oo. 80, a = 80, d = 2
11. a. a + b / c
b. ( a + b ) / c
c. a * b % 6
d. a * ( b % 6 )
e. a + b == 6
f. ! ( a >= ’0’ && a <= ’9’ )
g. ( a & 0x2f ) == ( b | 1 ) && ~ c > 0
h. ( a << b ) – 3 < b << a + 3
i. ~ a ++
j. ( a == 2 || a == 4 ) && ( b == 2 || b == 4 )
k. a & b ^ ( a | b )
l. a + ( b + c )
12. On a two’s complement machine, declare a signed integer, assign it a negative value, right shift
it one bit, and then print the result. If it is negative, an arithmetic shift was used; positive indi-
cates a logical shift.
Pointers on C—Instructor´s Guide 25
/*
** Encrypt the text on the standard input by rotating the alphabetic characters
** 13 positions through the alphabet. (Note: this program decrypts as well.)
*/
#include <stdio.h>
/*
** Encrypt a single character. The base argument is either an upper or
** lower case A, depending on the case of the ch argument.
*/
int
encrypt( int ch, int base )
{
ch –= base;
ch += 13;
ch %= 26;
return ch + base;
}
/*
** Main program.
*/
main( void )
{
int ch;
4. With the hints provided in the discussion on bitwise operators, this is not difficult. Watch for
separate functions to isolate the arithmetic that locates the specific bit in one place. A complete
implementation should also have a header file defining the function prototypes.
/*
** Prototypes for a suite of functions that implement an array of bits in a
** character array.
*/
/*
** Set a specific bit
*/
void set_bit( char bit_array[], unsigned bit_number );
/*
** Clear a specific bit
*/
void clear_bit( char bit_array[], unsigned bit_number );
/*
** Assign a value to a bit
*/
void assign_bit( char bit_array[], unsigned bit_number,
int value );
/*
** Test a specific bit
*/
int test_bit( char bit_array[], unsigned bit_number );
/*
** Implements an array of bits in a character array.
*/
#include <limits.h>
#include "bitarray.h"
/*
** Prototypes for internal functions
*/
unsigned character_offset( unsigned bit_number );
unsigned bit_offset( unsigned bit_number );
/*
** Set a specific bit
*/
void
set_bit( char bit_array[], unsigned bit_number )
{
bit_array[ character_offset( bit_number ) ] |=
1 << bit_offset( bit_number );
}
/*
** Clear a specific bit
*/
void
clear_bit( char bit_array[], unsigned bit_number )
{
/*
** Assign a value to a bit
*/
void
assign_bit( char bit_array[], unsigned bit_number, int value )
{
if( value != 0 )
set_bit( bit_array, bit_number );
else
clear_bit( bit_array, bit_number );
}
/*
** Test a specific bit
*/
int
test_bit( char bit_array[], unsigned bit_number )
{
return (
bit_array[ character_offset( bit_number ) ]
& 1 << bit_offset( bit_number )
) != 0;
}
/*
** Compute the character that will contain the desired bit
*/
unsigned
character_offset( unsigned bit_number )
{
return bit_number / CHAR_BIT;
}
/*
** Compute the bit number within the desired character
*/
unsigned
bit_offset( unsigned bit_number )
{
return bit_number % CHAR_BIT;
}
5. This program makes use of the limits.h file to figure out how many bits there are in an
integer. This could be hard coded if portability were not an issue.
28 Chapter 5 Operators and Expressions
/*
** Store a value in an arbitrary field in an integer.
*/
#include <limits.h>
int
store_bit_field( int original_value, int value_to_store, unsigned starting_bit,
unsigned ending_bit )
{
unsigned mask;
/*
** Validate the bit parameters. If an error is found, do nothing. This
** is not great error handling.
*/
if( starting_bit < INT_BITS && ending_bit < INT_BITS &&
starting_bit >= ending_bit ){
/*
** Construct the mask, which is unsigned to ensure that we get a
** logical, not arithmetic shift.
*/
mask = (unsigned)–1;
mask >>= INT_BITS – ( starting_bit – ending_bit + 1 );
mask <<= ending_bit;
/*
** Clear the field in the original value.
*/
original_value &= ~mask;
/*
** Shift the value to store to the right position
*/
value_to_store <<= ending_bit;
/*
** Mask excess bits off of the value, and store it.
*/
original_value |= value_to_store & mask;
}
return original_value;
}
6.1 Questions
2. They are rarely used because you can’t tell ahead of time where the compiler will put variables.
3. The value is an integer, so the compiler will not generate instructions to dereference it.
5. Even if offset has the same value as the literal in the next expression, it is more time consum-
ing to evaluate the first expression because the multiplication to scale offset to the size of an
integer must be done at run time. This is because the variable might contain any value, and the
compiler has no way of knowing ahead of time what the value might actually be. On the other
hand, the literal three can be scaled to an integer by multiplying it at compile time, and the result
of that multiplication is simply added to p at run time. In other words, the second expression
can be implemented by simply adding 12 to p (on a machine with four-byte integers); no runtime
multiplication is needed.
7. Many of the expressions are not legal L-values.
Integers Pointers to Integers
R-value L-value addr R-value L-value addr
a. 1008 1016 1008 1016
b. 1037 illegal 1040 illegal
c. 996 illegal 984 illegal
d. 12 illegal 3 illegal
e. -24 illegal -6 illegal
f. 1056 illegal 1056 illegal
g. 1036 illegal 1036 illegal
h. 1080 illegal 1080 illegal
i. illegal illegal illegal illegal
j. illegal illegal 1000 1064
k. illegal illegal 1045 illegal
l. illegal illegal 1012 1060
m. illegal illegal 1076 illegal
n. illegal illegal 1056 1076
o. illegal illegal illegal illegal
p. illegal illegal 52 illegal
q. illegal illegal -80 illegal
r. illegal illegal illegal illegal
s. 0 illegal 0 illegal
29
30 Chapter 6 Pointers
/*
** Find the first occurrence in ’str’ of any of the characters in ’chars’ and
** return a pointer to that location. If none are found, or if ’str’ or ’chars’
** are NULL pointers, a NULL pointer is returned.
*/
#define NULL 0
char *
find_char( char const *str, char const *chars )
{
char *cp;
/*
** Check arguments for NULL
*/
if( str != NULL && chars != NULL ){
/*
** Look at ’str’ one character at a time.
*/
for( ; *str != ’\0’; str++ ){
/*
** Look through ’chars’ one at a time for a
** match with *str.
*/
for( cp = chars; *cp != ’\0’; cp++ )
if( *str == *cp )
return str;
}
}
return NULL;
}
The inner loop could also have been written like this:
for( cp = chars; *cp != ’\0’; )
if( *str == *cp++ )
return str;
2. This solution has two functions for clarity. Because it is only called once, the match function
could also have been written in-line.
/*
** If the string "substr" appears in "str", delete it.
*/
#define NULL 0 /* null pointer */
#define NUL ’\0’ /* null byte */
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
/*
** See if the substring beginning at ’str’ matches the string ’want’. If
** so, return a pointer to the first character in ’str’ after the match.
*/
char *
match( char *str, char *want )
{
/*
** Keep looking while there are more characters in ’want’. We fall out
** of the loop if we get a match.
*/
while( *want != NUL )
if( *str++ != *want++ )
return NULL;
return str;
}
int
del_substr( char *str, char const *substr )
{
char *next;
/*
** Look through the string for the first occurrence of the substring.
*/
/*
** If we reached the end of the string, then the substring was not
** found.
*/
if( *str == NUL )
return FALSE;
/*
** Delete the substring by copying the bytes after it over the bytes of
** the substring itself.
*/
while( *str++ = *next++ )
;
return TRUE;
}
4. This solution uses the hint to eliminate all the even numbers from the array.
/*
** Sieve of Eratosthenes –– compute prime numbers using an array.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
int
main()
{
char sieve[ SIZE ]; /* the sieve */
char *sp; /* pointer to access the sieve */
int number; /* number we’re computing */
/*
** Set the entire sieve to TRUE.
*/
for( sp = sieve; sp < &sieve[ SIZE ]; )
*sp++ = TRUE;
/*
** Process each number from 3 to as many as the sieve holds. (Note: the
** loop is terminated from inside.)
*/
for( number = 3; ; number += 2 ){
/*
** Set the pointer to the proper element in the sieve, and stop
** the loop if we’ve gone too far.
*/
sp = &sieve[ 0 ] + ( number – 3 ) / 2;
if( sp >= &sieve[ SIZE ] )
break;
/*
** Now advance the pointer by multiples of the number and set
** each subsequent entry FALSE.
*/
while( sp += number, sp < &sieve[ SIZE ] )
*sp = FALSE;
}
/*
** Go through the entire sieve now and print the numbers corresponding
** to the locations that remain TRUE.
*/
printf( "2\n" );
for( number = 3, sp = &sieve[ 0 ];
sp < &sieve[ SIZE ];
number += 2, sp++ ){
if( *sp )
printf( "%d\n", number );
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
5. This program also computes only the odd numbers, so the bit array is half the size that it would
otherwise be. Note the use of CHAR_BIT in the declaration of SIZE to get the number of bits
per character. The addition of one in this declaration ensures that enough characters appear in
the array even if the number of bits required is not evenly divisible by CHAR_BIT. The initial
loop to set the entire array TRUE could have been done bit by bit, but it is faster to do it byte by
byte. It would be faster still if the array were declared as integers, however when you called the
bit array functions you would have to cast the argument to a character pointer.
/*
** Sieve of Eratosthenes –– compute prime numbers using a bit array.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include "bitarray.h"
/*
** An optimization that was not described in the problem statement: 2 is
** the only even number that is prime, so to save space and time the bit
** array only represents the odd values.
*/
/*
** MAX_VALUE is the largest number in our "list".
**
** MAX_BIT_NUMBER is the bit number corresponding to MAX_VALUE, considering
** that we only keep bits to represent the odd numbers starting with 3.
**
** SIZE is the number of characters needed to get enough bits.
*/
#define MAX_VALUE 10000
#define MAX_BIT_NUMBER ( ( MAX_VALUE – 3 ) / 2 )
#define SIZE ( MAX_BIT_NUMBER / CHAR_BIT + 1 )
int
main()
{
char sieve[ SIZE ]; /* the sieve */
int number; /* number we’re computing */
int bit_number; /* corresponding bit in the sieve */
char *sp; /* for initializing the array */
/*
** Set the entire sieve to TRUE.
*/
for( sp = sieve; sp < &sieve[ SIZE ]; )
*sp++ = 0xff;
/*
** Process each number from 3 to as many as the sieve holds.
*/
for( number = 3; number <= MAX_VALUE; number += 2 ){
/*
** Compute bit number corresponding to this number.
*/
bit_number = ( number – 3 ) / 2;
/*
** An optimization that was not described in the problem
** statement: If the bit for this value was already cleared by
** an earlier number, then skip it –– all of its multiples will
** have been cleared, too.
*/
if( !test_bit( sieve, bit_number ) )
continue;
/*
** Now advance the pointer by multiples of the number and set
** each subsequent entry FALSE. Note that we advance by
** "number" rather than "number / 2" in order to skip the even
** numbers that aren’t represented in the bit array.
*/
while( ( bit_number += number ) <= MAX_BIT_NUMBER )
clear_bit( sieve, bit_number );
}
/*
** Go through the entire sieve now, and print the numbers corresponding
** to the locations that remain TRUE.
*/
printf( "2\n" );
for( bit_number = 0, number = 3;
number <= MAX_VALUE;
bit_number += 1, number += 2 ){
if( test_bit( sieve, bit_number ) )
printf( "%d\n", number );
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
6. The changes needed to the program are minor: Instead of printing the primes, they are counted.
/*
** Go through the entire sieve now and count how many primes there are
** per thousand numbers.
*/
n_primes = 1;
limit = 1000;
The number of primes per thousand numbers is decreasing, but slower and slower. This trend
continues to at least one billion:
Average # of Primes
Range of Numbers
per Thousand Numbers
1,000,000–2,000,000 70.435
2,000,000–3,000,000 67.883
3,000,000–4,000,000 66.33
4,000,000–5,000,000 65.367
5,000,000–6,000,000 64.336
6,000,000–7,000,000 63.799
7,000,000–8,000,000 63.129
8,000,000–9,000,000 62.712
9,000,000–10,000,000 62.09
10,000,000–20,000,000 60.603
20,000,000–30,000,000 58.725
30,000,000–40,000,000 57.579
40,000,000–50,000,000 56.748
50,000,000–60,000,000 56.098
60,000,000–70,000,000 55.595
70,000,000–80,000,000 55.132
80,000,000–90,000,000 54.757
90,000,000–100,000,000 54.45
100,000,000–200,000,000 53.175
200,000,000–300,000,000 51.734
300,000,000–400,000,000 50.84
400,000,000–500,000,000 50.195
500,000,000–600,000,000 49.688
600,000,000–700,000,000 49.292
700,000,000–800,000,000 48.932
800,000,000–900,000,000 48.63
900,000,000–1,000,000,000 48.383
To compute prime numbers this large requires a bit array of 62.5 megabytes. Unless your sys-
tem has this much memory, the performance of the program deteriorates as the operating system
thrashes pages in and out. The speed can be improved by running the outer loop over and over,
each time modifying only as much of the array as will fit in physical memory.
7
Functions
7.1 Questions
2. An advantage is that it allows you to be lazy; there is less code to write. The other conse-
quences, such as being able to call functions with the wrong numbers or types of arguments, are
all disadvantages.
3. The value is converted to the type specified by the function. The Standard indicates that this is
done the same as if the value had been assigned to a variable of that type.
4. This is not allowed; the compiler should give an error message.
5. The value returned is interpreted as if it were an integer.
6. The argument values are interpreted as the types of the formal parameters, not their real types.
9. a. It is easier to use a #include in several source files than to copy the prototype.
b. There is only one copy of the prototype itself.
c. #includeing the prototype in the file that defines the function ensures that they match.
10. The progression is indeed related to the Fibonacci numbers: each count is the sum of the two
preceding counts plus one. Here are the values requested, plus some additional counts to show
how bad the recursive function really is.
Fibonacci( n ) Number of Calls
1 1
2 1
3 3
4 5
5 9
6 15
7 25
8 41
9 67
10 109
11 177
15 1,219
20 13,529
25 150,049
37
38 Chapter 7 Functions
/*
** Return the greatest common divisor of the arguments m and n (recursively).
*/
int
gcd( int m, int n )
{
int r;
r = m % n;
return r > 0 ? gcd( n , r ) : n;
}
/*
** Return the greatest common divisor of the arguments m and n (iteratively).
*/
int
gcd( int m, int n )
{
int r;
do {
r = m % n;
m = n;
n = r;
} while( r > 0 );
return m;
}
4. This problem is interesting because the argument list terminates itself; the problem does not
require any named arguments, but the stdarg macros do. Watch for the limiting case of no
arguments at all.
/*
** Return the largest value from the argument list. The list is terminated by a
** negative value.
*/
#include <stdarg.h>
int
max_list( int first_arg, ... )
{
va_list var_arg;
int max = 0;
/*
** Get the first arg if there is one and save it as the max.
*/
if( first_arg >= 0 ){
int this_arg;
max = first_arg;
/*
** Get the remaining arguments and save each one if it is
** greater than the current max.
*/
va_start( var_arg, first_arg );
while( ( this_arg = va_arg( var_arg, int ) ) >= 0 )
if( this_arg > max )
max = this_arg;
va_end( var_arg );
}
return max;
}
5. This is ambitious even in its stripped down form, primarily because of the concept of parsing the
format string. This solution chooses to ignore undefined format codes. The test in the switch
statement takes care of format strings that end with a %.
40 Chapter 7 Functions
/*
** Bare–bones printf function: handles the %d, %f, %s, and %c format codes.
*/
#include <stdarg.h>
void
printf( char *format, ... )
{
va_list arg;
char ch;
char *str;
/*
** Get the format characters one by one.
*/
while( ( ch = *format++ ) != ’\0’ ){
if( ch != ’%’ ){
/*
** Not a format code –– print the character verbatim.
*/
putchar( ch );
continue;
}
/*
** We got a % –– now get the format code and use it to format
** the next argument.
*/
switch( *format != ’\0’ ? *format++ : ’\0’ ){
case ’d’:
print_integer( va_arg( arg, int ) );
break;
case ’f’:
print_float( va_arg( arg, float ) );
break;
case ’c’:
putchar( va_arg( arg, int ) );
break;
case ’s’:
str = va_arg( arg, char * );
while( *str != ’\0’ )
putchar( *str++ );
break;
}
}
}
6. Having the flexibility to choose how to print values that have more than one legal output is con-
venient! This solution uses a recursive helper function to do the work. The magnitude table is
for a 32-bit machine and will have to be expanded for machines with larger integers. It is not
unreasonable to require the caller to make the buffer large enough, as the maximum possible
length of the output is easily calculated.
/*
** Convert a numeric value to words.
*/
/*
** Convert the last 3–digit group of amount to words. Amount is the value
** to be converted, buffer is where to put the words, and magnitude is the
** name of the 3–digit group we’re working on.
*/
static void
do_one_group( unsigned int amount, char *buffer, char **magnitude )
{
int value;
/*
** Get all the digits beyond the last three. If we have any value
** there, process those digits first. Note that they are in the next
** magnitude.
*/
value = amount / 1000;
if( value > 0 )
do_one_group( value, buffer, magnitude + 1 );
/*
** Now process this group of digits. Any hundreds?
*/
amount %= 1000;
value = amount / 100;
if( value > 0 ){
/*
** Now do the rest of the value. If less than 20, treat it as a single
** digit to get the teens names.
*/
value = amount % 100;
if( value >= 20 ){
/*
** Greater than 20. Do a tens name and leave the units to be
** printed next.
*/
strcat( buffer, tens[ value / 10 ] );
value %= 10;
}
if( value > 0 )
strcat( buffer, digits[ value ] );
/*
** If we had any value in this group at all, print the magnitude.
*/
if( amount > 0 )
strcat( buffer, *magnitude );
}
void
written_amount( unsigned int amount, char *buffer )
{
if( amount == 0 )
/*
** Special case for zero.
*/
strcpy( buffer, "ZERO " );
else {
/*
** Store an empty string in the buffer, then begin.
*/
*buffer = ’\0’;
do_one_group( amount, buffer, magnitudes );
}
}
8.1 Questions
2. No, the second one is the same as array[ i ] + j due to the precedence of the operators.
3. The assignment is illegal, as the pointer it attempts to compute is off the left end of the array;
the technique should be avoided for this reason. Nevertheless, it will work on most machines.
4. char buffer[SIZE];
char *front, *rear;
...
front = buffer;
rear = buffer + strlen( buffer ) – 1;
while( front < rear ){
if( *front != *rear )
break;
front++;
rear––;
}
if( front >= rear ){
printf( "It is a palindrome!\n" );
}
This question borders on entrapment! If you try and get fancy like this:
if( *front++ != *rear–– )
break;
the program can fail because the test after the loop ends is no longer valid. This is a good
example of the discussion surrounding the statement “experienced C programmers will have little
trouble with the pointer loop...”
6. This depends on the machine. Borland C++ for the 80x86 family produces results similar to the
68000 code shown in the text. Some RISC machines have been shown to produce better code
with try1 than with try5; this is because RISC architectures do not implement the fancy
addressing modes that the *x++ expression exploits.
43
44 Chapter 8 Arrays
7. This depends entirely on the particular machine and compiler being used.
9. int coin_values[] = { 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 };
10. With two-byte elements, each of the four rows occupies four bytes.
Expression Value
array 1000
array + 2 1008
array[3] 1012
array[2] – 1 1006
&array[1][2] 1008
&array[2][0] 1008
The second and third sizes cannot be omitted or the compiler will have no idea how large each
of those dimensions is. The first size can be omitted because the subscript calculation does not
depend on it.
Technically, there are millions of additional ways—just give arbitrary integers for the first
size. The value is ignored, so they all have the same effect. This isn’t very useful, though.
19. Simply append an empty string to it. The end of the table can then be checked like this:
for( kwp = keyword_table; **kwp != ’\0’; kwp++ )
{ 0 },
{ 0, 0, 0, ’\n’ }
}
},
{ /* 2 */
{ /* 2,0 */
{ 0 }
},
{ /* 2,1 */
{ 0 },
{ 0, 0, 0320 }
},
{ /* 2,2 */
{ 0 },
{ 0, ’0’ },
{ 0, 0, ’\’’ },
{ 0, ’\121’ }
},
{ /* 2,3 */
{ 0 }
},
{ /* 2,4 */
{ 0 },
{ 0 },
{ 0 },
{ 0, 0, ’3’, 3 }
},
{ /* 2,X */
{ 0 },
{ 0 },
{ 0 },
{ 0, 0, 0, 0, ’}’ }
}
},
};
3. This problem is simple because the argument must be a specific size. The test for zero or one is
simple, though perhaps not immediately obvious.
/*
** Test a 10 by 10 matrix to see if it is an identity matrix.
*/
#define FALSE 0
#define TRUE 1
int
identity_matrix( int matrix[10][10] )
{
int row;
int column;
/*
** Go through each of the matrix elements.
*/
for( row = 0; row < 10; row += 1 ){
for( column = 0; column < 10; column += 1 ){
/*
** If the row number is equal to the column number, the
** value should be 1, else 0.
*/
if( matrix[ row ][ column ] != ( row == column ) )
return FALSE;
}
}
return TRUE;
}
4. The storage order of the array elements allows a pointer to an integer to be walked sequentially
through the elements. Separate counters keep track of the row and column, using the size argu-
ment provided. Note that there is no way to check whether the matrix is actually the size indi-
cated by the second argument.
/*
** Test a square matrix to see if it is an identity matrix.
*/
#define FALSE 0
#define TRUE 1
int
identity_matrix( int *matrix, int size )
{
int row;
int column;
/*
** Go through each of the matrix elements.
*/
for( row = 0; row < size; row += 1 ){
for( column = 0; column < size; column += 1 ){
/*
** If the row number is equal to the column number, the
** value should be 1, else 0.
*/
if( *matrix++ != ( row == column ) )
return FALSE;
}
return TRUE;
}
6. If you have some method for the students to submit their programs electronically, giving bonus
points for achieving a program that is smaller than some threshold gives students strong motiva-
tion to write compact code.
/*
** Compute an array offset from a set of subscripts and dimension information.
*/
#include <stdarg.h>
#define reg register
int
array_offset( reg int *arrayinfo, ... )
{
reg int ndim;
reg int offset;
reg int hi, lo;
reg int i;
int s[10];
va_list subscripts;
/*
** Check the number of dimensions.
*/
ndim = *arrayinfo++;
if( ndim >= 1 && ndim <= 10 ){
/*
** Copy the subscript values to an array.
*/
va_start( subscripts, arrayinfo );
for( i = 0; i < ndim; i += 1 )
s[i] = va_arg( subscripts, int );
va_end( subscripts );
/*
** Compute the offset one dimension at a time.
*/
offset = 0;
for( i = 0; ndim; ndim––, i++ ){
/*
** Get the limits for the next subscript.
*/
lo = *arrayinfo++;
hi = *arrayinfo++;
/*
** Note that it is not necessary to test for hi < lo
** because if this is true, then at least one of the
** tests below will fail.
*/
if( s[i] < lo || s[i] > hi )
return –1;
/*
** Compute the offset.
*/
offset *= hi – lo + 1;
offset += s[i] – lo;
}
return offset;
}
return –1;
}
7. This function is very similar to the previous one except that the subscripts must be processed
from right to left.
/*
** Compute an array offset from a set of subscripts and dimension information.
*/
#include <stdarg.h>
#define reg register
int
array_offset2( reg int *arrayinfo, ... )
{
reg int ndim;
reg int hi;
reg int offset;
reg int lo;
reg int *sp;
int s[10];
va_list subscripts;
/*
** Check number of dimensions
*/
ndim = *arrayinfo++;
if( ndim >= 1 && ndim <= 10 ){
/*
** Copy subscripts to array
*/
/*
** Compute offset, starting with last subscript and working back
** towards the first.
*/
offset = 0;
arrayinfo += ndim * 2;
sp = s + ndim;
while( ndim–– >= 1 ){
/*
** Get the limits for the next subscript.
*/
hi = *––arrayinfo;
lo = *––arrayinfo;
/*
** Note that it is not necessary to test for hi < lo
** because if this is true, then at least one of the
** tests below will fail.
*/
if( *––sp > hi || *sp < lo ){
return –1;
}
/*
** Compute the offset.
*/
offset *= hi – lo + 1;
offset += *sp – lo;
}
return offset;
}
return –1;
}
8. There are 92 valid solutions. The key to making the program simple is to separate the func-
tionality into separate functions. The search for conflicts is limited to only those rows with
queens in them, as described in the comments. Doing this eliminates roughly 3/8 of the work.
/*
** Solve the Eight Queens Problem.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
/*
** The chessboard. If an element is TRUE, there is a queen on that square;
** if FALSE, no queen.
*/
int board[8][8];
/*
** print_board
**
** Print out a valid solution.
*/
void
print_board()
{
int row;
int column;
static int n_solutions;
n_solutions += 1;
printf( "Solution #%d:\n", n_solutions );
/*
** conflicts
**
** Check the board for conflicts with the queen that was just placed.
** NOTE: because the queens are placed in the rows in order, there is no
** need to look at rows below the current one as there are no queens there!
*/
int
conflicts( int row, int column )
{
int i;
for( i = 1; i < 8; i += 1 ){
/*
** Check up, left, and right. (Don’t have to check down; no
** queens in those rows yet!)
*/
/*
** Check the diagonals: up and left, up and right. (Don’t have
** to check down; no queens there yet!)
*/
if( row – i >= 0 && column – i >= 0
&& board[ row – i ][ column – i ] )
return TRUE;
if( row – i >= 0 && column + i < 8
&& board[ row – i ][ column + i ] )
return TRUE;
}
/*
** If we get this far, there were no conflicts!
*/
return FALSE;
}
/*
** place_queen
**
** Try to place a queen in each column of the given row.
*/
void
place_queen( int row )
{
int column;
/*
** Try each column, one by one.
*/
for( column = 0; column < 8; column += 1 ){
board[ row ][ column ] = TRUE;
/*
** See if this queen can attack any of the others (don’t need to
** check this for the first queen!).
*/
if( row == 0 || !conflicts( row, column ) )
/*
** No conflicts –– if we’re not yet done, place the next
** queen recursively. If done, print the solution!
*/
if( row < 7 )
place_queen( row + 1 );
else
print_board();
/*
** Remove the queen from this position.
*/
board[ row ][ column ] = FALSE;
}
int
main()
{
place_queen( 0 );
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
9.1 Questions
2. It is more appropriate because the length of a string simply cannot be negative. Also, using an
unsigned value allows longer string lengths (which would be negative in a signed quantity) to be
represented. It is less appropriate because arithmetic involving unsigned expressions can yield
unexpected results. The “advantage” of being able to report the length of longer strings is only
rarely of value: On machines with 16 bit integers, it is needed only for strings exceeding 32,767
characters in length. On machines with 32 bit integers, it is needed only for strings exceeding
2,147,483,647 bytes in length (which is rare indeed).
3. Yes, then subsequent concatenations could be done more efficiently because the work of finding
the end of the string would not need to be repeated.
5. Only if the last character in the array is already NUL. A string must be terminated with a NUL
byte, and strncpy does not guarantee that this will occur. However, the statement does not let
strncpy change the last position in the array, so if that contains a NUL byte (either through an
assignment or by the default initialization of static variables), then the result will be a string.
6. First, the former will work regardless of the character set in use. The latter will work with the
ASCII character set but will fail with the EBCDIC character set. Second, the former will work
properly whether or not the locale has been changed; the latter may not.
7. The main thing is to eliminate the test for islower: this is unnecessary because toupper
includes such a test already. After that, the loop can be made more efficient (but not simpler!)
by saving a copy of the character being processed, like this:
55
56 Chapter 9 Strings, Characters, and Bytes
/*
** Compute the percentage of characters read from the standard input that are in
** each of several character categories.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
int n_cntrl;
int n_space;
int n_digit;
int n_lower;
int n_upper;
int n_punct;
int n_nprint;
int total;
int
main()
{
int ch;
int category;
/*
** Read and process each character
*/
while( (ch = getchar()) != EOF ){
total += 1;
/*
** Call each of the test functions with this char; if true,
** increment the associated counter.
*/
if( iscntrl( ch ) )
n_cntrl += 1;
if( isspace( ch ) )
n_space += 1;
if( isdigit( ch ) )
n_digit += 1;
if( islower( ch ) )
n_lower += 1;
if( isupper( ch ) )
n_upper += 1;
if( ispunct( ch ) )
n_punct += 1;
if( !isprint( ch ) )
n_nprint += 1;
/*
** Print the results
*/
if( total == 0 )
printf( "No characters in the input!\n" );
else {
printf( "%3.0f%% %s control characters\n",
n_cntrl * 100.0 / total );
printf( "%3.0f%% %s whitespace characters\n",
n_space * 100.0 / total );
printf( "%3.0f%% %s digit characters\n",
n_digit * 100.0 / total );
printf( "%3.0f%% %s lower case characters\n",
n_lower * 100.0 / total );
printf( "%3.0f%% %s upper case characters\n",
n_upper * 100.0 / total );
printf( "%3.0f%% %s punctuation characters\n",
n_punct * 100.0 / total );
printf( "%3.0f%% %s non–printable characters\n",
n_nprint * 100.0 / total );
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
3. In order to do what this question asks, the size of the destination array must be known. The
problem did not specify this explicitly, but it cannot be avoided. Also be sure that the function
returns its first argument, which is required by the “similar to strcpy” specification.
/*
** Safe string copy.
*/
#include <string.h>
char *
my_strcpy( char *dst, char const *src, int size )
{
strncpy( dst, src, size );
dst[ size – 1 ] = ’\0’;
return dst;
}
4. Again, the size of the destination array must be known, and the first argument must be returned.
Note the danger in trying to determine the length of the existing string in the first argument: if it
is not terminated with a NUL byte, then strlen will run past the end of the array looking for
58 Chapter 9 Strings, Characters, and Bytes
one. The logic later in the function handles this case properly, but there is still the possibility
that a runaway strlen will crash the program. For this reason, this solution uses the
my_strlen function from question one.
Notice also that the value returned by my_strlen is being cast to an integer; this prevents
the result of the subtraction from being promoted to unsigned.
/*
** Safe string concatenation.
*/
#include <string.h>
#include "string_len.h"
char *
my_strcat( char *dst, char const *src, int size )
{
int length;
size –= 1;
length = size – (int)my_strlen( dst, size );
if( length > 0 ){
strncat( dst, src, length );
dst[ size ] = ’\0’;
}
return dst;
}
5. This function calls strncat to do the work after adjusting the length parameter.
/*
** Append a string to the end of an existing one, ensuring that the destination
** buffer does not overflow.
*/
void
my_strncat( char *dest, char *src, int dest_len )
{
register int len;
/*
** Get length of existing string in destination buffer; deduct this
** length from dest_len. The "+1" accounts for the terminating NUL byte
** that is appended.
*/
len = strlen( dest );
dest_len –= len + 1;
/*
7. This function can be implemented with either of the two approaches described in the answer to
Programming Exercise 6. Only the first approach, calling the library string functions to do some
of the work, is shown here.
/*
** Find the last occurrence of a character in a string and return a pointer to
** it.
*/
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
char *
my_strrchr( char const *str, int ch )
{
char *prev_answer = NULL;
return prev_answer;
}
8. This function can also be implemented with either of the two approaches described above. Only
the first approach is shown here.
/*
** Find the specified occurrence of a character in a string and return a
** pointer to it.
*/
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
char *
my_strnchr( char const *str, int ch, int which )
{
char *answer = NULL;
return answer;
}
9. There are no routines in the string library that perform this task directly, so it must be written
from scratch. The string library does offer some help, though.
/*
** Count the number of characters in the first argument that also appear in the
** second argument.
*/
int
count_chars( char const *str, char const *chars )
{
int count = 0;
return count;
}
10. The fact that the string can begin or end with white space forces the loops that skip it to come
first. This will not occur to everyone.
/*
** Determine whether or not a string is a palindrome. Nonalphabetic characters
** are ignored, and the comparison is not case sensitive.
*/
#include <ctype.h>
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
int
palindrome( char *string )
{
char *string_end;
while( TRUE ){
/*
/*
** If the pointers have passed each other, we’re done, and it is
** a palindrome.
*/
if( string_end <= string )
return TRUE;
/*
** Otherwise, compare the characters to see if they match.
** Converting them both to lower case before comparing makes it
** case insensitive.
*/
if( tolower( *string ) != tolower( *string_end ) )
return FALSE;
/*
** These characters done –– move to the next ones.
*/
string++;
string_end––;
}
}
12. This solution makes extensive use of library functions. The use of the string functions requires
that the array always be a string, which is why it is NUL-terminated after each character is
appended in the final loop.
/*
** Convert a key word to the scrambled alphabet used with encrypt and decrypt.
*/
#include <ctype.h>
#include <string.h>
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
int
prepare_key( char *key )
{
register char *keyp;
/*
** Make sure the key is not empty.
*/
if( *key == ’\0’ )
return FALSE;
/*
** First, convert the word to upper case (lower case would be just as
** good, as long as we’re consistent).
*/
for( keyp = key; ( character = *keyp ) != ’\0’; keyp++ ){
if( !islower( character ) ){
if( !isupper( character ) )
return FALSE;
*keyp = tolower( character );
}
}
/*
** Now eliminate all duplicate characters from the word.
*/
for( keyp = key; ( character = *keyp ) != ’\0’; ){
dup = ++keyp;
while( ( dup = strchr( dup, character ) ) != NULL )
strcpy( dup, dup + 1 );
}
/*
** Now add the remaining letters of the alphabet to the key. This makes
** use of the fact that the loop above leaves keyp pointing at the
** terminating NULL byte.
*/
for( character = ’a’; character <= ’z’; character += 1 ){
if( strchr( key, character ) == NULL ){
*keyp++ = character;
*keyp = ’\0’;
}
}
return TRUE;
}
13. This solution assumes that the codes for alphabetic characters are consecutive, so it works on
ASCII machines but fails on EBCDIC machines. This could be solved by using a second array
containing an ordinary alphabet; this is illustrated by the solution to the next program.
Pointers on C—Instructor´s Guide 63
/*
** Encrypts a string of characters according to the key provided.
*/
#include <ctype.h>
void
encrypt( char *data, char const *key )
{
register int character;
/*
** Process the data one character at a time. This depends on the key
** being all lower case.
*/
for( ; ( character = *data ) != ’\0’; data++ ){
if( islower( character ) )
*data = key[ character – ’a’ ];
else if( isupper( character ) )
*data = toupper( key[ character – ’A’ ] );
}
}
14. The solution presented here makes use of an alphabet array so that it is not restricted to ASCII
machines.
/*
** Decrypts a string of characters according to the key provided.
*/
#include <ctype.h>
#include <string.h>
void
decrypt( char *data, char const *key )
{
register int character;
/*
** Process the data one character at a time. This depends on the key
** being all lower case.
*/
for( ; ( character = *data ) != ’\0’; data++ ){
if( islower( character ) )
*data = alphabet[ strchr( key, character ) – key ];
else if( isupper( character ) )
*data = toupper( alphabet[ strchr( key,
tolower( character ) ) – key ] );
}
}
16. This solution violates the Standard. Can you see where?
/*
** Take a pattern string and a digit string and copy the digits into the
** pattern.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
int
format( char *pattern, char *digits )
{
char *patternp, *digitp;
/*
** Check for NULL arguments.
*/
if( pattern == NULL || digits == NULL )
return FALSE;
/*
** Find end of both strings and see if digit string is empty.
*/
patternp = pattern + strlen( pattern ) – 1;
digitp = digits + strlen( digits ) – 1;
if( digitp < digits )
return FALSE;
/*
** Continue until either pattern or digits have been used up.
*/
while( patternp >= pattern && digitp >= digits ){
if( *patternp == ’#’ ){
*patternp–– = *digitp––;
continue;
}
patternp––;
}
/*
** If there are more characters in the pattern, replace them with
** blanks.
*/
while( patternp >= pattern ){
if( *patternp == ’.’ ){
/*
** Extend zeros out to the left of the dot.
*/
char *p0;
/*
** If there are digits left over, it is an error.
*/
return digitp < digits;
}
is illegal, because when it is false, either the patternp or the digitp pointer has run off the
left end of the corresponding array. On the other hand, it is possible (though unlikely) that the
caller has invoked the function like this:
if( format( p_array + 1, d_array + 1 ) ) ...
/*
** Process a pattern string by copying digits from a digit string into it, ala
** the IBM 360 "edit" instruction.
*/
#define NULL 0
#define NUL ’\0’
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
char *
edit( reg char *pattern, reg char *digits )
{
reg int digit;
reg int pat_char;
reg int fill;
reg int significance;
reg char *first_digit;
/*
** Check for missing data, and get fill character.
*/
if( pattern == NULL || digits == NULL || ( fill = *pattern ) == ’\0’ )
return NULL;
first_digit = NULL;
significance = FALSE;
/*
** Process pattern string one by one.
*/
while( ( pat_char = *++pattern ) != NUL ){
/*
** See what meaning the pattern character has.
*/
switch( pat_char ){
case DIGIT_SELECTOR:
case SIGNIFICANCE_START:
if( ( digit = *digits++ ) == NUL ){
*pattern = NUL;
return first_digit;
}
if( digit == ’ ’ )
digit = ’0’;
break;
default:
digit = pat_char;
break;
}
/*
** Store the proper character in the result.
*/
*pattern = significance ? digit : fill;
}
return first_digit;
}
10.1 Questions
1. Structure members can be all different types; they are accessed by name; and unused memory
may be between adjacent members to enforce boundary alignment requirements. Array elements
must all be the same type; they are accessed with a subscript; and no space is ever lost between
elements for boundary alignment.
3. First, a declaration where all components are given:
struct S {
int a;
float b;
} x;
This declares x to be a structure having two members, a and b. In addition, the structure tag S
is created for use in future declarations.
Omitting the tag field gives:
struct {
int a;
float b;
} z;
which has the same effect as before, except that no tag is created. While other declarations may
created more structure variables with identical members, it is not possible to create any more
variables with the same type as z.
Omitting the member list gives:
struct S y;
69
70 Chapter 10 Structures and Unions
which simply defines the tag S for use in later declarations. Finally, there is the incomplete dec-
laration
struct S;
8. With 16 bit integers, two bytes are wasted, one after each character. With 32 bit integers, six are
wasted. Note that space is lost after c in order to guarantee that the structure ends at the most
stringent boundary. If this were not done, the next variable allocated might not begin at the
proper boundary.
9. The following are all implementation dependent:
a. whether the fields are allocated right to left or left to right;
b. whether fields too large to fit in the remaining bits of a word begin there anyway and cross
the boundary to the next word or begin in the next word;
c. whether signed or unsigned arithmetic is used for fields declared signed; and
d. the maximum size of an individual field.
10. One or the other of the following declarations will be correct, depending on whether the compiler
allocates bit fields from left to right or from right to left.
struct FLOAT_FORMAT {
unsigned int sign:1;
unsigned int exponent:7;
unsigned int fraction:24;
};
struct FLOAT_FORMAT {
unsigned int fraction:24;
unsigned int exponent:7;
unsigned int sign:1;
};
12. It can either be 2 or -2, depending on whether the compiler uses signed or unsigned arithmetic.
13. A union is being used as if it were a structure. On a machine with 32 bit integers and floats, the
second assignment will completely replace the value stored by the first, and the last assignment
will replace the first eight bits of the value stored by the second. The integer and floating-point
members therefore print as garbage, but the character prints correctly.
Pointers on C—Instructor´s Guide 71
14. The same member that was used to store the data must also be used to read it.
15. First, the member s would store the actual value of the string rather than a pointer to the value.
This means that the value would not have to be allocated elsewhere, which is an advantage. But
this entails a terrible disadvantage: The structure now contains enough space to store the largest
possible string, and nearly all of this space is wasted when integer and floating-point values are
stored. The original structure did not have this problem because it only contained a pointer to
the string value, not the value itself.
/*
** Structure declaration for auto dealership sales records.
*/
struct INFO1 {
char cust_name[21];
char cust_addr[41];
char model[21];
enum { PURE_CASH, CASH_LOAN, LEASE } type;
union {
struct {
float msrp;
float sales_price;
float sales_tax;
float licensing_fee;
} pure_cash;
struct {
float msrp;
float sales_price;
float sales_tax;
float licensing_fee;
float down_payment;
int loan_duration;
float interest_rate;
float monthly_payment;
char bank[21];
} cash_loan;
struct {
float msrp;
float sales_price;
float down_payment;
float security_deposit;
float monthly_payment;
float lease_term;
} lease;
} info;
};
The second factors fields common to all three types of sale out of the variant portion of the
record. There are still some duplicated fields, but none are common to all three variants.
/*
** Improved structure declaration for auto dealership sales records.
*/
struct INFO2 {
char cust_name[21];
char cust_addr[41];
char model[21];
float msrp;
float sales_price;
enum { PURE_CASH, CASH_LOAN, LEASE } type;
union {
struct {
float sales_tax;
float licensing_fee;
} pure_cash;
struct {
float sales_tax;
float licensing_fee;
float down_payment;
int loan_duration;
float interest_rate;
float monthly_payment;
char bank[21];
} cash_loan;
struct {
float down_payment;
float security_deposit;
float monthly_payment;
float lease_term;
} lease;
} info;
};
3. The correct answer depends on whether the machine you are using allocates bit fields from left
to right or from right to left. This answer is for the former; the order of the bit fields (but not
the union members) would be reversed for the latter.
/*
** Declaration of a structure to access the various parts of a machine
** instruction for a particular machine.
*/
typedef union
{
unsigned short addr;
struct {
unsigned opcode:10;
unsigned dst_mode:3;
unsigned dst_reg:3;
} sgl_op;
struct {
unsigned opcode:4;
unsigned src_mode:3;
unsigned src_reg:3;
unsigned dst_mode:3;
unsigned dst_reg:3;
} dbl_op;
struct {
unsigned opcode:7;
unsigned src_reg:3;
unsigned dst_mode:3;
unsigned dst_reg:3;
} reg_src;
struct {
unsigned opcode:8;
unsigned offset:8;
} branch;
struct {
unsigned opcode:16;
} misc;
} machine_inst;
11.1 Questions
1. This will vary from system to system. There are several things that may affect the result on
PC-based systems, including the memory model in use, the amount of space in the data and/or
stack segment, the amount of available memory on the system, and so forth. The result on Unix
systems will depend on the amount of available swap space, among other things.
2. There are two explanations possible. Requesting smaller chunks may allow more memory to be
allocated because the amount of memory left over after the last allocation will be smaller. This
would make the total for the smaller requests larger. More likely, though, is that the total for the
smaller requests is smaller: this is due to the overhead of the extra space that malloc attaches to
the memory in order to keep track of the size of each allocated chunk.
6. Yes, dynamic allocation will use less stack space because the memory for the arrays will be
taken from the heap rather than the stack. Dynamic allocation of scalars will help only if the
values being allocated are larger than the size of a pointer, as it would be with a large structure.
There is no gain in dynamically allocating an integer because the pointer variable you must have
to keep track of it takes just as much space as the integer itself.
7. Memory leaks would be possible, but only when either the second or third allocations failed,
meaning that the program had nearly run out of memory anyway.
/*
** A function that performs the same job as the library ’calloc’ function.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
75
76 Chapter 11 Dynamic Memory Allocation
void *
calloc( size_t n_elements, size_t element_size )
{
char *new_memory;
n_elements *= element_size;
new_memory = malloc( n_elements );
if( new_memory != NULL ){
char *ptr;
ptr = new_memory;
while( ––n_elements >= 0 )
*ptr++ = ’\0’;
}
return new_memory;
}
3. The strategy used in this solution is to keep a dynamically allocated buffer in the readstring
function. If this fills while reading a string, it is enlarged. The increment, DELTA, can be tuned
to achieve a balance between minimizing wasted space and minimizing the number of realloca-
tions that occur. The assert macro is used to abort the program if any memory allocation fails.
A new chunk of memory is allocated for the copy of the string that is returned to the caller—this
avoids the overhead of dynamically growing the array from scratch each time a string is read.
/*
** Read a string and return a copy of it in dynamically allocated memory. There
** is no limit (other than the amount of dynamic memory available) on the size
** of the string.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <assert.h>
#define DELTA 256
char *
readstring()
{
static char *buffer = NULL;
static int buffer_size = 0;
int ch;
int len;
char *bp;
bp = buffer;
len = 0;
/*
** Get characters one at a time until a newline is read or EOF is
** reached.
*/
do {
ch = getchar();
if( ch == ’\n’ || ch == EOF )
ch = ’\0’;
/*
** If the buffer is full, make it bigger.
*/
if( len >= buffer_size ){
buffer_size += DELTA;
buffer = realloc( buffer, buffer_size );
assert( buffer != NULL );
bp = buffer + len;
}
*bp++ = ch;
len += 1;
} while( ch != ’\0’ );
/*
** Make a copy of the string to return.
*/
bp = malloc( len );
assert( bp != 0 );
strcpy( bp, buffer );
return bp;
}
4. There are many variations on this program that are equally good. If the list were to be much
longer, it would be worth while to have a pointer to the end of the list in order to simplify the
insertions.
/*
** Create a particular linked list of dynamically allocated nodes.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <stdio.h>
Node *
main()
{
Node *head;
head = newnode( 5 );
head–>link = newnode( 10 );
head–>link–>link = newnode( 15 );
head–>link–>link–>link = 0;
}
12.1 Questions
1. Yes, it can.
/*
** Look for the right place.
*/
while( *linkp != NULL && (*linkp)–>value < value )
linkp = &(*linkp)–>link;
/*
** Allocate a new node and insert it.
*/
new = malloc( sizeof( Node ) );
if( new == NULL )
return FALSE;
new–>value = value;
new–>link = *linkp;
*linkp = new;
return TRUE;
This version of the program uses one fewer variable, but it has three extra indirections so it will
take slightly longer to execute. It is also harder to understand, which is its major drawback.
3. Ahead of other nodes with the same value. If the comparison were changed, duplicate values
would be inserted after other nodes with the same value.
5. Each attempt to add a duplicate value to the list would result in a memory leak: A new node
would be allocated, but not added to the list.
6. Yes, but it is very inefficient. The simplest strategy is to take the nodes off the list one by one
and insert them into a new, ordered list.
79
80 Chapter 12 Using Structures and Pointers
/*
** Find a specific value in node an unordered singly linked list.
*/
#include "singly_linked_list_node.h"
#include <stdio.h>
struct NODE *
sll_find( struct NODE *first, int desired_value )
{
for( ; first != NULL; first = first–>link )
if( first–>value == desired_value )
return first;
return NULL;
}
Technically, no change is required to search an ordered list, though the function can be made
more efficient with a minor change. If nodes are found whose values are greater than the desired
value, there is no need to continue searching. This is implemented by changing the test in the
for loop to
3. This makes the function more complex, primarily because the root pointers can no longer be
manipulated in the same way as the node pointers.
/*
** Insert a value into a doubly linked list. frontp is a pointer to the root
** pointer to the first node; rearp is a pointer to the root pointer to the last
** node; and value is the new value to be inserted. Returns: 0 if the value is
** already in the list, –1 if there was no memory to create a new node, 1 if the
** value was added successfully.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include "doubly_linked_list_node.h"
int
dll_insert( Node **frontp, Node **rearp, int value )
{
register Node **fwdp;
register Node *next;
register Node *newnode;
/*
/*
** Add the new node to the list.
*/
newnode–>fwd = next;
*fwdp = newnode;
return 1;
}
4. This is a good exercise in examining a problem critically to determine exactly what needs to be
done. If implemented properly, the function is quite simple.
/*
** Reverse the order of the nodes in a singly linked list, returning a pointer
** to the new head of the list.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include "singly_linked_list_node.h"
struct NODE *
sll_reverse( struct NODE *current )
{
struct NODE *previous;
struct NODE *next;
return previous;
}
/*
** Remove a specified node from a doubly linked list. The first argument points
** to the root node for the list, and the second points to the node to be
** removed. TRUE is returned if it can be removed, otherwise FALSE is returned.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include "doubly_linked_list_node.h"
#define FALSE 0
#define TRUE 1
int
dll_remove( struct NODE *rootp, struct NODE *delete )
{
register Node *this;
/*
** Find the node in the list and return FALSE if it is not there.
** Otherwise, delete it and return TRUE.
*/
for( this = rootp–>fwd; this != NULL; this = this–>fwd )
if( this == delete )
break;
/*
** Update fwd pointer of the previous node.
*/
if( this–>bwd == NULL )
rootp–>fwd = this–>fwd;
else
this–>bwd–>fwd = this–>fwd;
/*
** Update bwd pointer of the next node.
*/
if( this–>fwd == NULL )
rootp–>bwd = this–>bwd;
else
this–>fwd–>bwd = this–>bwd;
free( this );
return TRUE;
}
else
return FALSE;
}
7. The fact that nodes in the two lists differ in structure precludes using a single insertion function
for both lists; this is unfortunate, as the same logic is needed in each case. The declarations in
the solution below should be in an include file if they are needed by any other source files.
/*
** Insert a word into a concordance list. The arguments are a pointer to the
** location that points to the first node in the list, and a string containing
** the word to be inserted. The function returns TRUE if the string begins with
** a letter and was inserted into the list, else FALSE.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <malloc.h>
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
/*
** Declaration for the secondary node that holds an individual word.
*/
typedef struct WORD{
char *word;
struct WORD *next;
} Word;
/*
** Declaration for the primary node that heads a list of words.
*/
typedef struct LIST {
char letter;
struct LIST *next;
Word *word_list;
} List;
int
concordance_insert( List **listp, char *the_word )
{
int first_char;
List *current_list;
Word *current_word;
Word **wordp;
int comparison;
Word *new_word;
/*
** Get the first character of the word and make sure it is valid.
*/
first_char = *the_word;
if( !islower( first_char ) )
return FALSE;
/*
** First, find the word list that begins with the right letter. If it
** does not exist, create a new one and add it.
*/
while( (current_list = *listp) != NULL
&& current_list–>letter < first_char )
listp = ¤t_list–>next;
/*
** If current_list is NULL or points to a node with a letter larger
** than what we want, we’ve got to create a new word list and insert it
** here in the primary list.
*/
if( current_list == NULL || current_list–>letter > first_char ){
List *new_list;
new_list–>letter = first_char;
new_list–>word_list = NULL;
new_list–>next = current_list;
*listp = new_list;
current_list = new_list;
}
/*
** current_list now points to the node that heads the proper word list.
** Search down through it looking for our word.
*/
wordp = ¤t_list–>word_list;
while( ( current_word = *wordp ) != NULL ){
comparison = strcmp( current_word–>word, the_word );
if( comparison >= 0 )
break;
wordp = ¤t_word–>next;
}
/*
** If current_word not NULL and comparison is 0, the word already is in
** the list.
*/
if( current_word != NULL && comparison == 0 )
return FALSE;
/*
** Create a new node for the word.
*/
new_word = (Word *)malloc( sizeof( Word ) );
if( new_word == NULL )
return FALSE;
/*
** Link the new node into the list.
*/
new_word–>next = current_word;
*wordp = new_word;
return TRUE;
}
13.1 Questions
2. As with all pointer arithmetic, the value one is scaled to the size of whatever the pointer is point-
ing at, which in this case is a pointer to a character. The result is that ptr is advanced to point
at the next element of the array.
3. It is a pointer to a pointer to a pointer to an integer, and is used like this:
arg
25
An integer
A pointer to an integer
A pointer to a pointer to an integer
A pointer to a pointer to a pointer to an integer
87
88 Chapter 13 Advanced Pointer Topics
/*
** Traverse a singly linked list. The callback function will be called for each
** node in the list, and it will be passed a pointer to the current node.
*/
#include "node.h"
#include <stdio.h>
void
sll_traverse( Node *current, void (*func)( Node *node ) ){
while( current != NULL ){
func( current );
current = current–>link;
}
}
3. Several of the cases do their work directly; this code must be moved into functions. The main
difficulty here is to come up with a common prototype that will serve the needs of all of the
necessary functions; it must contain each argument used by any function. The new functions
must use the common prototype, and the existing functions must be modified to match it. Most
of the functions will end up with at least one argument that they do not need. A pointer must be
passed to current so that the appropriate functions can modify it.
/*
** Modified prototypes for existing functions (the functions themselves must be
** modified to match).
*/
void add_new_trans( Node *list, Node **current, Transaction *trans );
void delete_trans( Node *list, Node **current, Transaction *trans );
void search( Node *list, Node **current, Transaction *trans );
void edit( Node *list, Node **current, Transaction *trans );
/*
** Definitions of the new functions that are needed.
*/
void
forward( Node *list, Node **current, Transaction *trans )
{
*current = (*current)–>next;
}
void
backward( Node *list, Node **current, Transaction *trans )
{
*current = (*current)–>prev;
}
/*
** The jump table itself.
*/
void (*function[])( Node *list, Node **current, Transaction *trans ) = {
add_new_trans,
delete_trans,
forward,
backward,
search,
edit
};
#define N_TRANSACTIONS ( sizeof( function ) / sizeof( function[ 0 ] ) )
/*
** Invoke the proper function to perform a transaction (this is where the
** switch statement used to be).
*/
if( transaction–>type < 0 || transaction_type >= N_TRANSACTIONS )
printf( "Illegal transaction type!\en" );
else
function[ transaction–>type ]( list, ¤t, transaction );
Note that the solution is considerably longer than the original code. This is primarily due to the
overhead of creating a function to perform a one-line-of-code task. As the number of transac-
tions grows, though, the jump table combined with the separate transaction functions will be
more manageable than a large switch statement.
4. This function is patterned after the qsort function provided in the ANSI C library. The only
two tricks are locating the beginning of each array element and interchanging two elements. The
element length is used for both tasks.
/*
** Sort an array of arbitrary fixed–length elements. The caller passes a
** pointer to a function which compares two elements.
*/
/*
** Exchange two elements with each other.
*/
swap( char *i, char *j, int recsize )
{
char x;
/*
** Sort the array.
*/
void
sort( char *base, int nel, int recsize, int (*comp)( char *, char * ) )
{
reg char *i;
reg char *j;
reg char *last;
5. A common mistake is to modify either the argv pointer list or the arguments themselves. This
solution uses register declarations for efficiency. The argtype function, called from one place,
was written as a separate function solely for clarity.
/*
** Parse the command line arguments for processing by the caller’s functions.
*/
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
#define NULL 0
#define NUL ’\0’
/*
** Determine whether the argument is a flag or one that requires a value.
*/
argtype( register int ch, register int control )
{
while( *control != NUL )
if( ch == *control++ )
return *control == ’+’ ? ARG : FLAG;
return NONE;
}
/*
** Process the arguments.
*/
char **
do_args( int ac, reg char **av, char *control,
void (*do_arg)( int, char * ), void (*illegal_arg)( int ) )
{
register char *argp;
register int ch;
register int skip_arg;
case FLAG:
(*do_arg)( ch, NULL );
break;
case ARG:
if( *++argp != NUL || (argp = *++av) != NULL ){
(*do_arg)( ch, argp );
skip_arg = TRUE;
break;
}
(*illegal_arg)( ch );
return av;
case NONE:
(*illegal_arg)( ch );
break;
}
}
}
return av;
}
14.1 Questions
2. First, a well chosen name gives the reader some idea of the meaning of a quantity, whereas a
literal constant conveys only its value. Second, literal constants that are used more than once are
easier to change if they are defined in a single place.
3. #define DEBUG_PRINT( fmt, expr ) \
printf( "File %s, line %d: %s = " \
fmt "\n", \
_ _ FILE _ _, _ _ LINE _ _, \
#epxr, expr )
4. a. 3 2 3
b. 5 3 5
c. 2 4 20
d. 2 4 12
5. Because putchar is invoked so often, speed of invocation was considered of primary impor-
tance. Implementing it as a macro eliminates the overhead of a function call.
8. Nothing is wrong. They each include the other, and it first appears that the compiler will read
them alternately until its include nesting limit is reached. In fact this does not happen because of
the conditional compilation directives. Whichever file is included first defines its own symbol
and then causes the other to be included. When it tries to include the first one again, the entire
file is skipped.
93
94 Chapter 14 The Preprocessor
9. Unfortunately, sizeof is evaluated after the preprocessor has finished its work, which means
that this won’t work. An alternate approach would be to use the values defined in the
limits.h include file.
/*
** Return a code indicating which type of cpu the program is running on. This
** depends on the proper symbol being defined when the program was compiled.
*/
#include "cpu_types.h"
cpu_type()
{
#if defined( VAX )
return CPU_VAX;
#elif defined( M68000 )
return CPU_68000;
#elif defined( M68020 )
return CPU_68020;
#elif defined( I80386 )
return CPU_80386;
#elif defined( X6809 )
return CPU_6809;
#elif defined( X6502 )
return CPU_6502;
#elif defined( U3B2 )
return CPU_3B2;
#else
return CPU_UNKNOWN;
#endif
}
15.1 Questions
3. The fact that it failed at all indicates that something is wrong; the most likely possibility is a bug
in the program. By not checking, this bug goes undetected and may cause problems later. Also,
the FILE structure used for that stream will not be released. There is a limited number of these
available, so if this happens very often, the program will run out of them and be unable to open
any more files.
5. Space is always left for the NUL byte, so with a buffer size of one there is no room for any char-
acters from the stream. With a buffer size of two, characters are read one by one.
6. The first value can take up to six characters, the second at most one, and the third at most four.
Counting the two spaces and the terminating NUL byte, the buffer must be at least 14 bytes long.
7. This is quite unsafe as there is no way to tell how large the buffer must be; strings may be any
length, so if the length of a is not checked prior to this statement, the buffer might be overrun no
matter how large it is.
8. It rounds. If 3.14159 is printed with a code of %.3f the result is 3.142.
9. Write a program to store all possible integer values in errno and then call perror. You must
watch the output, as garbage may be produced for values that are not legitimate error codes.
10. Because they change the state of the stream. The call by value semantics of C would not allow
the caller’s stream variable to be changed if a copy if it were passed as the argument.
11. The mode r+ does the job. The w modes truncate the file, and the a modes restrict writing to
the end of the file.
12. It allows a particular stream to be reopened to a new file. For example, in order for a program
that uses printf to begin writing to a different file, the program would have to reopen stdout.
This function is the reliable way to do this.
13. It is not worth it. Only if a program is not fast enough or not small enough should you spend
time thinking about things like this.
14. The results depend on the system, but it won’t be 3!
95
96 Chapter 15 Input/Output Functions
15. The strings will be left justified. At least six characters, but no more than ten, will be printed.
/*
** Copy standard input to standard output, one character at a time.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int ch;
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
3. The buffer need not be made any larger for this, but it is reasonable to increase it. The main
change here is to use fgets to ensure that the buffer is not overrun by longer input lines.
/*
** Copy standard input to standard output, one line at a time. Lines > 256
** bytes long are copied 256 bytes at a time.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
char buf[BUFSIZE];
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
4. Because two filenames must be entered, this is simplified by writing a function to read and open
a file. The file mode must then be passed as an argument; this solution also passes a string used
as a prompt.
Pointers on C—Instructor´s Guide 97
/*
** This program reads two file names and then copies data from the input file
** to the output file one line at a time.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
/*
** This function prompts for a filename, reads the name, and then tries to
** open the file. Any errors encountered are reported before the program
** terminates. Note that the gets function strips the trailing newline off
** of the file name so we don’t have to do it ourselves.
*/
FILE *
openfile( char *prompt, char *mode )
{
char buf[BUFSIZE];
FILE *file;
return file;
}
/*
** Main function.
*/
int
main()
{
char buf[BUFSIZE];
FILE *input;
FILE *output;
FILE *openfile();
fclose( input );
fclose( output );
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
5. The only change here is that the lines are analyzed in a specific manner before being written; this
change is all that is shown below.
/*
** Same program as before, but now the sum is computed of all lines that begin
** with an integer.
*/
6. The fact that the string palindrome function exists makes this problem trivial. The only reason
this short program rates two stars is that it takes an open mind to think of the approach. A 64
bit integer would use at most 20 digits, so the 50 character buffer is large enough to handle any-
thing that contemporary computers can dish out.
/*
** Determine whether or not an integer value is a palindrome.
*/
/*
** Prototype for the string palindrome function from chapter 9.
*/
extern int palindrome( char *string );
int
numeric_palindrome( int value )
{
char string[ 50 ];
/*
** Convert the number to a string and then check the string!
*/
sprintf( string, "%d", value );
7. The limitation to at most 10 members makes it possible (if tedious) to do this with fgets and
sscanf. Assuming a maximum of three digits (plus one separating space) per age, a buffer of
40 characters would be adequate. However, the problem specification does not say that the ages
will be separated by exactly one whitespace character, so this solution uses a buffer of 512 char-
acters instead. If you know something about the nature of the input (e.g., it was created with an
editor whose maximum line size is 512 bytes), then this approach is fine. Otherwise, it is risky
and you should dynamically allocate a buffer that can be extended whenever a line is found that
is too long.
/*
** Compute the average age of family members. Each line of input is for one
** family; it contains the ages of all family members.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int
main()
{
char buffer[ BUFFER_SIZE ];
/*
** Get the input one line at a time.
*/
while( fgets( buffer, BUFFER_SIZE, stdin ) != NULL ){
int age[ 10 ];
int members;
int sum;
int i;
/*
** Decode the ages, remembering how many there were.
*/
members = sscanf( buffer, "%d %d %d %d %d %d %d %d %d %d",
age, age + 1, age + 2, age + 3, age + 4, age + 5, age + 6,
age + 7, age + 8, age + 9 );
if( members == 0 )
continue;
/*
** Compute the average and print the results.
*/
sum = 0;
for( i = 0; i < members; i += 1 )
sum += age[ i ];
8. While not explicitly specified in the problem statement, an important consideration is what to do
when the file being dumped does not contain an even multiple of 16 bytes. A simplistic
approach is to simply report the missing bytes as zero. The solution below constructs each out-
put line in a buffer in memory; this makes it easier to print only the data that appears in a partial
last line while still maintaining the proper format. The program would be easier to modify when
someone comes along and wants the format changed (as is inevitable) had defined names been
used for the numbers related to the format rather than literal constants.
/*
** Print an hexadecimal dump of the specified file. If no filename argument is
** given, print a dump of the standard input instead.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <memory.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#define BUFFER_SIZE 64
/*
** Function to dump the contents of a stream.
*/
void
dump( FILE *stream )
{
long offset;
unsigned char data[ 16 ];
int len;
char buffer[ BUFFER_SIZE ];
/*
** Initialize the buffer that will be used for output.
*/
memset( buffer, ’ ’, BUFFER_SIZE – 1 );
buffer[ 45 ] = ’*’;
buffer[ 62 ] = ’*’;
buffer[ BUFFER_SIZE – 1 ] = ’\0’;
offset = 0;
while( ( len = fread( data, 1, 16, stream ) ) > 0 ){
char *hex_ptr;
char *char_ptr;
int i;
/*
** Start building the output buffer with the offset.
*/
sprintf( buffer, "%06X ", offset );
/*
** Prepare pointers to the hex and character portions of the
** buffer and initialize them to spaces.
*/
hex_ptr = buffer + 8;
char_ptr = buffer + 46;
memset( hex_ptr, ’ ’, 35 );
memset( char_ptr, ’ ’, 16 );
/*
** Now translate the data to both of the output forms and store
** it in the buffer.
*/
for( i = 0; i < len; i += 1 ){
/*
** Convert the next character to hex. Must overwrite
** the NUL that sprintf inserts with a space.
*/
sprintf( hex_ptr, "%02X", data[ i ] );
hex_ptr += 2;
*hex_ptr = ’ ’;
/*
** Leave a space between each group of 4 values in the
** hex portion of the line.
*/
if( i % 4 == 3 )
hex_ptr++;
/*
** If the character is printable, put it in the char
** portion of the line, else put a dot in.
*/
if( isprint( data[ i ] ) || data[ i ] == ’ ’ )
*char_ptr++ = data[ i ];
else
*char_ptr++ = ’.’;
}
/*
** Print the line and then update the offset for the next time
** through the loop.
*/
puts( buffer );
offset += len;
}
}
/*
** Main program. Dump the file (if there is an argument) or stdin.
*/
int
main( int ac, char **av )
{
if( ac <= 1 )
dump( stdin );
else {
FILE *stream;
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
10. This is a fair sized program; here is one way of doing it.
/*
** This program computes a checksum for each of the specified input files. The
** result is printed either to the standard output, or to a file.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
/*
** Output option flag
*/
char file_output = FALSE;
/*
** Function prototypes
*/
/*
** Main function. Parse arguments and process each file specified.
*/
main( int ac, char **av )
{
FILE *f; /* stream to read from */
unsigned short sum; /* checksum value */
/*
** Process option arguments. do_args returns a pointer to the first
** file name in the argument list.
*/
av = do_args( av );
/*
** Process the input files.
*/
if( *av == NULL ){
/*
** No files were given, so read the standard input.
*/
if( file_output ){
fprintf( stderr, "–f illegal with standard input\n" );
exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
sum = process( stdin );
print( sum, NULL );
}
else
/*
** For each file given: open it, process its contents, and print
** the answer.
*/
for( ; *av != NULL; ++av ){
f = fopen( *av, "r" );
if( f == NULL )
perror( *av );
else {
sum = process( f );
fclose( f );
print( sum, *av );
}
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
/*
sum = 0;
return sum;
}
/*
** Print the checksum. This either goes to the standard output or to a
** file whose name is derived from the input file name.
*/
void
print( unsigned short sum, char *in_name )
{
char *out_name; /* name of output file */
FILE *f; /* stream for opening output file */
if( !file_output )
printf( "%u\n", sum );
else {
/*
** Allocate space to hold output file name. It needs to be 5
** bytes longer than input name to hold ".cks" and the
** terminating NUL byte.
*/
out_name = malloc( strlen( in_name ) + 5 );
if( out_name == NULL ){
fprintf( stderr, "malloc: out of memory\n" );
exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
}
}
/*
** Process option arguments. Return a pointer to the first nonoption
** argument, which is the beginning of the list of file names.
*/
char **
do_args( char **av )
{
/*
** Look at each command line argument, one by one.
*/
while( *++av != NULL && **av == ’–’ ){
/*
** Look at each character in each argument, one by one.
*/
while( *++*av != ’\0’ ){
/*
** Record each option that was given.
*/
switch( **av ){
case ’f’:
file_output = TRUE;
break;
default:
fprintf( stderr, "Illegal option: %c\n", **av );
break;
}
}
}
/*
** Value to be returned is the pointer to the place in the argument list
** just after the options ended.
*/
return av;
}
11. There are innumerable details that were not specified in the description of the program, so
student’s answers may vary in many areas. The solution shown here contains three modules:
main.c obtains the command line argument and implements the transaction processing loop,
process.c implements the functions needed to decode and process the transactions, and io.c
implements the functions to open, read, write, and close the inventory file. Function prototypes
and other definitions needed by these modules are found in the associated header files.
There is an additional header file, part.h, which contains definitions relating to the struc-
ture that holds information about a part. typedefs are used to help ensure that variables are
declared with their proper types. This also makes it easier to change the type of a variable later
if the need arises. The declarations for TRUE and FALSE don’t really have anything to do with a
106 Chapter 15 Input/Output Functions
part, and appear in part.h only because there was no better place to put them. A larger pro-
gram might have enough global definitions to justify putting them in a separate include file.
/*
** Declarations for the simple inventory system.
*/
/*
** The part structure holds all the information about one part, except for
** the part number that determines where the part is stored in the file.
** Part descriptions may be at most 20 characters long.
*/
#define MAX_DESCRIPTION 20
#define DESCRIPTION_FIELD_LEN ( MAX_DESCRIPTION + 1 )
typedef struct {
char description[ DESCRIPTION_FIELD_LEN ];
Quantity quantity;
Value total_value;
} Part;
/*
** Boolean constants
*/
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
The transaction loop in main.c has no body because process_request does all the work
of reading and processing one transaction. Another common paradigm is to separate the reading
and the processing of transactions into different functions; in that case, the main transaction loop
will look something like this:
while( (trans = read_request()) != NULL )
process_request( trans );
with the first function returning a pointer to a structure containing all the information on one
transaction.
/*
** Main program for simple inventory system. Opens the inventory file and
** performs the main transaction processing loop.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "part.h"
#include "io.h"
#include "process.h"
int
main( int ac, char **av )
{
if( ac != 2 ){
fprintf( stderr, "Usage: inventory inv–filename\n" );
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
close_file();
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
Note the use of explicit field widths in the print_all function in process.c. This pro-
duces a neat table with all the columns lined up. Using %–*.*s as the format for the description
field allows the width (MAX_DESCRIPTION) to be given in the arguments to printf rather than
being hard-coded in the format. This simplifies changing the width in the future.
The process_request function decodes transactions by reading a line of input and
attempting to decode it with various sscanf statements. End of file is detected and handled as a
synonym for the end command.
Requests whose formats are identical are grouped together and handled by a single
sscanf. Each sscanf attempts to decode one field more than there ought to be in order to
detect the entry of extra data.
The length of the description given in a new transaction is limited by the format code used;
if a description is entered that exceeds this length, the scan will fail. It is unfortunate that
sscanf, unlike printf, has no provision for giving the field width as an argument; the conse-
quence of this is that the description length must be hard-coded in the format code, making
future changes more difficult.
/*
** Functions to process a transaction.
*/
/*
** Process one transaction. Prompts on the standard output and reads the
** next request from the standard input and processes it. Returns FALSE if
** the request was "end" (meaning there is no more work to do) and TRUE
** otherwise.
*/
/*
** Size of the longest request we will accept. This is large enough for
** the request type, a 20 character description, and a few long integers.
*/
#define MAX_REQUEST_LINE_LENGTH 100
/*
** Transaction decoding and processing for the inventory system.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include "part.h"
#include "io.h"
#include "process.h"
/*
** These functions implement the various transactions. They are static
** because they are called only by the transaction decoding function that
** appears later in this module.
*/
/*
** total
*/
static void
total( void )
{
Part_number p;
Part part;
Value total_value;
/*
** Read each part and add its value to the total.
*/
total_value = 0;
for( p = last_part_number(); p > 0; p –= 1 )
if( read_part( p, &part ) )
total_value += part.total_value;
/*
** new_part
*/
static void
new_part( char const *description, Quantity quantity, Value price_each )
{
Part part;
Part_number part_number;
/*
** Copy the arguments into the Part structure.
*/
strcpy( part.description, description );
part.quantity = quantity;
part.total_value = quantity * price_each;
/*
** Get the smallest part number that is not currently being used and
** write the information for this part.
*/
part_number = next_part_number();
write_part( part_number, &part );
printf( "%s is part number %lu\n", description, part_number );
}
/*
** buy and sell
*/
static void
buy_sell( char request_type, Part_number part_number, Quantity quantity,
Value price_each )
{
Part part;
/*
** "delete"
*/
static void
delete( Part_number part_number )
{
Part part;
/*
** "print"
*/
static void
print( Part_number part_number )
{
Part part;
/*
** "print all"
*/
static void
print_all( void )
{
Part_number p;
Part part;
/*
** Decode and process one transaction.
*/
int
process_request( void )
{
char request[ MAX_REQUEST_LINE_LENGTH ];
char request_type[ 10 ];
char description[ DESCRIPTION_FIELD_LEN ];
Part_number part_number;
Quantity quantity;
Value price_each;
char left_over[ 2 ];
/*
** Prompt for and read the request. If end of file is reached, return
** FALSE to stop the main transaction loop.
*/
fputs( "\nNext request? ", stdout );
if( fgets( request, MAX_REQUEST_LINE_LENGTH, stdin ) == NULL )
return FALSE;
/*
** See what type of request it is and decode the arguments. Note the
** attempt to extract one extra string (left_over) from each request to
** ensure that the user doesn’t enter too much data.
*/
/*
** "end" and "total": take no arguments
*/
if( sscanf( request, "%10s %1s", request_type, left_over ) == 1 &&
( strcmp( request_type, "end" ) == 0
|| strcmp( request_type, "total" ) == 0 ) ){
if( request_type[ 0 ] == ’e’ )
/*
** ’end’ request: return FALSE to stop the main
** transaction loop.
*/
return FALSE;
else
total();
}
/*
** "new": requires description, quantity, cost each. It uses the next
** available part number.
*/
else if( sscanf( request, "new %20[^,],%hu,%lf %1s",
description, &quantity, &price_each, left_over ) == 3 ){
new_part( description, quantity, price_each );
}
/*
** "buy" and "sell": require part–number, quantity, price each.
*/
else if( sscanf( request, "%10s %lu,%hu,%lf %1s", request_type,
&part_number, &quantity, &price_each, left_over ) == 4 &&
( strcmp( request_type, "buy" ) == 0
|| strcmp( request_type, "sell" ) == 0 ) ){
buy_sell( request_type[ 0 ], part_number, quantity,
price_each );
}
/*
** "delete" and "print": require a part number.
*/
else if( sscanf( request, "%10s %lu %1s", request_type, &part_number,
left_over ) == 2 &&
( strcmp( request_type, "delete" ) == 0
|| strcmp( request_type, "print" ) == 0 ) ){
if( request_type[ 0 ] == ’d’ )
delete( part_number );
else
print( part_number );
}
/*
** "print all": takes no arguments.
*/
else if( sscanf( request, "print %10s %1s", request_type, left_over ) == 1
&& strcmp( request_type, "all" ) == 0 ){
print_all();
}
/*
** If nothing else worked, it must be an error. Print an error message
** if the input line was not empty.
*/
else {
if( sscanf( request, "%10s", request_type ) == 1 )
/*
** Return TRUE so that the main transaction loop keeps going.
*/
return TRUE;
}
Defining all of the I/O functions in one module simplifies accessing the inventory file from
other parts of the program as well as enhancing future maintainability. This module uses the part
number to determine the position in the file where a part is stored; fseek is used to position the
file to the proper location before reading or writing. Because there is no part number zero, that
location in the file is used to store information about the inventory file itself, specifically, the
largest part number currently in use and the part number of the earliest deleted part in the file.
In principle, these values need not be written to the file until just before it is closed. This pro-
gram writes them whenever they change so that no information will be lost if the program is
interrupted or aborts.
Note that the file is opened in binary mode because we are writing binary data. On some
systems, forgetting this will cause end-of-line processing to be done, damaging the file. For
example, the quantity twelve is indistinguishable from a newline character; if this were in fact
written as a carriage-return/newline pair, the resulting record would be longer than it ought to
and would overwrite the beginning of the next part.
/*
** Declarations and prototypes for I/O functions.
*/
/*
** Open the inventory file. Takes the filename as the only argument and
** returns a boolean: TRUE if successful, else FALSE.
*/
int open_file( char const *filename );
/*
** Close the inventory file.
*/
void close_file( void );
/*
** Return the number of the last part on file.
*/
Part_number last_part_number( void );
/*
** Return the next available part number.
*/
Part_number next_part_number( void );
/*
** Read an inventory record. Takes the part number and a pointer to a Part
** structure as arguments. Returns TRUE if the part exists and FALSE
** otherwise.
*/
int read_part( Part_number part_number, Part *part );
/*
** Write an inventory record. Takes the part number and a pointer to a
** Part structure as arguments.
*/
void write_part( Part_number part_number, Part const *part );
/*
** Functions to access the inventory file.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "part.h"
#include "io.h"
/*
** Stream used for the inventory file. The part_number array contains the
** largest part number used and the number of the first deleted part. The
** latter makes it more efficient to add new parts by avoiding the need to
** scan the entire file to locate a previously deleted entry. These are
** all static because all the functions that need it are in this module.
*/
static FILE *inv_file;
static Part_number part_number[ 2 ];
static enum { LAST, NEXT };
/*
** Write the last and next part numbers to the file.
*/
static void
write_part_numbers( void )
{
fseek( inv_file, 0, SEEK_SET );
fwrite( part_number, sizeof( Part_number ), 2, inv_file );
}
/*
** Open the inventory file.
*/
int
open_file( char const *filename )
{
/*
** Try opening the file.
*/
inv_file = fopen( filename, "r+b" );
if( inv_file == NULL ){
/*
** It failed. If it was because the file did not exist, try to
** create it.
*/
if( errno == ENOENT ){
inv_file = fopen( filename, "w+b" );
if( inv_file != 0 ){
part_number[ LAST ] = 0;
part_number[ NEXT ] = 1;
write_part_numbers();
}
}
/*
** If we could not open (or create) the file, print a message.
*/
if( inv_file == NULL )
perror( filename );
}
else
/*
** File opened ok –– read the part number data.
*/
fread( part_number, sizeof( Part_number ), 2, inv_file );
/*
** Return the status of whether we were able to open the file.
*/
return inv_file != NULL;
}
/*
** Close the inventory file.
*/
void
close_file( void )
{
fclose( inv_file );
}
/*
** Return the number of the last part on file.
*/
Part_number
last_part_number( void )
{
/*
** Return the next part number to use.
*/
Part_number
next_part_number( void )
{
Part part;
/*
** If the "next" part number is in the range of existing parts, start
** reading the file from that point to find the first deleted part.
** Otherwise (or if no deleted parts are found), return the part number
** immediately after the last one used up till now.
*/
while( part_number[ NEXT ] <= part_number[ LAST ] ){
if( !read_part( part_number[ NEXT ], &part ) )
break;
part_number[ NEXT ] += 1;
}
write_part_numbers();
return part_number[ NEXT ];
}
/*
** Read a part from the inventory file.
*/
int
read_part( Part_number p, Part *part )
{
/*
** If the part number is legal, try to read the file. Then verify that
** the part was not deleted by checking for a nonempty description.
*/
if( p > 0 && p <= part_number[ LAST ] ){
fseek( inv_file, p * sizeof( Part ), SEEK_SET );
if( fread( part, sizeof( Part ), 1, inv_file ) != 1 ){
perror( "Cannot read part" );
exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
return *part–>description != ’\0’;
}
return FALSE;
}
/*
** Write a part to the inventory file. Update the "last part number" if
** this part is after the old "last" part.
*/
void
write_part( Part_number p, Part const *part )
{
/*
** Make sure the part number is legal (a brand new part may have the
** next number past "part_number[ LAST ]").
*/
if( p > 0 && p <= part_number[ LAST ] + 1 ){
fseek( inv_file, p * sizeof( Part ), SEEK_SET );
if( fwrite( part, sizeof( Part ), 1, inv_file ) != 1 ){
perror( "Cannot write part" );
exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
/*
** Update the part number status. If the part number is larger
** than part_number[ LAST ], we just created a new part.
*/
if( p > part_number[ LAST ] ){
part_number[ LAST ] = p;
write_part_numbers();
}
/*
** If the description is empty, this part is being deleted.
*/
if( part–>description[ 0 ] == ’\0’ && p < part_number[ NEXT ] ){
part_number[ NEXT ] = p;
write_part_numbers();
}
}
}
16.1 Questions
2. Yes, all that is needed are numbers that have no apparent relationship to one another.
4. It is not easy to be absolutely sure. Some implementations provide a sleep function that
suspends a program for a period of time; if the value of clock continues to increase during a
sleep, then it is measuring elapsed time. Lacking that, try reading from the standard input but
not entering anything for ten seconds. If clock continues to increase during that time, it is
either measuring elapsed time or the operating system on your machine isn’t very good at
managing its I/O devices. Another alternative is to start another program; if clock in the first
program increases while the second one is running, it is measuring elapsed time.
6. The major problem is that longjmp is called after the function that called setjmp has returned.
This means that the state information saved in the jump buffer is no longer valid, so the result is
unpredictable. Compared to this, the fact that the main function does not check whether the right
number of command line argument were given is minor. What happens when this executes? It
depends on the particular machine. Some will abort on an illegal return address from the no-
longer-active set_buffer function. Others will go off into an infinite loop somewhere. Still
others, particularly RISC machines which do not store function arguments on the stack along
with the return address, will go into an infinite loop.
7. The results, of course, will depend on the specific implementation. A Sun Sparc II running Sun
OS 4.1.4 raise a SIGFPE signal for integer division by zero but not for floating-point division by
zero. Borland C++ version 4.0 on an Intel Pentium processor raises the SIGFPE signal for a
floating-point division by zero, but not for integer division by zero.
Different implementations behave differently due in large measure to how (or whether) the
CPU detects such errors. This behavior cannot be standardized without the cooperation of the
CPU manufacturers. The moral of the story is that signal handling is inherently non-portable,
despite the best efforts of the Standard.
8. Yes, it would cause the array to be sorted into descending order.
119
120 Chapter 16 Standard Library
/*
** For a given input age, compute the smallest radix in the range 2 – 36 for
** which the age appears as a number less than or equal to 29.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int
main( int ac, char **av )
{
int age;
int radix;
div_t result;
if( ac != 2 ){
fputs( "Usage: age_radix your–age\n", stderr );
exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
/*
** Get the age argument.
*/
age = atoi( av[ 1 ] );
/*
** Find the smallest radix that does the job.
*/
for( radix = 2; radix <= 36; radix += 1 ){
result = div( age, radix );
if( result.quot <= 2 && result.rem <= 9 )
break;
}
/*
** Print the results.
*/
if( radix <= 36 ){
printf( "Use radix %d when telling your age; "
"%d in base %d is %d%d\n",
radix, age, radix, result.quot, result.rem );
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
else {
printf( "Sorry, even in base 36 your age "
"is greater than 29!\n" );
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
}
3. The biggest problem with this is the rounding required to show which number the hour hand is
actually closer to.
/*
** Give the current time as a young child would.
*/
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int
main()
{
time_t now;
struct tm *tm;
int hour;
int minute;
/*
** Get current hour and minute.
*/
now = time( NULL );
tm = localtime( &now );
hour = tm–>tm_hour;
minute = tm–>tm_min;
/*
** Round and normalize the hour, convert the minute, and then print them.
*/
if( minute >= 30 )
hour += 1;
hour %= 12;
if( hour == 0 )
hour = 12;
minute += 2;
minute /= 5;
if( minute == 0 )
minute = 12;
printf( "The big hand is on the %d, and the little hand is on the %d.\n",
minute, hour );
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
4. The month and year must be adjusted to the proper range, and a time other than midnight should
be chosen to avoid ambiguity. Other than that, the program is straightforward. On a Silicon
Graphics Indy, the range of valid dates handled by this program is December 14, 1901 through
January 18, 2038. This suggests that the reason time_t is defined as a signed quantity is so
that it can represent 68 years before 1970 as well as 68 years after 1970.
/*
** Read a month, day, and year from the command line and determine the day of
** the week for that date.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
int
main( int ac, char **av )
{
struct tm tm;
if( ac != 4 ){
fputs( "Usage: day_of_seek month day year\n", stderr );
exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
/*
** Store the arguments in the struct tm variable.
*/
tm.tm_sec = 0;
tm.tm_min = 0;
tm.tm_hour = 12;
tm.tm_mday = atoi( av[ 2 ] );
tm.tm_mon = atoi( av[ 1 ] ) – 1;
tm.tm_year = atoi( av[ 3 ] ) – 1900 ;
tm.tm_isdst = 0;
/*
** Normalize it, then print the answer.
*/
mktime( &tm );
printf( "%s %d, %d is a %s\n", month[ tm.tm_mon ], tm.tm_mday,
tm.tm_year + 1900, day[ tm.tm_wday ] );
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
5. The most common mistake in this program is to use the temperature directly rather than ∆t .
/*
** Compute wind chill given the temperature in degrees Celsius and wind velocity
** in meters per second.
*/
#include <math.h>
#define A 10.45
#define B 10.00
#define C –1.0
#define X 1.78816
double
wind_chill( double temp, double velocity )
{
temp = 33 – temp;
return 33 – ( ( A + B * sqrt( velocity ) + C * velocity ) * temp ) /
( A + B * sqrt( X ) + C * X );
}
6. There are several common errors: passing the number of payments argument as an integer to
pow; failing to convert the years and interest to their monthly equivalents; failing to convert the
interest to a decimal; and failing to round to the nearest penny.
/*
** Compute the monthly mortgage payment given the loan amount, annual interest
** rate, and loan term.
*/
#include <math.h>
double
payment( double amount, double interest, int periods )
{
interest /= 1200;
periods *= 12;
amount = amount * interest /
( 1 – pow( 1 + interest, (double)( –periods ) ) );
return floor( amount * 100 + 0.5 ) / 100;
}
8. sscanf will no longer work, as there may be any number of ages. Instead, we will use
strtol.
/*
** Compute the average age of family members. Each line of input is for one
** family; it contains the ages of all family members.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int
main()
{
char buffer[ 512 ];
/*
** Get the input one line at a time.
*/
while( fgets( buffer, 512, stdin ) != NULL ){
char *bp;
int members;
long sum;
long age;
/*
** Decode the ages, one by one.
*/
sum = 0;
members = 0;
bp = buffer;
while( ( age = strtol( bp, &bp, 10 ) ) > 0 ){
members += 1;
sum += age;
}
if( members == 0 )
continue;
/*
** Compute the average and print the results.
*/
printf( "%5.2f: %s", (double)sum / members, buffer );
}
}
9. The answers are surprising: In a group of 30 people, the odds are around 70% that at least two
of them share a birthday. It only takes a group of around 23 to get even odds. This program,
on the other hand, is unremarkable.
/*
** Determine the odds of two people in a class of 30 having the same birthday.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <malloc.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <time.h>
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
int
main( int ac, char **av )
{
int n_students = 30;
int *birthdays;
int test;
int match;
int total_matches = 0;
/*
** See how many students in the class (default 30).
*/
if( ac > 1 ){
n_students = atoi( av[ 1 ] );
assert( n_students > 0 );
}
/*
** Seed the random number generator.
*/
srand( (unsigned int)time( 0 ) );
/*
** Allocate an array for the students’ birthdays.
*/
birthdays = (int *)malloc( n_students * sizeof( int ) );
assert( birthdays != NULL );
/*
** Run the tests a bunch of times!
*/
for( test = 0; test < TRIALS; test += 1 ){
int i;
/*
** Generate the birthdays and check for matches.
*/
match = FALSE;
for( i = 0; i < n_students && !match; i += 1 ){
int j;
/*
/*
** See if it matches any of the existing
** ones; quit as soon as we find a match.
*/
for( j = 0; !match && j < i; j += 1 )
if( birthdays[ i ] == birthdays[ j ] )
match = TRUE;
}
/*
** Count the results.
*/
if( match )
total_matches += 1;
}
free( birthdays );
}
10. The only difference between this program and the algorithm described is that the sorted part of
the array begins with one element in it.
/*
** Do an insertion sort to order the elements in an array.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <malloc.h>
void
insertion_sort( void *base, size_t n_elements, size_t el_size,
int (*compare)( void const *x, void const *y ) )
{
char *array;
char *temp;
int i;
int next_element;
/*
** Copy base address into a char * so we can do pointer arithmetic.
** Then get a temporary array large enough to hold a single element.
*/
array = base;
temp = malloc( el_size );
assert( temp != NULL );
/*
** The first element in the array is already sorted. Insert the
** remaining ones one by one.
*/
for( next_element = 1; next_element < n_elements; next_element += 1 ){
char *i_ptr = array;
char *next_ptr = array + next_element * el_size;
/*
** Find the right place to insert the next element.
*/
for( i = 0; i < next_element; i += 1, i_ptr += el_size )
if( compare( next_ptr, i_ptr ) < 0 )
break;
/*
** If we went all the way to the end of the sorted part of the
** array, then the next element should go after those that are
** already sorted. That’s where it is right now, so we’re done.
*/
if( i == next_element )
continue;
/*
** Otherwise, we must insert the next element before the one
** that i points to. First, copy the next element into the
** temporary array.
*/
memcpy( temp, next_ptr, el_size );
/*
** Now copy the elements from i to the end of the sorted part of
** the array to the right one place.
*/
memmove( i_ptr + el_size, i_ptr, ( next_element – i ) * el_size );
/*
** Finally, the next element is inserted.
*/
memcpy( i_ptr, temp, el_size );
}
free( temp );
}
17.1 Questions
1. A stack, because the values popped off of a stack come off in the opposite order from which
they were pushed.
2. A queue is best because it keeps the oldest stock at the front so that it will be purchased before
it goes bad. A stack would put the new stock at the front, and the cartons in the back might lan-
guish until the milk turned solid.
4. No, because the client can easily do this already:
while( !is_empty() )
pop();
The only advantage to be gained by having a function in the stack module to empty the stack is
that it could do the job more efficiently; for example,
void
empty( void )
{
top_element = –1;
}
5. top_element would have to be initialized to zero so that the first value pushed would be stored
in the array. Then top would have to be changed appropriately:
return stack[ top_element – 1 ];
With these changes, the module would work correctly, albeit slightly less efficiently.
6. Clients would be able to push too many values, overflowing the array. They could pop more
values than the stack actually held, which would cause subsequent calls to top to access memory
outside of the array.
8. No. If the function were written like this:
assert( !is_empty() );
free( stack );
129
130 Chapter 17 Classic Abstract Data Types
stack = stack–>next;
the last statement would be incorrect, as it accesses dynamically allocated memory that has
already been freed.
10. They will both work, though the logic for using a separate counter is simpler. Leaving one array
element unused wastes that space; if the elements are large this could be considerable.
11. This is tricky, as there are four cases to consider: the queue may be empty or nonempty, and
front may be before or after rear. The modulo operation gives the correct answer when the
queue is empty.
if( front <= rear )
n_values = rear – front + 1;
else
n_values = queue_size – front + rear + 1;
n_values %= QUEUE_SIZE;
15 32
5 18 21 91
-4 76
33 90
41
34
14. It is the same as a sequential search of a linked list, because that is what the tree actually is.
15. Pre-order: 54 36 22 16 25 41 40 51 72 61 80 73.
In-order: 16 22 25 36 40 41 51 54 61 72 73 80.
Post-order: 16 25 22 40 51 41 36 61 73 80 72 54.
Breadth-first: 54 36 72 22 41 61 80 16 25 40 51 73.
Pointers on C—Instructor´s Guide 131
19. A post-order traversal is the most convenient because it processes (deletes) the children of a node
before deleting the node itself.
/*
** Resize the array holding the stack.
*/
void
resize_stack( size_t new_size )
{
STACK_TYPE *old_stack;
int i;
/*
** Make sure the new size is large enough to hold the data already on
** the stack. Then save the pointer to the old array and create a new
** one of the right size.
*/
assert( new_size > top_element );
old_stack = stack;
stack = (STACK_TYPE *)malloc( new_size * sizeof( STACK_TYPE ) );
assert( stack != NULL );
stack_size = new_size;
/*
** Copy values from the old array to the new one and then free the old
** memory.
*/
for( i = 0; i <= top_element; i += 1 )
stack[ i ] = old_stack[ i ];
free( old_stack );
}
2. This module is converted the same as the stack module was. The resize function is much more
interesting: Not every location in the array need be copied, and it is easy for front and rear to
become incorrect when the data has wrapped around the end of the array.
/*
** A queue implemented with a dynamically allocated array. The array size is
** given when create is called, which must happen before any other queue
** operations are attempted.
*/
#include "queue.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <assert.h>
/*
** The array that holds the values on the queue, its size, and pointers to
** the front and rear of the queue.
*/
static QUEUE_TYPE *queue;
static size_t queue_size;
static size_t front = 1;
static size_t rear = 0;
/*
** create_queue
*/
void
create_queue( size_t size )
{
assert( queue_size == 0 );
queue_size = size;
queue = (QUEUE_TYPE *)malloc( queue_size * sizeof( QUEUE_TYPE ) );
assert( queue != NULL );
}
/*
** destroy_queue
*/
void
destroy_queue( void )
{
assert( queue_size > 0 );
queue_size = 0;
free( queue );
queue = NULL;
}
/*
** resize_queue
*/
void
resize_queue( size_t new_size )
{
QUEUE_TYPE *old_queue;
int i;
int rear_plus_one;
/*
** Make sure the new size is large enough to hold the data already on
** the queue. Then save the pointer to the old array and create a new
** one of the right size.
*/
if( front <= rear )
i = rear – front + 1;
else
i = queue_size – front + rear + 1;
i %= queue_size;
assert( new_size >= i );
old_queue = queue;
queue = (QUEUE_TYPE *)malloc( new_size * sizeof( QUEUE_TYPE ) );
assert( queue != NULL );
queue_size = new_size;
/*
** Copy values from the old array to the new one and then free the old
** memory.
*/
i = 0;
rear_plus_one = ( rear + 1 ) % queue_size;
while( front != rear_plus_one ){
queue[ i ] = old_queue[ front ];
front = ( front + 1 ) % queue_size;
i += 1;
}
front = 0;
rear = ( i + queue_size – 1 ) % queue_size;
free( old_queue );
}
/*
** insert
*/
void
insert( QUEUE_TYPE value )
{
assert( !is_full() );
rear = ( rear + 1 ) % queue_size;
queue[ rear ] = value;
/*
** delete
*/
void
delete( void )
{
assert( !is_empty() );
front = ( front + 1 ) % queue_size;
}
/*
** first
*/
QUEUE_TYPE first( void )
{
assert( !is_empty() );
return queue[ front ];
}
/*
** is_empty
*/
int
is_empty( void )
{
assert( queue_size > 0 );
return ( rear + 1 ) % queue_size == front;
}
/*
** is_full
*/
int
is_full( void )
{
assert( queue_size > 0 );
return ( rear + 2 ) % queue_size == front;
}
4. This is straightforward; the stack data is simply declared as arrays, and the stack number passed
as an argument selects which element to manipulate.
/*
** Interface for a module that manages 10 stacks.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#define STACK_TYPE int /* Type of value on the stack */
/*
** push
** Pushes a new value on the stack. The first argument selects which
** stack, and the second argument is the value to push.
*/
void push( size_t stack, STACK_TYPE value );
/*
** pop
** Pops a value off of the selected stack, discarding it.
*/
void pop( size_t stack );
/*
** top
** Returns the topmost value on the selected stack without changing the
** stack.
*/
STACK_TYPE top( size_t stack );
/*
** is_empty
** Returns TRUE if the selected stack is empty, else FALSE
*/
int is_empty( size_t stack );
/*
** is_full
** Returns TRUE if the selected stack is full, else FALSE
*/
int is_full( size_t stack );
/*
** A stack implemented with a dynamically allocated array. The array size is
** given when create is called, which must happen before any other stack
** operations are attempted.
*/
#include "10stack.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <malloc.h>
#include <assert.h>
/*
** The maximum number of stacks handled by the module. This can be changed
** only by recompiling the module.
*/
#define N_STACKS 10
/*
** This structure holds all the information for one stack: the array that
** holds the values, its size, and a pointer to the topmost value.
*/
typedef struct {
STACK_TYPE *stack;
size_t size;
int top_element;
} StackInfo;
/*
** Here are the actual stacks.
*/
StackInfo stacks[ N_STACKS ];
/*
** create_stack
*/
void
create_stack( size_t stack, size_t size )
{
assert( stack < N_STACKS );
assert( stacks[ stack ].size == 0 );
stacks[ stack ].size = size;
stacks[ stack ].stack =
(STACK_TYPE *)malloc( size * sizeof( STACK_TYPE ) );
assert( stacks[ stack ].stack != NULL );
stacks[ stack ].top_element = –1;
}
/*
** destroy_stack
*/
void
destroy_stack( size_t stack )
{
assert( stack < N_STACKS );
assert( stacks[ stack ].size > 0 );
stacks[ stack ].size = 0;
free( stacks[ stack ].stack );
stacks[ stack ].stack = NULL;
}
/*
** push
*/
void
push( size_t stack, STACK_TYPE value )
{
assert( !is_full( stack ) );
stacks[ stack ].top_element += 1;
stacks[ stack ].stack[ stacks[ stack ].top_element ] = value;
/*
** pop
*/
void
pop( size_t stack )
{
assert( !is_empty( stack ) );
stacks[ stack ].top_element –= 1;
}
/*
** top
*/
STACK_TYPE top( size_t stack )
{
assert( !is_empty( stack ) );
return stacks[ stack ].stack[ stacks[ stack ].top_element ];
}
/*
** is_empty
*/
int
is_empty( size_t stack )
{
assert( stack < N_STACKS );
assert( stacks[ stack ].size > 0 );
return stacks[ stack ].top_element == –1;
}
/*
** is_full
*/
int
is_full( size_t stack )
{
assert( stack < N_STACKS );
assert( stacks[ stack ].size > 0 );
return stacks[ stack ].top_element == stacks[ stack ].size – 1;
}
5. Because two subtrees might have to be traversed, a recursive function is appropriate. This func-
tion is for the linked implementation.
/*
** Count the number of nodes in a linked binary search tree.
*/
/*
** This helper function takes the root of the tree we’re currently working
** on as an argument.
*/
int
count_nodes( TreeNode *tree )
{
if( tree == NULL )
return 0;
int
number_of_nodes()
{
return count_nodes( tree );
}
7. Each node’s value must be checked to see that it is not too large or too small. One way of
doing this is to pass the minimum and maximum allowable values to each recursive call of the
function. The problem with this is initialization for the first call: the solution shown uses the
maximum and minimum integer constants to solve the problem. It may not be this easy with
other data types. This function is written for the linked implementation.
/*
** Check a linked binary search tree for validity.
*/
/*
** This helper function checks the validity of one node, using minimum and
** maximum values passed in from the caller.
*/
int
check_bst_subtree( TreeNode *node, int min, int max )
{
/*
** Empty trees are always valid.
*/
if( node == NULL )
return TRUE;
/*
** Check the validity of this node.
*/
if( node–>value < min || node–>value > max )
return FALSE;
/*
return TRUE;
}
/*
** Check the validity of a binary search tree.
*/
int
check_bst_tree()
{
return check_bst_subtree( tree, INT_MIN, INT_MAX );
}
/*
** Delete a node from an arrayed binary search tree
*/
void
delete( TREE_TYPE value )
{
int current;
int left;
int right;
int left_subtree_empty;
int right_subtree_empty;
/*
** First, locate the value. It must exist in the tree or this routine
** will abort the program.
*/
current = 1;
/*
** We’ve found the value. If it is a leaf, simply set it to zero.
** Otherwise, if its left subtree is not empty, replace the node’s value
** with the rightmost (largest) child from its left subtree, and then
** delete that node. Otherwise, replace the value with the leftmost
** (smallest) child from its right subtree, and delete that node.
*/
left = left_child( current );
right = right_child( current );
left_subtree_empty = left > ARRAY_SIZE || tree[ left ] == 0;
right_subtree_empty = right > ARRAY_SIZE || tree[ right ] == 0;
if( !left_subtree_empty ){
/*
** The left subtree is nonempty. Find its rightmost
** child.
*/
this_child = left;
next_child = right_child( this_child );
/*
** Delete the child and replace the current value with
** this_child’s value.
*/
value = tree[ this_child ];
delete( value );
tree[ current ] = value;
}
}
9. This is best done with a post-order traversal. Unfortunately, the interface for the traversal func-
tions passes a pointer to the node’s value rather than a pointer to the node containing the value,
so we must write our own.
/*
** Destroy a linked binary search tree.
*/
/*
** Do one level of a post–order traverse to destroy the tree. This helper
** function is needed to save the information of which node we’re currently
** processing; this is not a part of the client’s interface.
*/
static void
do_destroy_tree( TreeNode *current )
{
if( current != NULL ){
do_destroy_tree( current–>left );
do_destroy_tree( current–>right );
free( current );
}
}
/*
** Destroy the entire tree.
*/
void
destroy_tree()
{
do_destroy_tree( tree );
}
10. This is slightly easier than the arrayed tree deletion because we can rearrange values merely by
changing pointers; the values do not need to be moved in the array.
/*
** Delete a node from a linked binary search tree
*/
void
delete( TREE_TYPE value )
{
TreeNode *current;
TreeNode **link;
/*
** First, locate the value. It must exist in the tree or this routine
** will abort the program.
*/
link = &tree;
/*
** We’ve found the value. See how many children it has.
*/
if( current–>left == NULL && current–>right == NULL ){
/*
** It is a leaf; no children to worry about!
*/
*link = NULL;
free( current );
}
else if( current–>left == NULL || current–>right == NULL ){
/*
** The node has only one child, so the parent will simply
** inherit it.
*/
if( current–>left != NULL )
*link = current–>left;
else
*link = current–>right;
free( current );
}
else {
/*
** The node has two children! Replace its value with the
** largest value from its left subtree, and then delete that
** node instead.
*/
TreeNode *this_child;
TreeNode *next_child;
this_child = current–>left;
next_child = this_child–>right;
while( next_child != NULL ){
this_child = next_child;
next_child = this_child–>right;
}
/*
** Delete the child and replace the current value with
** this_child’s value.
*/
value = this_child–>value;
delete( value );
current–>value = value;
}
}
/* 11.
** GENERIC implementation of a stack with a static array. The array size is
** given as one of the arguments when the stack is instantiated.
*/
#include <assert.h>
/*
** Interface
**
** This macro declares the prototypes and data types needed for a stack of
** one specific type. It should be invoked ONCE (per source file) for each
** different stack type used in that source file. The suffix is appended
** to each of the function names; it must be chosen by the user so as to
** give unique names for each different type used.
*/
#define GENERIC_STACK_INTERFACE( STACK_TYPE, SUFFIX ) \
typedef struct { \
STACK_TYPE *stack; \
int top_element; \
int stack_size; \
} STACK##SUFFIX; \
void push##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack, STACK_TYPE value );\
void pop##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack ); \
STACK_TYPE top##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack ); \
int is_empty##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack ); \
int is_full##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack );
/*
** Implementation
**
** This macro defines the functions to manipulate a stack of a specific
** type. It should be invoked ONCE (per entire program) for each different
** stack type used in the program. The suffix must be the same one used in
** the interface declaration.
*/
#define GENERIC_STACK_IMPLEMENTATION( STACK_TYPE, SUFFIX ) \
\
void \
push##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack, STACK_TYPE value ) \
{ \
assert( !is_full##SUFFIX( stack ) ); \
stack–>top_element += 1; \
stack–>stack[ stack–>top_element ] = value; \
} \
\
void \
pop##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack ) \
{ \
assert( !is_empty##SUFFIX( stack ) ); \
stack–>top_element –= 1; \
} \
\
STACK_TYPE top##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack ) \
{ \
assert( !is_empty##SUFFIX( stack ) ); \
return stack–>stack[ stack–>top_element ]; \
} \
\
int \
is_empty##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack ) \
{ \
return stack–>top_element == –1; \
} \
\
int \
is_full##SUFFIX( STACK##SUFFIX *stack ) \
{ \
return stack–>top_element == stack–>stack_size – 1; \
}
/*
** Stacks
**
** This macro creates the data needed for a single stack. It is invoked
** once per stack. NAME is the name by which you refer to the stack in
** subsequent function calls, and STACK_SIZE is the size you want the stack
** to be. STACK_TYPE is the type of data stored on the stack, and the
** SUFFIX must be the same one given in the interface declaration for this
** STACK_TYPE.
*/
#define GENERIC_STACK( NAME, STACK_SIZE, STACK_TYPE, SUFFIX ) \
static STACK_TYPE NAME##stack[ STACK_SIZE ]; \
STACK##SUFFIX NAME = { NAME##stack, –1, STACK_SIZE };
18.1 Questions
1. The answer depends on the specific environment. RISC architectures often have interesting stra-
tegies for handling parameter passing, though the semantics of C do not always allow the com-
piler writer to take advantage of all of them.
2. The answer depends on the specific environment.
3. The answer depends on the specific environment.
4. The answer depends on the specific environment.
7. Assembly language programs can be more efficient in C programs only in their size and speed.
What is far more important is that the programmer is much more efficient using a high level
language than using an assembly language. The assembly language programmer is unlikely to
ever complete a piece of software of the scale common today, so the fact that the code is small
and fast is irrelevant.
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