Max value of int in ChucK - chuck

What is the maximum value of an int in ChucK? Is there a symbolic constant for it?

New in the latest version!
<<<Math.INT_MAX>>>;
For reference though, it uses the "long" keyword in C++ to represent integers.
So on 32-bit computers the max should be 0x7FFFFFFF, or 2147483647.
On 64-bit computers it will be 0x7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF, or 9223372036854775807.
Answer from Kassen and Stephen Sinclair on the chuck-users mailing list.

The ChucK API reference uses the C int type, so the maximum value would depend on your local machine (2^31-1, around two billion on standard 32-bit x86). I don't see any references to retrieving limits, but if ChucK is extensible using C you could add a function that returns MAXINT.

Related

Passing BIGINT between Erlang VM and the NIFs

Is there an efficient way to pass BIGINT (integers exceeding 64 bits for x86_64/amd64 architectures) between Erlang VM and the NIFs? So far I haven't found a supporting function in the enif module. Maybe converting BIGINTs to binaries will help, but there might be another good way.
This post from 2011 says there wasn't any support for big integers in the NIF API at the time. I couldn't find any such function in Erlang/OTP 21's documentation, so the statement is likely true as of today as well.
Here's how you could pass a big integer as an array of bytes:
From Erlang, instead of passing the integer directly, pass two values: the sign of the integer and the binary obtained by calling binary:encode_unsigned/1 on the integer.
Integer = ...,
my_nif_function(Integer < 0, binary:encode_unsigned(Integer)).
In the NIF function, you can get access to the bytes of the second argument using enif_inspect_binary:
ErlNifBinary bin;
enif_inspect_binary(env, bin_term, &bin); // make sure to check the return value of this function in the real code
bin.data now points to bin.size bytes, representing the bytes of the integer in Big Endian order (if you want Little Endian, pass little as the second argument to binary:encode_unsigned/2 above).

Benefits of using NSInteger over int?

I am trying to comprehend how development is affected when developing for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. From what I have researched thus far, I understand an int is always 4 bytes regardless of the architecture of the device running the app. But an NSInteger is 4 bytes on a 32-bit device and 8 bytes on a 64-bit device. I get the impression NSInteger is "safer" and recommended but I'm not sure what the reasoning is for that.
My question is, if you know the possible value you're using is never going to be large (maybe you're using it to index into an array of 200 items or store the count of objects in an array), why define it as an NSInteger? That's just going to take up 8 bytes when you won't use it all. Is it better to define it as an int in those cases? If so, in what case would you want to use an NSInteger (as opposed to int or long etc)? Obviously if you needed to utilize larger numbers, you could with the 64-bit architecture. But if you needed it to also work on 32-bit devices, would you not use long long because it's 8 bytes on 32-bit devices as well? I don't see why one would use NSInteger, at least when creating an app that runs on both architectures.
Also I cannot think of a method which takes in or returns a primitive type - int, and instead utilizes NSInteger, and am wondering if there is more to it than just the size of the values. For example, (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section. I'd like to understand why this is the case. Assuming it's possible to have a table with 2,147,483,647 rows, what would occur on a 32-bit device when you add one more - does it wrap around to a -2,147,483,647? And on a 64-bit device it would be 2,147,483,648. (Why return a signed value? I'd think it should be unsigned since you can't have a negative number of rows.)
Ultimately, I'd like to obtain a better understanding of actual use of these number data types, perhaps some code examples would be great!
I personally think that, 64-bit is actually the reason for existence for NSInteger and NSUInteger; before 10.5, those did not exist. The two are simply defined as longs in 64-bit, and as ints in 32-bit.
NSInteger/NSUInteger are defined as *dynamic typedef*s to one of these types, and they are defined like this:
#if __LP64__ || NS_BUILD_32_LIKE_64
typedef long NSInteger;
typedef unsigned long NSUInteger;
#else
typedef int NSInteger;
typedef unsigned int NSUInteger;
#endif
Thus, using them in place of the more basic C types when you want the 'bit-native' size.
I suggest you to throughly read this link.
CocoaDev has some more info.
For proper format specifier you should use for each of these types, see the String Programming Guide's section on Platform Dependencies
I remember when attending iOS developer conference. you have to take a look on the data-type in iOS7. for example, you use NSInteger in 64-bit device and save it on iCloud. then you want to sync to lower device (say iPad 2nd gen), your app will not behave the same, because it recognizes NSInteger in 4 bytes not 8 bytes, then your calculation would be wrong.
But so far, I use NSInteger because mostly my app doesn't use iCloud or doesn't sync. and to avoid compiler warning.
Apple uses int because for a loop control variable (which is only used to control the loop iterations) int datatype is fine, both in datatype size and in the values it can hold for your loop. No need for platform dependent datatype here. For a loop control variable even a 16-bit int will do most of the time.
Apple uses NSInteger for a function return value or for a function argument because in this case datatype [size] matters, because what you are doing with a function is communicating/passing data with other programs or with other pieces of code.
Apple uses NSInteger (or NSUInteger) when passing a value as an
argument to a function or returning a value from a function.
The only thing I would use NSInteger for is passing values to and from an API that specifies it. Other than that it has no advantage over an int or a long. At least with an int or a long you know what format specifiers to use in a printf or similar statement.
As a continue to Irfan's answer:
sizeof(NSInteger)
equals a processor word's size. It is much more simple and faster for processor to operate with words

How to find the remainder of large number division in C++?

I have a question regarding modulus in C++. What I was trying to do was divide a very large number, lets say for example, M % 2, where M = 54,302,495,302,423. However, when I go to compile it says that the number is to 'long' for int. Then when I switch it to a double it repeats the same error message. Is there a way I can do this in which I will get the remainder of this very large number or possibly an even larger number? Thanks for your help, much appreciated.
You can try storing the number in a "long long" (64 bit integral value), just be aware that if your application is multi-threaded and running on a 32-bit CPU you will need to synchronize between threads when reading/writing this value as it takes 2 clock cycles to read/write.
Alternatively, try a bignum library
If you want to make things interesting, if you are only ever doing modulo 2 you can check the lowest bit and get your answer. If you are only doing up to modulo 255 you can take the lowest 8 (unsigned char) bits and do the operation on them. If you are only doing up to modulo 65535 you can take the lowest 16 bits (unsigned short) and do the operation on them.
For large number arithmetic in C++, use the GMP library. In particular, the mpz_mod function would do this.
For a more natural C++ wrapper, the mpz_class class can help by providing operator overloading for multiprecision operations.
ints only range from –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. Check
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s3f49ktz(VS.71).aspx for data type ranges. I recommend a long long.
Hint: Use a linked list. Store the number as a group of numbers dynamically. For eg:
112233445566778899001122 => 11223344 55667788 99001122
Now consider the individual unit and start from left to right. Find the reminder and manipulate it to add to the next group and go on.
Now implementation is very easy :)
Edit:
112233445566778899001122/6 => 11223344 55667788 99001122/6
11223344/6 =>2
2*100000000 + 55667788 = 255667788
255667788/6 => 0
0*100000000 + 99001122 = 99001122
99001122/6=>0
So the reminder is 0.
Remember, the individual unit after manipulation should be under the maximum range int can support.

What's the deal with 17- and 40-bit math in TI DSPs?

The TMS320C55x has a 17-bit MAC unit and a 40-bit accumulator. Why the non-power-of-2-width units?
The 40-bit accumulator is common in a few TI DSPs. The idea is basically that you can accumulate up to 256 arbitrary 32-bit products without overflow. (vs. in C where if you take a 32-bit product, you can overflow fairly quickly unless you resort to using 64-bit integers.)
The only way you access these features is by assembly code or special compiler intrinsics. If you use regular C/C++ code, the accumulator is invisible. You can't get a pointer to it.
So there's not any real need to adhere to a power-of-2 scheme. DSP cores have been fairly optimized for power/performance tradeoffs.
I may be talking through my hat here, but I'd expect to see the 17-bit stuff used to avoid the need for a separate carry bit when adding/subtracting 16-bit samples.

How to avoid rounding problems when comparing currency values in Delphi?

AFAIK, Currency type in Delphi Win32 depends on the processor floating point precision. Because of this I'm having rounding problems when comparing two Currency values, returning different results depending on the machine.
For now I'm using the SameValue function passing a Epsilon parameter = 0.009, because I only need 2 decimal digits precision.
Is there any better way to avoid this problem?
The Currency type in Delphi is a 64-bit integer scaled by 1/10,000; in other words, its smallest increment is equivalent to 0.0001. It is not susceptible to precision issues in the same way that floating point code is.
However, if you are multiplying your Currency numbers by floating-point types, or dividing your Currency values, the rounding does need to be worked out one way or the other. The FPU controls this mechanism (it's called the "control word"). The Math unit contains some procedures which control this mechanism: SetRoundMode in particular. You can see the effects in this program:
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses Math;
var
x: Currency;
y: Currency;
begin
SetRoundMode(rmTruncate);
x := 1;
x := x / 6;
SetRoundMode(rmNearest);
y := 1;
y := y / 6;
Writeln(x = y); // false
Writeln(x - y); // 0.0001; i.e. 0.1666 vs 0.1667
end.
It is possible that a third-party library you are using is setting the control word to a different value. You may want to set the control word (i.e. rounding mode) explicitly at the starting point of your important calculations.
Also, if your calculations ever transfer into plain floating point and then back into Currency, all bets are off - too hard to audit. Make sure all your calculations are in Currency.
No, Currency is not a floating point type. It is a fixed-precision decimal, implemented with integer storage. It can be compared exactly, and does not have the rounding issues of, say, Double. Therefore, if you are seeing inexact values in your Currency variables, the problem is not the Currency type itself, but what you are putting into it. Most likely, you have a floating-point calculation somewhere else in your code. Since you do not show that code, it's hard to be of more help on this question. But the solution, generally speaking, will be to round your floating point numbers to the correct precision before storing in the Currency variable, rather than doing an inexact comparison on the Currency variables.
Faster and safer way of comparing two currency values is certainly to map the variables to their internal Int64 representation:
function CompCurrency(var A,B: currency): Int64;
var A64: Int64 absolute A;
B64: Int64 absolute B;
begin
result := A64-B64;
end;
This will avoid any rounding error during comparison (working with *10000 integer values), and will be faster than the default FPU-based implementation (especially under 64 bit XE2 compiler).
See this article for additional information.
If your situation is like mine, you might find this approach helpful. I work mostly in payroll. If a business has say 3 departments and wants to charge the cost of an employee evenly among those three departments, there are a lot of times when there will be rounding issues.
What I have been doing is loop through the departments charging each one a third of the total cost and adding the cost charged to a subtotal (currency) variable. But when the loop variable equals the limit, rather than multiplying by the fraction, I subtract the subtotal variable from the total cost and put that in the last department. Since the journal entries that result from this process always have to balance, I believe that it has always worked.
See thread:
D7 / DUnit: all CheckEquals(Currency, Currency) tests suddenly fail ...
https://forums.codegear.com/thread.jspa?threadID=16288
It looks like a change on our development workstations caused Currency comparision to fail. We have not found the root cause, but on two computers running Windows 2000 SP4, and independent of the version of gds32.dll (InterBase 7.5.1 or 2007) and Delphi (7 and 2009), this line
TIBDataBase.Create(nil);
changes the value of to 8087 control word from $1372 to $1272 now.
And all Currency comparisions in unit tests will fail with funny messages like
Expected: <12.34> - Found: <12.34>
The gds32.dll has not been modified, so I guess that there is a dependency in this library to a third party dll which modifies the control word.
To avoid possible issues with currency rounding in Delphi use 4 decimal places.
This will ensure that you never having rounding issues when doing calcualtions with very small amounts.
"Been there. Done That. Written the unit tests."

Resources