Question

Consider the following programs:

// http://ideone.com/4I0dT
#include <limits>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    int max = std::numeric_limits<int>::max();
    unsigned int one = 1;
    unsigned int result = max + one;
    std::cout << result;
}

and

// http://ideone.com/UBuFZ
#include <limits>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    unsigned int us = 42;
    int neg = -43;
    int result = us + neg;
    std::cout << result;
}

How does the + operator “know” which is the correct type to return? The general rule is to convert all of the arguments to the widest type, but here there’s no clear “winner” between int and unsigned int. In the first case, unsigned int must be being chosen as the result of operator+, because I get a result of 2147483648. In the second case, it must be choosing int, because I get a result of -1. Yet I don’t see in the general case how this is decidable. Is this undefined behavior I’m seeing or something else?

Answer 1

This is outlined explicitly in §5/9:

Many binary operators that expect operands of arithmetic or enumeration type cause conversions and yield result types in a similar way. The purpose is to yield a common type, which is also the type of the result. This pattern is called the usual arithmetic conversions, which are defined as follows:

• If either operand is of type long double, the other shall be converted to long double.
• Otherwise, if either operand is double, the other shall be converted to double.
• Otherwise, if either operand is float, the other shall be converted to float.
• Otherwise, the integral promotions shall be performed on both operands.
• Then, if either operand is unsigned long the other shall be converted to unsigned long.
• Otherwise, if one operand is a long int and the other unsigned int, then if a long int can represent all the values of an unsigned int, the unsigned int shall be converted to a long int; otherwise both operands shall be converted to unsigned long int.
• Otherwise, if either operand is long, the other shall be converted to long.
• Otherwise, if either operand is unsigned, the other shall be converted to unsigned.

[Note: otherwise, the only remaining case is that both operands are int]

In both of your scenarios, the result of operator+ is unsigned. Consequently, the second scenario is effectively:

int result = static_cast<int>(us + static_cast<unsigned>(neg));

Because in this case the value of us + neg is not representable by int, the value of result is implementation-defined – §4.7/3:

If the destination type is signed, the value is unchanged if it can be represented in the destination type (and bit-field width); otherwise, the value is implementation-defined.