Writing binary number system in C code

Standard C doesn’t define binary constants. There’s a GNU C extension though (among popular compilers, clang adapts it as well): the 0b or 0B prefixes:

int foo = 0b1010;

If you want to stick with standard C, then there’s an option: you can combine a macro and a function to create an almost readable “binary constant” feature:

#define B(x) S_to_binary_(#x)

static inline unsigned long long S_to_binary_(const char *s)
{
        unsigned long long i = 0;
        while (*s) {
                i <<= 1;
                i += *s++ - '0';
        }
        return i;
}

And then you can use it like this:

int foo = B(1010);

If you turn on heavy compiler optimizations, the compiler will most likely eliminate the function call completely (constant folding) or will at least inline it, so this won’t even be a performance issue.

Proof:

The following code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <string.h>


#define B(x) S_to_binary_(#x)

static inline unsigned long long S_to_binary_(const char *s)
{
    unsigned long long i = 0;
    while (*s) {
        i <<= 1;
        i += *s++ - '0';
    }
    return i;
}

int main()
{
    int foo = B(001100101);

    printf("%d\n", foo);

    return 0;
}

has been compiled using clang -o baz.S baz.c -Wall -O3 -S, and it produced the following assembly:

    .section    __TEXT,__text,regular,pure_instructions
    .globl  _main
    .align  4, 0x90
_main:                                  ## @main
    .cfi_startproc
## BB#0:
    pushq   %rbp
Ltmp2:
    .cfi_def_cfa_offset 16
Ltmp3:
    .cfi_offset %rbp, -16
    movq    %rsp, %rbp
Ltmp4:
    .cfi_def_cfa_register %rbp
    leaq    L_.str1(%rip), %rdi
    movl    $101, %esi               ## <= This line!
    xorb    %al, %al
    callq   _printf
    xorl    %eax, %eax
    popq    %rbp
    ret
    .cfi_endproc

    .section    __TEXT,__cstring,cstring_literals
L_.str1:                                ## @.str1
    .asciz   "%d\n"


.subsections_via_symbols

So clang completely eliminated the call to the function, and replaced its return value with 101. Neat, huh?