{"id":583,"date":"2014-12-17T22:37:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T21:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/numbercrunch.de\/blog\/?p=583"},"modified":"2023-01-18T22:21:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T21:21:50","slug":"c1114-for-scientific-computing-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.numbercrunch.de\/blog\/2014\/12\/c1114-for-scientific-computing-i\/","title":{"rendered":"C++11\/14 for scientific computing I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2011, a new standard for the C++ programming language has been published, which is commonly referred to as C++11. This new standard introduces many new language features and standard library functions. Many of these new features have been introduced to make C++ more flexible and to make C++ more easy to use.\u00a0 Bjarne Stroustrup (the creator of C++) even thinks \u00abC++11 feels like a new language: The pieces just fit together better than they used to and I find a higher-level style of programming more natural than before and as efficient as ever<\/a>.\u00bb This year another new version of C++ (C++14) has been defined, which brings some minor enhancements and clarifications compared to C++11. As C++ is a general purpose programing language the new features of the revised versions are not specifically designed for the needs of scientific computing. Nevertheless, C++11\/14 adds several new tools to the computational scientist’s toolbox. In the following I will present some of them.<\/p>\n

New integer types<\/h2>\n

C++ does not define which are the minimal and maximal values that the integer types int<\/code> and long<\/code> can hold. The language standard requires only lower\/upper bounds on these values. As a consequence int<\/code> may be a 16-bit, 32-bit or a 64-bit integer or even something different. In C++11\/14 the standard header file cstdint<\/code><\/a> defines several new integer types with specific bit-width.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
int8_t<\/code>
\nint16_t<\/code>
\nint32_t<\/code>
\nint64_t<\/code><\/td>\n		signed integer type with width of
\nexactly<\/strong> 8, 16, 32 and 64 bits respectively
\nwith no padding bits and using 2’s complement for negative values
\n(provided only if the implementation directly supports the type)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
int_fast8_t<\/code>
\nint_fast16_t<\/code>
\nint_fast32_t<\/code>
\nint_fast64_t<\/code><\/td>\n		fastest signed integer type with width of
\nat least<\/strong> 8, 16, 32 and 64 bits respectively<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
int_least8_t<\/code>
\nint_least16_t<\/code>
\nint_least32_t<\/code>
\nint_least64_t<\/code><\/td>\n		smallest signed integer type with width of
\nat least<\/strong> 8, 16, 32 and 64 bits respectively<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
intmax_t<\/code><\/td>\nmaximum width integer type<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
intptr_t<\/code><\/td>\ninteger type capable of holding a pointer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
uint8_t<\/code>
\nuint16_t<\/code>
\nuint32_t<\/code>
\nuint64_t<\/code><\/td>\n		unsigned integer type with width of
\nexactly<\/strong> 8, 16, 32 and 64 bits respectively
\n(provided only if the implementation directly supports the type)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
uint_fast8_t<\/code>
\nuint_fast16_t<\/code>
\nuint_fast32_t<\/code>
\nuint_fast64_t<\/code><\/td>\n		fastest unsigned integer type with width of
\nat least<\/strong> 8, 16, 32 and 64 bits respectively<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
uint_least8_t<\/code>
\nuint_least16_t<\/code>
\nuint_least32_t<\/code>
\nuint_least64_t<\/code><\/td>\n		smallest unsigned integer type with width of
\nat least<\/strong> 8, 16, 32 and 64 bits respectively<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
uintmax_t<\/code><\/td>\nmaximum width unsigned integer type<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
uintptr_t<\/code><\/td>\nunsigned integer type capable of holding a pointer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The header file cstdint<\/code> defines also several macros for the maximal and minimal values of the integer types shown above. These values, however, are more conveniently accessed through the template class std::numeric_limits<\/code>.<\/p>\n

Numeric limits<\/h2>\n

The class template std::numeric_limits<\/code><\/a>, which is defined in the header file limits<\/code> provides a standardized way to query various properties of arithmetic types (e.g., the largest possible value for type int<\/code> is std::numeric_limits<int>::max<\/code>). This information is provided via specializations of the numeric_limits<\/code> template. Since C++1 the members of std::numeric_limits<\/code> are declared as static <\/code>constexpr<\/code><\/a>. Thus, their return values can be consumed by operations that require constant expressions, such as an integer template argument. Furthermore, the new members max_digits10<\/code> and lowest<\/code> have been introduced in C++11, which give the number of decimal digits necessary to differentiate all values of this type and the lowest finite value of the given type.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2011, a new standard for the C++ programming language has been published, which is commonly referred to as C++11. This new standard introduces many new language features and standard library functions. Many of these new features have been introduced to make C++ more flexible and to make C++ more easy to use.\u00a0 Bjarne Stroustrup… Continue reading C++11\/14 for scientific computing I<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c"],"yoast_head":"\nC++11\/14 for scientific computing I - Number Crunch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.numbercrunch.de\/blog\/2014\/12\/c1114-for-scientific-computing-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"C++11\/14 for scientific computing I - Number Crunch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2011, a new standard for the C++ programming language has been published, which is commonly referred to as C++11. 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