How to avoid overflow in expr. A * B - C * D

Question

I need to compute an expression which looks like: A*B - C*D, where their types are: signed long long int A, B, C, D; Each number can be really big (not

Answer 1

If you know the final result is representable in your integer type, you can perform this calculation quickly using the code below. Because the C standard specifies that unsigned arithmetic is modulo arithmetic and does not overflow, you can use an unsigned type to perform the calculation.

The following code assumes there is an unsigned type of the same width and that the signed type uses all bit patterns to represent values (no trap representations, the minimum of the signed type is the negative of half the modulus of the unsigned type). If this does not hold in a C implementation, simple adjustments can be made to the ConvertToSigned routine for that.

The following uses signed char and unsigned char to demonstrate the code. For your implementation, change the definition of Signed to typedef signed long long int Signed; and the definition of Unsigned to typedef unsigned long long int Unsigned;.

#include 
#include 
#include 


//  Define the signed and unsigned types we wish to use.
typedef signed char   Signed;
typedef unsigned char Unsigned;

//  uHalfModulus is half the modulus of the unsigned type.
static const Unsigned uHalfModulus = UCHAR_MAX/2+1;

//  sHalfModulus is the negation of half the modulus of the unsigned type.
static const Signed   sHalfModulus = -1 - (Signed) (UCHAR_MAX/2);


/*  Map the unsigned value to the signed value that is the same modulo the
    modulus of the unsigned type.  If the input x maps to a positive value, we
    simply return x.  If it maps to a negative value, we return x minus the
    modulus of the unsigned type.

    In most C implementations, this routine could simply be "return x;".
    However, this version uses several steps to convert x to a negative value
    so that overflow is avoided.
*/
static Signed ConvertToSigned(Unsigned x)
{
    /*  If x is representable in the signed type, return it.  (In some
        implementations, 
    */
    if (x < uHalfModulus)
        return x;

    /*  Otherwise, return x minus the modulus of the unsigned type, taking
        care not to overflow the signed type.
    */
    return (Signed) (x - uHalfModulus) - sHalfModulus;
}


/*  Calculate A*B - C*D given that the result is representable as a Signed
    value.
*/
static signed char Calculate(Signed A, Signed B, Signed C, Signed D)
{
    /*  Map signed values to unsigned values.  Positive values are unaltered.
        Negative values have the modulus of the unsigned type added.  Because
        we do modulo arithmetic below, adding the modulus does not change the
        final result.
    */
    Unsigned a = A;
    Unsigned b = B;
    Unsigned c = C;
    Unsigned d = D;

    //  Calculate with modulo arithmetic.
    Unsigned t = a*b - c*d;

    //  Map the unsigned value to the corresponding signed value.
    return ConvertToSigned(t);
}


int main()
{
    //  Test every combination of inputs for signed char.
    for (int A = SCHAR_MIN; A <= SCHAR_MAX; ++A)
    for (int B = SCHAR_MIN; B <= SCHAR_MAX; ++B)
    for (int C = SCHAR_MIN; C <= SCHAR_MAX; ++C)
    for (int D = SCHAR_MIN; D <= SCHAR_MAX; ++D)
    {
        //  Use int to calculate the expected result.
        int t0 = A*B - C*D;

        //  If the result is not representable in signed char, skip this case.
        if (t0 < SCHAR_MIN || SCHAR_MAX < t0)
            continue;

        //  Calculate the result with the sample code.
        int t1 = Calculate(A, B, C, D);

        //  Test the result for errors.
        if (t0 != t1)
        {
            printf("%d*%d - %d*%d = %d, but %d was returned.\n",
                A, B, C, D, t0, t1);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
    }
    return 0;
}