C interpretation of hexadecimal long integer literal “L”

Question

How does a C compiler interpret the "L" which denotes a long integer literal, in light of automatic conversion? The following code, when run on a 32-bit platform (32-bit long, 64-bit long long), seems to cast the expression "(0xffffffffL)" into the 64-bit integer 4294967295, not 32-bit -1.

Sample code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
  long long x = 10;
  long long y = (0xffffffffL);
  long long z = (long)(0xffffffffL);

  printf("long long x == %lld\n", x);
  printf("long long y == %lld\n", y);
  printf("long long z == %lld\n", z);

  printf("0xffffffffL == %ld\n", 0xffffffffL);

  if (x > (long)(0xffffffffL))
    printf("x > (long)(0xffffffffL)\n");
  else
    printf("x <= (long)(0xffffffffL)\n");

  if (x > (0xffffffffL))
    printf("x > (0xffffffffL)\n");
  else
    printf("x <= (0xffffffffL)\n");
  return 0;
}

Output (compiled with GCC 4.5.3 on a 32-bit Debian):

long long x == 10
long long y == 4294967295
long long z == -1
0xffffffffL == -1
x > (long)(0xffffffffL)
x <= (0xffffffffL)

Answer 1

It's a hexadecimal literal, so its type can be unsigned. It fits in unsigned long, so that's the type it gets. See section 6.4.4.1 of the standard:

The type of an integer constant is the first of the corresponding list in which its value can be represented.

where the list for hexadecimal literals with a suffix L is

1. long
2. unsigned long
3. long long
4. unsigned long long

Since it doesn't fit in a 32-bit signed long, but an unsigned 32-bit unsigned long, that's what it becomes.

Answer 2

The thing is that the rules of determining the type of the integral literal are different depending on whether you have a decimal number or a hexadecimal(or octal number). A decimal literal is always signed unless postfixes with U. A hexadecimal or octal literal can also be unsigned if the signed type can not contain the value.