Re: [avr-gcc-list] long character constants like 'abcd'.. - (('a' << 24) | ('b' << 16) | ('c' << 8) | 'd') doesn't work

[Matthias Ringwald]

Some of you (and myself to..) suggested the following to get the 32 bit 
const.

On Mittwoch, Januar 22, 2003, at 08:43  Uhr, Egil Kvaleberg wrote:
> What are you trying to do? If you want to place 4 ASCII bytes in a 32
> bit word, then do:
>
>         (('a' << 24) | ('b' << 16) | ('c' << 8) | 'd')

I just tried it, and avr-gcc tells me:
../share/sits-features.c:357: warning: left shift count >= width of type
../share/sits-features.c:357: warning: left shift count >= width of type

and the assembler code shows, that this is wrong. It would work for 16 
bit consts.

        ldi r22,lo8(25444)
        ldi r23,hi8(25444)
        ldi r24,hlo8(25444)
        ldi r25,hhi8(25444)

to get it correctly I have to use

((u32) 'a' << 24) | ((u32) 'b' << 16) | ((u32) 'c' << 8) | (u32)'d')

and the assembler code is fine.

> FYI:
> Traditionally (as in K&R), 'ab' was technically a legal presentation 
> for
> (('a' << 8) | 'b') or (('b' << 8) | 'a').
So I'm just an old K&R person.. :)

>  The actual byte sequence was
> up to the compiler, which made the feature simply to esoteric. Four
> character constants was also supported.
>
> It may have disappeared altogether in later C variants.
It is still around.

Thanks for this info,

Matthias Ringwald

avr-gcc-list at http://avr1.org