How is conversion of float/double to int handled in printf?

Posted by Sandip on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Sandip
Published on 2010-03-08T01:25:24Z Indexed on 2010/03/08 8:21 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 303

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Consider this program

int main()
{
        float f = 11.22;
        double d = 44.55;
        int i,j;

        i = f;         //cast float to int
        j = d;         //cast double to int

        printf("i = %d, j = %d, f = %d, d = %d", i,j,f,d);
        //This prints the following:
        // i = 11, j = 44, f = -536870912, d = 1076261027

        return 0;
}

Can someone explain why the casting from double/float to int works correctly in the first case, and does not work when done in printf?
This program was compiled on gcc-4.1.2 on 32-bit linux machine.


EDIT: Zach's answer seems logical, i.e. use of format specifiers to figure out what to pop off the stack. However then consider this follow up question:

int main()
{

    char c = 'd';    // sizeof c is 1, however sizeof character literal
                     // 'd' is equal to sizeof(int) in ANSI C

    printf("lit = %c, lit = %d , c = %c, c = %d", 'd', 'd', c, c);
    //this prints: lit = d, lit = 100 , c = d, c = 100
    //how does printf here pop off the right number of bytes even when
    //the size represented by format specifiers doesn't actually match 
    //the size of the passed arguments(char(1 byte) & char_literal(4 bytes))    

 return 0;
}

How does this work?

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How is conversion of float/double to int handled in printf?

Posted by Sandip on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Sandip
Published on 2010-03-08T01:25:24Z Indexed on 2010/03/08 1:35 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 303

Filed under:

Consider this program

int main()
{
        float f = 11.22;
        double d = 44.55;
        int i,j;

        i = f;         //cast float to int
        j = d;         //cast double to int

        printf("i = %d, j = %d, f = %d, d = %d", i,j,f,d);
        //This prints the following:
        // i = 11, j = 44, f = -536870912, d = 1076261027

        return 0;
}

Can someone explain why the casting from double/float to int works correctly in the first case, and does not work when done in printf?
This program was compiled on gcc-4.1.2 on 32-bit linux machine.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

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