I'm trying to work on addition of about 25 digit numbers in C. The result I am getting is a little different from the expected, possible cause datatype.
/* Online C Compiler and Editor */
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
long double result;
long double a;
long double b;
a = 51680708854858333333;
b = 83621143489848333333,
result = a + b;
printf("Hello, World!\n");
printf("can be written %.0Lf\n", result);
return 0;
}
You can do it the same way taught in elementary school:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
/* Add two numbers represented by strings of digit characters. The result is
returned in dynamically allocated memory, which the caller is responsible
for freeing. The strings are not tested to ensure they contain only
digits.
The result may contain a leading zero. This could be eliminated by testing
after the addition, shifting all the characters left one space, and
reallocating if desired.
*/
static char *add(const char *a, const char *b)
{
// Measure lengths of strings.
size_t la = strlen(a);
size_t lb = strlen(b);
// Plan space for result, allowing an extra character in case of carry.
size_t lc = (la < lb ? lb : la) + 1;
// Allocate space for result digits plus a terminating null character.
char *c = malloc(lc+1);
if (!c)
{
fprintf(stderr, "Error, unable to allocate %zu bytes for sum.\n", lc+1);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
c[lc] = '\0';
/* Add digits from right to left. i counts positions from the right of
the numerals.
*/
int carry = 0;
for (size_t i = 0; i < lc; ++i)
{
/* Get digit from each addend. While i is within a numeral, get its
digit character and subtract '0' to convert it from a digit
character ('0' to '9') to a plain number (0 to 9). When i is
outside the numeral, use zero.
*/
int da = i < la ? a[la-1-i] - '0' : 0;
int db = i < lb ? b[lb-1-i] - '0' : 0;
/* Add the digits, record the low digit of the sum in c, and calculate
the carry to the next column. The digit for c is converted from a
plain number to a digit character.
*/
int sum = da + db + carry;
c[lc-1-i] = sum % 10 + '0';
carry = sum/10;
}
return c;
}
int main(void)
{
const char a[] = "51680708854858333333";
const char b[] = "83621143489848333333";
char *c = add(a, b);
printf("sum = %s.\n", c);
free(c);
}
There is a subtile problem in your code: the literals 51680708854858333333 and 83621143489848333333 used to initialize the long double variables are actually parsed as integers and they both exceed the maximum value of the largest integer type long long int, which is 9223372036854775807.
You must add a trailing . to make them floating point constants and an L for long double constants. You will then get a result closer to the precise value, limited by the precision of the long double type:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
long double a = 51680708854858333333.L;
long double b = 83621143489848333333.L;
long double result = a + b;
printf("%.0Lf + %.0Lf = %.0Lf\n", a, b, result);
return 0;
}
The output on my macbook shows the limited precision of type long double with the default compiler chain for the M2 chip:
51680708854858334208 + 83621143489848328192 = 135301852344706662400
For better precision for 25 digit numbers, you can get away with 128-bit integers if your compiler supports them:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
long double a = 51680708854858333333.L;
long double b = 83621143489848333333.L;
long double result = a + b;
printf("%.0Lf + %.0Lf = %.0Lf\n", a, b, result);
__int128 e15 = 1000000000000000;
__int128 aa = 51680 * e15 + 708854858333333;
__int128 bb = 83621 * e15 + 143489848333333;
__int128 cc = aa + bb;
printf("%lld%015lld + %lld%015lld = %lld%015lld\n",
(long long)(aa / e15), (long long)(aa % e15),
(long long)(bb / e15), (long long)(bb % e15),
(long long)(cc / e15), (long long)(cc % e15));
return 0;
}
Output:
51680708854858334208 + 83621143489848328192 = 135301852344706662400
51680708854858333333 + 83621143489848333333 = 135301852344706666666
For a general solution, you can use a bignum package such as GMP, the GNU multiprecision library or implement the addition as a simplistic string based operation:
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
static char *add_strings(const char *s1, const char *s2) {
size_t len1, len2;
/* ignore leading spaces */
while (isspace((unsigned char)*s1))
s1++;
while (isspace((unsigned char)*s2))
s2++;
/* reject negative numbers. */
if (*s1 == '-' || *s2 == '-') {
fprintf(stderr, "negative numbers not supported\n");
exit(1);
}
/* ignore '+' sign */
if (*s1 == '+')
s1++;
if (*s2 == '+')
s2++;
/* reject invalid arguments (could just use 0) */
if (!isdigit((unsigned char)*s1) || !isdigit((unsigned char)*s2)) {
fprintf(stderr, "invalid argument\n");
exit(1);
}
/* skip the leading zeroes */
while (*s1 == '0')
s1++;
while (*s2 == '0')
s2++;
/* count the digits */
for (len1 = 0; isdigit((unsigned char)s1[len1]); len1++)
continue;
for (len2 = 0; isdigit((unsigned char)s2[len2]); len2++)
continue;
/* result has at most one more digit than the longer argument */
size_t len3 = 1 + (len2 > len1 ? len2 : len1);
char *s3 = malloc(len3 + 1);
if (s3 == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "cannot allocate %zu bytes\n", len3 + 1);
exit(1);
}
/* compute the result starting from the least significant digits */
int carry = 0;
for (size_t i = len3; i --> 0;) {
int digit1 = (len1 > 0) ? s1[--len1] - '0' : 0;
int digit2 = (len2 > 0) ? s2[--len2] - '0' : 0;
carry += digit1 + digit2;
s3[i] = '0' + carry % 10;
carry /= 10;
}
/* remove leading zero if any */
if (s3[0] == '0' && len3 > 1) {
memmove(s3, s3 + 1, --len3);
}
s3[len3] = '\0'; /* set the null terminator */
return s3;
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
/* default values for testing */
const char *a = "51680708854858333333";
const char *b = "83621143489848333333";
if (argc > 2) {
/* use command line arguments provided */
a = argv[1];
b = argv[2];
}
char *sum = add_strings(a, b);
printf("%s + %s = %s\n", a, b, sum);
free(sum);
return 0;
}