Add two numbers safely, in C

Question

Everyone knows that C is a lovely, safe, high level programming language. However you, as a coder are set the following task.

Write a program to add two numbers.

• Input: Two space separated integers.
• Output: The sum of the two numbers in the input.

The twist is that your code must be 100% safe. In other words, it must behave properly no matter what the input is. If the input is indeed two space separated integers, both of which are less than 100 digits long, it must output the sum. Otherwise, it must output an error message and quit safely.

How hard can it be after all?

General kudos will be given to pathological input cases which break other people's answers :)

The code must compile without warnings using gcc -Wall -Wextra on ubuntu.

---

Clarification.

• Input is from stdin.
• Horizontal whitespace is only a single space character. There should be nothing before the first number and the input should be terminated with either newline+EOF or just EOF.
• the only valid input, specified in Augmented Backus-Naur Form, is:

    NONZERODIGIT = "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" / "9"
    POSITIVENUMBER = NONZERODIGIT *98DIGIT
    NEGATIVENUMBER = "-" POSITIVENUMBER
    NUMBER = NEGATIVENUMBER / POSITIVENUMBER / "0"
    VALIDINPUT = NUMBER SP NUMBER *1LF EOF

• The error message is the single letter 'E', followed by a new line.
• The code must terminate cleanly in less than 0.5s no matter what the input is.

Answer 1

6610 bytes (unminified)

"Good boy" C program that meets all challenge criteria. Uses 10s complement for negative numbers. Also included, a test harness and test cases.

/*
Read input from STDIN. The input must conform to VALIDINPUT:

    NONZERODIGIT = "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" / "9"
    POSITIVENUMBER = NONZERODIGIT *98DIGIT
    NEGATIVENUMBER = "-" POSITIVENUMBER
    NUMBER = NEGATIVENUMBER / POSITIVENUMBER / "0"
    VALIDINPUT = NUMBER SP NUMBER *1LF EOF

Check syntax of input. If input is correct, add the two numbers and print
to STDOUT.

LSB => least significant byte
MSB => most significant byte
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <assert.h>
#define NUL ('\0')
/*
    maximum characters in VALIDINPUT:
        '-'     1
        POSITIVENUMBER  MAXDIGITS
        ' '     1
        '-'     1
        POSITIVENUMBER  MAXDIGITS
        LF      1
*/
#define MAXDIGITS (99)
#define MAXVALIDINPUT (2*MAXDIGITS+4)

void die() { printf("E\n"); exit(1); }

/*
    Add two NUMBERs and print the result to STDOUT.  The NUMBERS have
been separated into POSITIVENUMBERS and sign information.

Arguments:
    first       - pointer to LSB of 1st POSITIVENUMBER
    firstSize   - size of 1st POSITIVENUMBER
    firstNegative   - is 1st # negative?
    second      - pointer to LSB of 2nd POSITIVENUMBER
    secondSize  - size of 2nd POSITIVENUMBER
    secondNegative  - is 2nd # negative?
    carry       - carry from previous place?

Returns:
    sum[]       - sum
    addNUMBERs()    - carry to next place?

- Don't use complementDigit(popDigit(p,s),n). Side-effects generate two pops.
*/
#define popDigit(p,s) ((s)--,(*(p++)-'0'))
#define complementDigit(c,n) ((n) ? 9-(c) : (c))

#define pushSum(c) (*(--sumPointer)=(c))
#define openSum() (pushSum(NUL))
#define closeSum() ;
char    sum[MAXVALIDINPUT];
char    *sumPointer = sum+sizeof(sum);
int addNUMBERs(char *first, int firstSize, bool firstNegative,
        char *second, int secondSize, bool secondNegative,
        int previousCarry) {
    int firstDigit, secondDigit;
    int mySum;
    int myCarry;

    /*
        1st half of the problem.

        Build a stack of digits for "first" and "second"
    numbers. Each recursion of addNUMBERs() contains one digit
    of each number for that place. I.e., the 1st call holds
    the MSBs, the last call holds the LSBs.

        If negative, convert to 10s complement.
    */
    assert((firstSize > 0) && (secondSize > 0));
    if (firstSize > secondSize) {
        firstDigit = popDigit(first, firstSize);
        firstDigit = complementDigit(firstDigit, firstNegative);
        secondDigit = 0;
    } else if (secondSize > firstSize) {
        firstDigit = 0;
        secondDigit = popDigit(second, secondSize);
        secondDigit = complementDigit(secondDigit, secondNegative);
    } else {
        //  same size
        firstDigit = popDigit(first, firstSize);
        firstDigit = complementDigit(firstDigit, firstNegative);
        secondDigit = popDigit(second, secondSize);
        secondDigit = complementDigit(secondDigit, secondNegative);
    }

    //  recursion ends at LSB
    if ((firstSize == 0) && (secondSize == 0)) {
        //  if negative, add 1 to complemented LSB
        if (firstNegative) {
            firstDigit++;
        }
        if (secondNegative) {
            secondDigit++;
        }
        myCarry = previousCarry;
    } else {
        myCarry = addNUMBERs(first, firstSize, firstNegative,
            second, secondSize, secondNegative,
            previousCarry);
    }

    /*
        2nd half of the problem.

        Sum the digits and save them in first[].
    */
    mySum = firstDigit + secondDigit + ((myCarry) ? 1 : 0);
    if ((myCarry = (mySum > 9))) {
        mySum -= 10;
    }
    pushSum(mySum + '0');
    return(myCarry);
}

//  Handle the printing logic.
void addAndPrint(char *first, int firstSize, bool firstNegative,
        char *second, int secondSize, bool secondNegative,
        int previousCarry) {

    openSum();
    addNUMBERs(first, firstSize, firstNegative,
        second, secondSize, secondNegative,
        previousCarry)
    closeSum();
    if (*sumPointer<'5') {
        //  it's positive
        for (; *sumPointer=='0'; sumPointer++) {} // discard leading 0s
        //  if all zeros (sumPointer @ NUL), back up one
        sumPointer -= (*sumPointer == NUL) ? 1 : 0;
        printf("%s\n", sumPointer);
    } else {
        //  it's negative
        char    *p;

        //  discard leading 0s (9s in 10s complement)
        for (; *sumPointer=='9' && *sumPointer; sumPointer++) {}
        //  if -1 (sumPointer @ EOS), back up one
        sumPointer -= (*sumPointer == NUL) ? 1 : 0;
        for (p=sumPointer; *p; p++) {
            *p = '0' + ('9' - *p); // uncomplement
            //  special handling, +1 for last digit
            *p += (*(p+1)) ? 0 : 1;
        }
        printf("-%s\n", sumPointer);

    }
    return;
}

/*
    Lex a number from STDIN.

Arguments:
    bufferPointer - pointer to a pointer to a buffer, use as
            **buffer = c;   // put "c" in the buffer
            *buffer += 1;   // increment the buffer pointer
            (*buffer)++;    // also increments the buffer pointer

All sorts of side-effects:
    - getc(stdin)
    - ungetc(...,stdin)
    - modifies value of **bufferPointer
    - modifies value of *bufferPointer

Returns:
    lexNUMBER() - number of bytes added to *bufferPointer,
            *1 if POSITIVENUMBER,
            *-1 if NEGATIVENUMBER
    *bufferPointer - points to the LSB of the number parsed + 1
*/
#define pushc(c) (*((*bufferPointer)++)=c)
bool lexNUMBER(char **bufferPointer) {
    char    c;
    int size = 0;
    bool    sign = false;

    /* lex a NUMBER */
    if ((c=getchar()) == '0') {
        pushc(c);
        c = getchar();
        size++;
    } else {
        if (c == '-') {
            sign = true;
            c = getchar();
            // "-" isn't a digit, don't add to size
        }
        if (c == '0') {
            die();
        }
        for (size=0; isdigit(c); size++) {
            if (size >= MAXDIGITS) {
                die();
            }
            pushc(c);
            c = getchar();
        }
    }
    if (size < 1) {
        die();
    }
    ungetc(c,stdin);        // give back unmatched character
    return (sign);
}

int main() {
    int c;
    char    buffer[MAXVALIDINPUT];
    char    *bufferPointer;
    char    *first, *second;
    int firstSize, secondSize;
    bool    firstNegative, secondNegative;

    bufferPointer = buffer + 1; // hack, space for leading digit
    //  parse 1st number
    first = bufferPointer;
    firstNegative = lexNUMBER(&bufferPointer);
    firstSize = bufferPointer - first;
    *(bufferPointer++) = NUL;   // hack, space for EOS
    bufferPointer++;        // hack, space for leading digit
    //  parse separating blank
    if ((c=getchar()) != ' ') {
        die();
    }
    //  parse 2nd number
    second = bufferPointer;
    secondNegative = lexNUMBER(&bufferPointer);
    secondSize = bufferPointer - second;
    *(bufferPointer++) = NUL;   // hack, space for EOS
    //  parse end of input
    c = getchar();
    if (! ((c == EOF) || ((c == '\n') && ((c=getchar()) == EOF))) ) {
        die();
    }
    //  Some very implementation-specific massaging.
    *(--first) = '0';       // prefix with leading 0
    *(first+(++firstSize)) = NUL;   // add EOS
    *(--second) = '0';      // prefix with leading 0
    *(second+(++secondSize)) = NUL; // add EOS
    //  add and print two arbitrary precision numbers
    addAndPrint(first, firstSize, firstNegative,
        second, secondSize, secondNegative, false);
    return(0);
}

Here's a little test harness and a few test cases to get you started. Feel free to tear out the excessive use of perl. The system it was developed on didn't have a modern bash.

#!/bin/bash
#
#   testharness.sh
#
# Use as: bash testharness.sh program_to_be_tested < test_data
#
# Each line in the test data file should be formatted as:
#
#   INPUT = bash printf string, must not contain '"'
#   OUTPUT = perl string, must not contain '"'
#           (inserted into the regex below, use wisely)
#   TESTNAME = string, must not contain '"'
#   GARBAGE = comments or whatever you like
#   INPUTQUOTED = DQUOTE INPUT DQUOTE
#   OUTPUTQUOTED = DQUOTE OUTPUT DQUOTE
#   TESTQUOTED = DQUOTE TESTNAME DQUOTE
#   TESTLINE = INPUTQUOTED *WSP OUTPUTQUOTED *WSP TESTQUOTED GARBAGE
TESTPROGRAM=$1
TMPFILE=testharness.$$
trap "rm $TMPFILE" EXIT
N=0         # line number in the test file
while read -r line; do
    N=$((N+1))
    fields=$(perl -e 'split("\"",$ARGV[0]);print "$#_";' "$line")
    if [[ $fields -lt 5 ]]; then
        echo "skipped@$N"
        continue
    fi
    INPUT=$(perl -e 'split("\"",$ARGV[0]);print "$_[1]";' "$line")
    OUTPUT=$(perl -e 'split("\"",$ARGV[0]);print "$_[3]";' "$line")
    TESTNAME=$(perl -e 'split("\"",$ARGV[0]);print "$_[5]";' "$line")
    printf -- "$INPUT" | $TESTPROGRAM > $TMPFILE
    perl -e "\$t='^\\\s*$OUTPUT\\\s*\$'; exit (<> =~ \$t);" < $TMPFILE
    if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then     # perl -e "exit(0==0)" => 1
        echo "ok $TESTNAME"
    else
        echo -n "failed@$N $TESTNAME," \
            "given: \"$INPUT\" expected: \"$OUTPUT\" received: "
        cat $TMPFILE
        echo
    fi
done

A small set of test cases:

"0 0"       "0" "simple, 0+0=0"
"1 1"       "2" "simple, 1+1=2"

""      "E" "error, no numbers"
"0"     "E" "error, one number"
"0  0"      "E" "error, two/too much white space"
"0 0 "      "E" "error, trailing characters"
"01 0"      "E" "error, leading zeros not allowed"

"-0 0"      "E" "error, negative zero not allowed
"0 -0"      "E" "error, negative zero not allowed here either

"1 1\n"     "2" "LF only allowed trailing character

"\0001 1\n"    "E" "error, try to confuse C string routines #1"
"1\00 1\n"  "E" "error, try to confuse C string routines #2"
"1 \0001\n"    "E" "error, try to confuse C string routines #3"
"1 1\000\n"    "E" "error, try to confuse C string routines #4"
"1 1\n\000"    "E" "error, try to confuse C string routines #5"

"-1 -1"     "-2"    "add all combinations of -1..1 #1"
"-1 0"      "-1"    "add all combinations of -1..1 #2"
"-1 1"      "0" "add all combinations of -1..1 #3"
"0 -1"      "-1"    "add all combinations of -1..1 #4"
"0 0"       "0" "add all combinations of -1..1 #5"
"0 1"       "1" "add all combinations of -1..1 #6"
"1 -1"      "0" "add all combinations of -1..1 #7"
"1 0"       "1" "add all combinations of -1..1 #8"
"1 1"       "2" "add all combinations of -1..1 #9"

"0 123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789" "123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789" "0+99 digits should work"

"100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "200000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "99 digits+99 digits should work"

"500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "test for accumulator overflow"

"-123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 0" "-123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789" "0+negative 99 digits work"

"-100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 -100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "-200000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "99 digits+99 digits (both negative) should work"

"-500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 -500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "-1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "test for negative accumulator overflow"

"1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 0" "E" "error, 100 digits"

Answer 2

289

EDIT : This code works only for positive integers. The rules has changed since I post this answer.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int r[101],s;void x(int i){r[i]|=32;if(r[i]>41)r[i+1]++,r[i]-=10,x(i+1);}void f(int b){int c=getchar();if(c!=b){if(s>99||c<48||c>57)exit(puts("E"));f(b);r[s]+=c-48;x(s++);}}int main(){f(32);s=0;f(10);for(s=100;s--;)if(r[s])putchar(r[s]+16);return 0;}

Ungolfed and commented version :

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

//global variables are automatically init to zero
int result[101]; //101 because 2 numbers of 100 digits can give a 101-digits result
int currentNumber;

void reportAddition(int i) {
    result[i]|=0x20; //flag "active" value, 6th bit
    if(result[i]>9+0x20) {
        result[i+1]++;
        result[i]-=10;
        reportAddition(i+1);
    }
}

void addNumber(int endingChar) {
    int c=getchar();
    if(c!=endingChar) {
        if(currentNumber>99||c<'0'||c>'9') //error
            exit(puts("Error"));
        addNumber(endingChar);
        result[currentNumber]+=c-'0';
        reportAddition(currentNumber); //handle case when addition give a value greater than 9
        currentNumber++;
    }
}

int main() {

    addNumber(' '); //add first number
    currentNumber=0;
    addNumber('\n'); //add second

    for(currentNumber=100;currentNumber--;)
        if(result[currentNumber])
            putchar(result[currentNumber]+'0'-0x20); //display char
    return 0;
}

Answer 3

442

It is quite long, so I may golf it down further during the weekend. Assumes input is from stdin, EOF-terminated (without newline), separator is only one character of ASCII value 32 (that is, ' ' character).

#include<stdio.h>
char a[102],b[102],c[102],*p=a,d;int i,j=101,l,L,k,F=1;int main(){while(~(k=getchar())){if(47<k&&k<58){p[i++]=k;if(i==101)goto f;}else if(k==32&&F)p=b,l=i,F=0,i=0;else goto f;}L=i;for(i=(l<L?l:L)-1;i+1;i--){c[j]=(L<l?b[i]-48+a[i+l-L]:a[i]-48+b[i+L-l]);if(c[j--]>57)c[j]++,c[j+1]-=10;}for(i=(L<l?l-L-1:L-l-1);i+1;i--)c[j--]=(L<l?a[i]:b[i]);for(i=0;i<102;i++)if(c[i]&&(c[i]-48||d))d=putchar(c[i]);return 0;f:return puts("E");}

The error message will be a single character 'E', followed by a new line.

With newlines and a little bit of indentation added: (a readable version follows, so feel free to skip over here)

#include<stdio.h>
char a[102],b[102],c[102],*p=a,d;
int i,j=101,l,L,k,F=1;
int main(){
    while(~(k=getchar())){
        if(47<k&&k<58){
            p[i++]=k;
            if(i==101)goto f;
        }else if(k==32&&F)p=b,l=i,F=0,i=0;
        else goto f;
    }
    L=i;
    for(i=(l<L?l:L)-1;i+1;i--){
        c[j]=(L<l?b[i]-48+a[i+l-L]:a[i]-48+b[i+L-l]);
        if(c[j--]>57)c[j]++,c[j+1]-=10;
    }
    for(i=(L<l?l-L-1:L-l-1);i+1;i--)c[j--]=(L<l?a[i]:b[i]);
    for(i=0;i<102;i++)if(c[i]&&(c[i]-48||d))d=putchar(c[i]);
    return 0;
    f:return puts("E");
}

The readable version (some statements are slightly altered to make it more readable, but what they do should be the same):

#include <stdio.h>
char num1[102],num2[102],sum[102]; //globals initialised to 0
char *p=num1;
int outputZero=0, noExtraSpace=1;
int i=0, j=101, len1, len2, ch;
#define min(x,y) (x<y?x:y)
int main(){
    while((ch=getchar())!=-1) { //assumes EOF is -1
        if('0'<=ch && ch<='9') {
            p[i]=ch;
            i++;
            if(i==101) goto fail; //if input too long
        } else if(ch==' ' && noExtraSpace) {
            p=num2;
            len1=i;
            noExtraSpace=0;
            i=0;
        } else goto fail; //invalid character
    }
    len2=i;
    for(i=min(len1, len2)-1; i>=0; i--) {
        //add each digit when both numbers have that digit
        sum[j]=(len2<len1?num2[i]-'0'+num1[i+len1-len2]:num1[i]-'0'+num2[i+len2-len1]);
        if(sum[j]>'9') { //deal with carries
            sum[j-1]++;
            sum[j]-=10;
        }
        j--;
    }
    for(i=(len2<len1?len1-len2-1:len2-len1-1); i>=0; i--) {
        //copy extra digits when one number is longer than the other
        sum[j]=(len2<len1?num1[i]:num2[i]);
        j--;
    }
    for(i=0; i<102; i++) {
        if(sum[i] && (sum[i]-'0' || outputZero)) {
            putchar(sum[i]);
            outputZero=1;
            //if a digit has been output, the remaining zeroes must not be leading
        }
    }
    return 0;
    fail:
    puts("Error");
    return 0;
}

_{The goto fail; thing is here to mock Apple.}

The version of gcc I used is gcc (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) 4.6.3, and there are no warnings.

Answer 4

633 bytes

"Bad boy" C program that meets half the challenge. Abuses C, throws lots of warnings, but works ... sort of. Arbitrary precision arithmetic is actually done by bc.

#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<ctype.h>
#define g() getc(stdin)
#define z(c) b[i++]=c,b[i]='\0'
x(){puts("E\n");exit(1);}main(){int c,y=0,i=0;char b[232]="",*h="echo ",*t=" | bc -q | tr -d '\\\\\\012'";strcat(b,h);i=strlen(h);if((c=g())=='0'){z(c);y=1;c=g();}else{if(c=='-'){z(c);c=g();}c!='0'||x();ungetc(c,stdin);for(y=0;isdigit(c=g());y++){z(c);y<99||x();}}y>0||x();c==' '||x();z('+');y=0;if((c=g())=='0'){z(c);y=1;c=g();}else{if(c=='-'){z(c);c=g();}c!='0'||x();do{if(!isdigit(c))break;z(c);y++;y<=99||x();}while(c=g());}y>0||x();strcat(b+i,t);i+=strlen(t);if(!((c==-1)||((c=='\n')&&((c=g())==-1))))x();system(b);}

Unminified version

/*
Read input from STDIN. The input must conform to VALIDINPUT:

    NONZERODIGIT = "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" / "9"
    POSITIVENUMBER = NONZERODIGIT *98DIGIT
    NEGATIVENUMBER = "-" POSITIVENUMBER
    NUMBER = NEGATIVENUMBER / POSITIVENUMBER / "0"
    VALIDINPUT = NUMBER SP NUMBER *1LF EOF

Check syntax of input. If input is correct, use the shell command
"echo NUMBER+NUMBER | bc -q" to do the arbitrary precision integer arithmetic.

NB, this solution requires that the "normal" bc be 1st in the PATH.


    Fun C language features used:
    - ignore arguments to main()
    - preprocessor macros
    - pointer arithmetic
    - , operator
    - ?: operator
    - do-while loop
    - for loop test does input
    - implicit return/exit
    - short is still a type!
    - ungetc()
    - use int as bool and 0 & 1 as magic numbers
    - implicit type coersion

5/5/14, Stop fighting the syntax graph. Get rid of "positive" flag.
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#define MAXDIGITS (99)
#define pushc(c) (buffer[index++]=c,buffer[index]='\0')
#define pushs(s) (strcat(buffer+index,s),index+=strlen(s))

int die() { printf("E\n"); exit(1); }

int main () {
    int c;
    /*
    buffer budget:
    5               "echo "
    1+MAXDIGITS (include "-")   NUMBER
    1               "+"
    1+MAXDIGITS (include "-")   NUMBER
    25              " | bc -q | tr -d '\\\012'"
    1               NUL
    */
    char    buffer[5+1+MAXDIGITS+1+1+MAXDIGITS+25+1] = "";
    short   index = 0;
    short   digits;

    pushs("echo ");
    // parse 1st number
    digits = 0;
    if ((c=getchar()) == '0') {
        pushc(c);
        digits = 1;
        c = getchar();
    } else {
        if (c == '-') {
            // "-" doesn't count against digits total
            pushc(c);
            c = getchar();
        }
        (c != '0') || die();
        ungetc(c,stdin);
        for (digits=0; isdigit(c=getchar()); digits++) {
            pushc(c);
            (digits<MAXDIGITS) || die();
        }
    }
    (digits>=1) || die();
    // parse separating blank
    (c == ' ') || die();
    pushc('+');
    // parse 2nd number
    digits = 0;
    if ((c=getchar()) == '0') {
        pushc(c);
        digits = 1;
        c = getchar();
    } else {
        if (c == '-') {
            // "-" doesn't count against digits total
            pushc(c);
            c = getchar();
        }
        (c != '0') || die();
        do {
            if (!isdigit(c)) {
                break;
            }
            pushc(c);
            digits++;
            (digits<=MAXDIGITS) || die();
        } while(c=getchar());
    }
    (digits>=1) || die();
    pushs(" | bc -q | tr -d '\\\\\\012'");
    // parse end of input
    if (! ((c == EOF) || ((c == '\n') && ((c=getchar()) == EOF))) ) {
        die();
    }
    // add two arbitrary precision numbers and print the result to STDOUT
    system(buffer);
}