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Pointless optimization »« Feeling stupid when writing code

Clang: one savvy code analyzer! No Comments

Given this code:

- (void)calculateData:(int32_t)n intoLeftBuffer:(int16_t *)lbuf rightBuffer:(int16_t *)rbuf
{
    static uint64_t            (*calculateInternalCall)(id, SEL) = NULL;

    if (!calculateInternalCall)
        calculateInternalCall = (uint64_t (*)(id, SEL))[self methodForSelector:@selector(calculateInternal)];
    
    uint64_t    leftEnableMask = self.isEnabled && lbuf ?
                          ((-(is0Enabled & leftEnabled[0])) & 0xFFFF000000000000) |
                          ((-(is1Enabled & leftEnabled[1])) & 0x0000FFFF00000000) |
                          ((-(is2Enabled & leftEnabled[2])) & 0x00000000FFFF0000) |
                          ((-(is3Enabled & leftEnabled[3])) & 0x000000000000FFFF)
                      : 0,
                rightEnableMask = self.isEnabled && rbuf ?
                          ((-(is0Enabled & rightEnabled[0])) & 0xFFFF000000000000) |
                          ((-(is1Enabled & rightEnabled[1])) & 0x0000FFFF00000000) |
                          ((-(is2Enabled & rightEnabled[2])) & 0x00000000FFFF0000) |
                          ((-(is3Enabled & rightEnabled[3])) & 0x000000000000FFFF)
                : 0;

    for (int32_t i = 0; i < n; ++i)
    {
        uint64_t     data = calculateInternalCall(self, @selector(calculateInternal)),
                     lv = data & leftEnableMask, rv = data & rightEnableMask;
        int16_t      *l = (int16_t *)&lv, *r = (int16_t *)&rv;
        lbuf[i] += l[0] + l[1] + l[2] + l[3];
        rbuf[i] += r[0] + r[1] + r[2] + r[3];
    }
}

Where are the two NULL dereferences Clang claims to have found?

Answer: In the assignments to lbuf and rbuf. By checking whether the pointers are NULL earlier in the function, I alerted Clang to the possibility that they might be at all. Since the code doesn’t subsequently check for NULL before actually writing to the pointers, this was a valid warning. Nice catch, Clang!

Clang’s Website. I highly recommend it.

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January 25, 2010 at 12:12 pm
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