std::ptrdiff_t

 

C++

Language

Standard library headers

Concepts

Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Algorithms library

Iterators library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Filesystem library (C++17)

Technical Specifications

 

Utilities library

Type support (basic types, RTTI, type traits)

Dynamic memory management

Error handling

Program utilities

Variadic functions

Date and time

Function objects

initializer_list (C++11)

bitset

hash (C++11)

Relational operators

rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator>rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>=

optional, any and variant (C++17)

optional

any

variant

in_placein_place_typein_place_indexin_place_tin_place_type_tin_place_index_t

Pairs and tuples

pair

tuple (C++11)

apply (C++17)

make_from_tuple (C++17)

piecewise_construct_t (C++11)

piecewise_construct (C++11)

integer_sequence (C++14)

Swap, forward and move

swap

exchange (C++14)

forward (C++11)

move (C++11)

move_if_noexcept (C++11)

Elementary string conversions

to_chars (C++17)

from_chars (C++17)

chars_format (C++17)

Type operations

declval (C++11)

as_const (C++17)

 

Type support

Basic types
Fundamental types
Fixed width integer types (C++11)
ptrdiff_t size_t max_align_t (C++11) byte (C++17)	nullptr_t (C++11) offsetof NULL
Numeric limits
numeric_limits
C numeric limits interface
Runtime type information
type_info type_index (C++11)	bad_typeid bad_cast
Type traits
Type categories
is_void (C++11) is_null_pointer (C++14) is_array (C++11) is_pointer (C++11) is_enum (C++11) is_union (C++11) is_class (C++11) is_function (C++11)	is_object (C++11) is_scalar (C++11) is_compound (C++11) is_integral (C++11) is_floating_point (C++11) is_fundamental (C++11) is_arithmetic (C++11)
is_reference (C++11)
is_lvalue_reference (C++11)
is_rvalue_reference (C++11)
is_member_pointer (C++11)
is_member_object_pointer (C++11)
is_member_function_pointer (C++11)

Type properties
is_const (C++11) is_volatile (C++11) is_pod (C++11) is_empty (C++11) is_polymorphic (C++11) is_final (C++14) is_abstract (C++11)	is_trivial (C++11) is_trivially_copyable (C++11) is_standard_layout (C++11) is_literal_type (C++11)(deprecated in C++17) is_aggregate (C++17) is_signed (C++11) is_unsigned (C++11)
has_unique_object_representations (C++17)
Type trait constants
integral_constantbool_constanttrue_typefalse_type (C++11)(C++17)(C++11)(C++11)
Metafunctions
conjunction (C++17)
disjunction (C++17)
negation (C++17)

Supported operations
is_constructibleis_trivially_constructibleis_nothrow_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_default_constructibleis_trivially_default_constructibleis_nothrow_default_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_copy_constructibleis_trivially_copy_constructibleis_nothrow_copy_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_move_constructibleis_trivially_move_constructibleis_nothrow_move_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_assignableis_trivially_assignableis_nothrow_assignable (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_copy_assignableis_trivially_copy_assignableis_nothrow_copy_assignable (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_move_assignableis_trivially_move_assignableis_nothrow_move_assignable (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_destructibleis_trivially_destructibleis_nothrow_destructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
has_virtual_destructor (C++11)
is_swappable_withis_swappableis_nothrow_swappable_withis_nothrow_swappable (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++17)
Relationships and property queries
is_same (C++11) is_base_of (C++11) is_convertible (C++11)	alignment_of (C++11) rank (C++11) extent (C++11)
is_invocableis_invocable_ris_nothrow_invocableis_nothrow_invocable_r (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++17)
Type modifications
remove_cvremove_constremove_volatile (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) add_cvadd_constadd_volatile (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) make_signed (C++11) make_unsigned (C++11)	remove_reference (C++11) add_lvalue_referenceadd_rvalue_reference (C++11)(C++11) remove_pointer (C++11) add_pointer (C++11) remove_extent (C++11) remove_all_extents (C++11)
Type transformations
aligned_storage (C++11) aligned_union (C++11) decay (C++11) enable_if (C++11) void_t (C++17)	conditional (C++11) common_type (C++11) underlying_type (C++11) result_ofinvoke_result (C++11)(deprecated in C++17)(C++17)

 

Defined in header <cstddef>
typedef /*implementation-defined*/ ptrdiff_t;

std::ptrdiff_t is the signed integer type of the result of subtracting two pointers.

Notes

std::ptrdiff_t is used for pointer arithmetic and array indexing, if negative values are possible. Programs that use other types, such as int, may fail on, e.g. 64-bit systems when the index exceeds INT_MAX or if it relies on 32-bit modular arithmetic.

When working with the C++ container library, the proper type for the difference between iterators is the member typedef difference_type, which is often synonymous with std::ptrdiff_t.

Only pointers to elements of the same array (including the pointer one past the end of the array) may be subtracted from each other.

If an array is so large (greater than PTRDIFF_MAX elements, but less than SIZE_MAX bytes), that the difference between two pointers may not be representable as std::ptrdiff_t, the result of subtracting two such pointers is undefined.

For char arrays shorter than PTRDIFF_MAX, std::ptrdiff_t acts as the signed counterpart of std::size_t: it can store the size of the array of any type and is, on most platforms, synonymous with std::intptr_t.

Example

Run this code

#include <cstddef>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
    const std::size_t N = 100;
    int* a = new int[N];
    int* end = a + N;
    for (std::ptrdiff_t i = N; i > 0; --i)
        std::cout << (*(end - i) = i) << ' ';
    delete[] a;
}

See also

size_t	unsigned integer type returned by the sizeof operator (typedef)
offsetof	byte offset from the beginning of a standard-layout type to specified member (function macro)
C documentation for ptrdiff_t