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3.5 Scalar Types

1
Scalar types comprise enumeration types, integer types, and real types. Enumeration types and integer types are called discrete types; each value of a discrete type has a position number which is an integer value. Integer types and real types are called numeric types. [All scalar types are ordered, that is, all relational operators are predefined for their values.]

Syntax

2
range_constraint ::=  range range
3
range ::=  range_attribute_reference
   | simple_expression .. simple_expression
3.a
Discussion: These need to be simple_expressions rather than more general expressions because ranges appear in membership tests and other contexts where expression .. expression would be ambiguous. 
4
A range has a lower bound and an upper bound and specifies a subset of the values of some scalar type (the type of the range). A range with lower bound L and upper bound R is described by “L .. R”. If R is less than L, then the range is a null range, and specifies an empty set of values. Otherwise, the range specifies the values of the type from the lower bound to the upper bound, inclusive. A value belongs to a range if it is of the type of the range, and is in the subset of values specified by the range. A value satisfies a range constraint if it belongs to the associated range. One range is included in another if all values that belong to the first range also belong to the second. 

Name Resolution Rules

5
For a subtype_indication containing a range_constraint, either directly or as part of some other scalar_constraint, the type of the range shall resolve to that of the type determined by the subtype_mark of the subtype_indication. For a range of a given type, the simple_expressions of the range (likewise, the simple_expressions of the equivalent range for a range_attribute_reference) are expected to be of the type of the range.
5.a
Discussion: In Ada 95, constraints only appear within subtype_indications; things that look like constraints that appear in type declarations are called something else like real_range_specifications.
5.b/5
{AI05-0299-1} {AI12-0449-1} We say "the expected type is ..." or "the type is expected to be ..." depending on which reads better. They are fundamentally equivalent, and both feed into the type resolution rules of 8.6.
5.c
In some cases, it doesn't work to use expected types. For example, in the above rule, we say that the “type of the range shall resolve to ...” rather than “the expected type for the range is ...” We then use “expected type” for the bounds. If we used “expected” at both points, there would be an ambiguity, since one could apply the rules of 8.6 either on determining the type of the range, or on determining the types of the individual bounds. It is clearly important to allow one bound to be of a universal type, and the other of a specific type, so we need to use “expected type” for the bounds. Hence, we used “shall resolve to” for the type of the range as a whole. There are other situations where “expected type” is not quite right, and we use “shall resolve to” instead. 

Static Semantics

6
The base range of a scalar type is the range of finite values of the type that can be represented in every unconstrained object of the type; it is also the range supported at a minimum for intermediate values during the evaluation of expressions involving predefined operators of the type. 
6.a
Implementation Note: Note that in some machine architectures intermediates in an expression (particularly if static), and register-resident variables might accommodate a wider range. The base range does not include the values of this wider range that are not assignable without overflow to memory-resident objects.
6.b
Ramification: The base range of an enumeration type is the range of values of the enumeration type. 
6.c
Reason: If the representation supports infinities, the base range is nevertheless restricted to include only the representable finite values, so that 'Base'First and 'Base'Last are always guaranteed to be finite.
6.d
To be honest: By a "value that can be assigned without overflow" we don't mean to restrict ourselves to values that can be represented exactly. Values between machine representable values can be assigned, but on subsequent reading, a slightly different value might be retrieved, as (partially) determined by the number of digits of precision of the type. 
7
[A constrained scalar subtype is one to which a range constraint applies.] The range of a constrained scalar subtype is the range associated with the range constraint of the subtype. The range of an unconstrained scalar subtype is the base range of its type. 

Dynamic Semantics

8
A range is compatible with a scalar subtype if and only if it is either a null range or each bound of the range belongs to the range of the subtype. A range_constraint is compatible with a scalar subtype if and only if its range is compatible with the subtype. 
8.a
Ramification: Only range_constraints (explicit or implicit) impose conditions on the values of a scalar subtype. The other scalar_constraints, digits_constraints and delta_constraints impose conditions on the subtype denoted by the subtype_mark in a subtype_indication, but don't impose a condition on the values of the subtype being defined. Therefore, a scalar subtype is not called constrained if all that applies to it is a digits_constraint. Decimal subtypes are subtle, because a digits_constraint without a range_constraint nevertheless includes an implicit range_constraint.
9
The elaboration of a range_constraint consists of the evaluation of the range. The evaluation of a range determines a lower bound and an upper bound. If simple_expressions are given to specify bounds, the evaluation of the range evaluates these simple_expressions in an arbitrary order, and converts them to the type of the range. If a range_attribute_reference is given, the evaluation of the range consists of the evaluation of the range_attribute_reference.
10
Attributes
11
For every scalar subtype S, the following attributes are defined: 
12
S'First
S'First denotes the lower bound of the range of S. The value of this attribute is of the type of S. 
12.a
Ramification: Evaluating S'First never raises Constraint_Error.
13
S'Last
S'Last denotes the upper bound of the range of S. The value of this attribute is of the type of S. 
13.a
Ramification: Evaluating S'Last never raises Constraint_Error.
14
S'Range
S'Range is equivalent to the range S'First .. S'Last.
15
S'Base
S'Base denotes an unconstrained subtype of the type of S. This unconstrained subtype is called the base subtype of the type.
16
S'Min
S'Min denotes a function with the following specification: 
17
function S'Min(LeftRight : S'Base)
  return S'Base
18
The function returns the lesser of the values of the two parameters. 
18.a
Discussion: The formal parameter names are italicized because they cannot be used in calls — see 6.4. Such a specification cannot be written by the user because an attribute_reference is not permitted as the designator of a user-defined function, nor can its formal parameters be anonymous. 
19
S'Max
S'Max denotes a function with the following specification: 
20
function S'Max(LeftRight : S'Base)
  return S'Base
21
The function returns the greater of the values of the two parameters.
22
S'Succ
S'Succ denotes a function with the following specification: 
23
function S'Succ(Arg : S'Base)
  return S'Base
24
For an enumeration type, the function returns the value whose position number is one more than that of the value of Arg; Constraint_Error is raised if there is no such value of the type. For an integer type, the function returns the result of adding one to the value of Arg. For a fixed point type, the function returns the result of adding small to the value of Arg. For a floating point type, the function returns the machine number (as defined in 3.5.7) immediately above the value of Arg; Constraint_Error is raised if there is no such machine number. 
24.a
Ramification: S'Succ for a modular integer subtype wraps around if the value of Arg is S'Base'Last. S'Succ for a signed integer subtype might raise Constraint_Error if the value of Arg is S'Base'Last, or it might return the out-of-base-range value S'Base'Last+1, as is permitted for all predefined numeric operations. 
25
S'Pred
S'Pred denotes a function with the following specification: 
26
function S'Pred(Arg : S'Base)
  return S'Base
27
For an enumeration type, the function returns the value whose position number is one less than that of the value of Arg; Constraint_Error is raised if there is no such value of the type. For an integer type, the function returns the result of subtracting one from the value of Arg. For a fixed point type, the function returns the result of subtracting small from the value of Arg. For a floating point type, the function returns the machine number (as defined in 3.5.7) immediately below the value of Arg; Constraint_Error is raised if there is no such machine number. 
27.a
Ramification: S'Pred for a modular integer subtype wraps around if the value of Arg is S'Base'First. S'Pred for a signed integer subtype might raise Constraint_Error if the value of Arg is S'Base'First, or it might return the out-of-base-range value S'Base'First–1, as is permitted for all predefined numeric operations. 
Paragraphs 28 through 37 were moved to 4.10, “Image Attributes”. 
37.1/5
  S'Wide_Wide_Width

{AI95-00285-01} {AI12-0020-1} S'Wide_Wide_Width denotes the maximum length of a Wide_Wide_String returned by S'Wide_Wide_Image over all values of the subtype S, assuming a default implementation of S'Put_Image. It denotes zero for a subtype that has a null range. Its type is universal_integer.
38/5
S'Wide_Width
{AI12-0020-1} S'Wide_Width denotes the maximum length of a Wide_String returned by S'Wide_Image over all values of the subtype S, assuming a default implementation of S'Put_Image. It denotes zero for a subtype that has a null range. Its type is universal_integer.
39/5
S'Width
{AI12-0020-1} S'Width denotes the maximum length of a String returned by S'Image over all values of the subtype S, assuming a default implementation of S'Put_Image. It denotes zero for a subtype that has a null range. Its type is universal_integer.
39.1/2
  S'Wide_Wide_Value

{AI95-00285-01} S'Wide_Wide_Value denotes a function with the following specification:
39.2/2
function S'Wide_Wide_Value(Arg : Wide_Wide_String)
  return S'Base
39.3/2
This function returns a value given an image of the value as a Wide_Wide_String, ignoring any leading or trailing spaces.
39.4/3
{AI05-0264-1} For the evaluation of a call on S'Wide_Wide_Value for an enumeration subtype S, if the sequence of characters of the parameter (ignoring leading and trailing spaces) has the syntax of an enumeration literal and if it corresponds to a literal of the type of S (or corresponds to the result of S'Wide_Wide_Image for a nongraphic character of the type), the result is the corresponding enumeration value; otherwise, Constraint_Error is raised. 
39.a.1/2
Discussion: It's not crystal clear that Range_Check is appropriate here, but it doesn't seem worthwhile to invent a whole new check name just for this weird case, so we decided to lump it in with Range_Check. 
39.a.2/2
To be honest: {8652/0096} {AI95-00053-01} A sequence of characters corresponds to the result of S'Wide_Wide_Image if it is the same ignoring case. Thus, the case of an image of a nongraphic character does not matter. For example, Character'Wide_Wide_Value("nul") does not raise Constraint_Error, even though Character'Wide_Wide_Image returns "NUL" for the nul character. 
39.5/3
{AI05-0264-1} For the evaluation of a call on S'Wide_Wide_Value for an integer subtype S, if the sequence of characters of the parameter (ignoring leading and trailing spaces) has the syntax of an integer literal, with an optional leading sign character (plus or minus for a signed type; only plus for a modular type), and the corresponding numeric value belongs to the base range of the type of S, then that value is the result; otherwise, Constraint_Error is raised.
39.a.3/2
Discussion: We considered allowing 'Value to return a representable but out-of-range value without a Constraint_Error. However, we currently require (see 4.9) in an assignment_statement like "X := <numeric_literal>;" that the value of the numeric-literal be in X's base range (at compile time), so it seems unfriendly and confusing to have a different range allowed for 'Value. Furthermore, for modular types, without the requirement for being in the base range, 'Value would have to handle arbitrarily long literals (since overflow never occurs for modular types). 
39.6/2
For the evaluation of a call on S'Wide_Wide_Value for a real subtype S, if the sequence of characters of the parameter (ignoring leading and trailing spaces) has the syntax of one of the following: 
39.7/2
numeric_literal
39.8/2
numeral.[exponent]
39.9/2
.numeral[exponent]
39.10/2
base#based_numeral.#[exponent]
39.11/2
base#.based_numeral#[exponent]
39.12/3
{AI05-0264-1} with an optional leading sign character (plus or minus), and if the corresponding numeric value belongs to the base range of the type of S, then that value is the result; otherwise, Constraint_Error is raised. The sign of a zero value is preserved (positive if none has been specified) if S'Signed_Zeros is True.
40
S'Wide_Value
S'Wide_Value denotes a function with the following specification: 
41
function S'Wide_Value(Arg : Wide_String)
  return S'Base
42
This function returns a value given an image of the value as a Wide_String, ignoring any leading or trailing spaces.
43/5
{AI95-00285-01} {AI05-0264-1} {AI12-0020-1} For the evaluation of a call on S'Wide_Value for an enumeration subtype S, if the sequence of characters of the parameter (ignoring leading and trailing spaces) has the syntax of an enumeration literal and if it corresponds to a literal of the type of S (or corresponds to the result of S'Wide_Image for a value of the type, assuming a default implementation of S'Put_Image), the result is the corresponding enumeration value; otherwise, Constraint_Error is raised. For a numeric subtype S, the evaluation of a call on S'Wide_Value with Arg of type Wide_String is equivalent to a call on S'Wide_Wide_Value for a corresponding Arg of type Wide_Wide_String. 
43.a/2
This paragraph was deleted.
43.a.1/2
This paragraph was deleted.{8652/0096} {AI95-00053-01}
43.b/2
Reason: S'Wide_Value is subtly different from S'Wide_Wide_Value for enumeration subtypes since S'Wide_Image might produce a different sequence of characters than S'Wide_Wide_Image if the enumeration literal uses characters outside of the predefined type Wide_Character. That is why we don't just define S'Wide_Value in terms of S'Wide_Wide_Value for enumeration subtypes. S'Wide_Value and S'Wide_Wide_Value for numeric subtypes yield the same result given the same sequence of characters. 
Paragraphs 44 through 51 were moved to Wide_Wide_Value. 
52
S'Value
S'Value denotes a function with the following specification: 
53
function S'Value(Arg : String)
  return S'Base
54
This function returns a value given an image of the value as a String, ignoring any leading or trailing spaces.
55/5
{AI95-00285-01} {AI05-0264-1} {AI12-0020-1} For the evaluation of a call on S'Value for an enumeration subtype S, if the sequence of characters of the parameter (ignoring leading and trailing spaces) has the syntax of an enumeration literal and if it corresponds to a literal of the type of S (or corresponds to the result of S'Image for a value of the type, assuming a default implementation of S'Put_Image), the result is the corresponding enumeration value; otherwise, Constraint_Error is raised. For a numeric subtype S, the evaluation of a call on S'Value with Arg of type String is equivalent to a call on S'Wide_Wide_Value for a corresponding Arg of type Wide_Wide_String. 
55.a/2
Reason: {AI95-00285-01} S'Value is subtly different from S'Wide_Wide_Value for enumeration subtypes; see the discussion under S'Wide_Value. 

Implementation Permissions

56/2
{AI95-00285-01} An implementation may extend the Wide_Wide_Value, [Wide_Value, Value, Wide_Wide_Image, Wide_Image, and Image] attributes of a floating point type to support special values such as infinities and NaNs.
56.a/2
Proof: {AI95-00285-01} The permission is really only necessary for Wide_Wide_Value, because Value and Wide_Value are defined in terms of Wide_Wide_Value, and because the behavior of Wide_Wide_Image, Wide_Image, and Image is already unspecified for things like infinities and NaNs. 
56.b
Reason: This is to allow implementations to define full support for IEEE arithmetic. See also the similar permission for Get in A.10.9
56.1/3
  {AI05-0182-1} {AI05-0262-1} {AI05-0269-1} An implementation may extend the Wide_Wide_Value, Wide_Value, and Value attributes of a character type to accept strings of the form “Hex_hhhhhhhh” (ignoring case) for any character (not just the ones for which Wide_Wide_Image would produce that form — see 3.5.2), as well as three-character strings of the form “'X'”, where X is any character, including nongraphic characters. 

Static Semantics

56.2/3
  {AI05-0228-1} For a scalar type, the following language-defined representation aspect may be specified with an aspect_specification (see 13.1.1): 
56.3/3
  Default_Value

This aspect shall be specified by a static expression, and that expression shall be explicit, even if the aspect has a boolean type. Default_Value shall be specified only on a full_type_declaration.
56.c/3
Reason: The part about requiring an explicit expression is to disallow omitting the value for this aspect, which would otherwise be allowed by the rules of 13.1.1.
56.d/3
This is a representation aspect in order to disallow specifying it on a derived type that has inherited primitive subprograms; that is necessary as the sizes of out parameters could be different whether or not a Default_Value is specified (see 6.4.1).
56.e/3
Aspect Description for Default_Value: Default value for a scalar subtype.
56.4/5
  {AI05-0228-1} {AI12-0427-1} If a derived type inherits a boolean Default_Value aspect, the aspect may be specified to have any value for the derived type. If a derived type T does not inherit a Default_Value aspect, it shall not specify such an aspect if it inherits a primitive subprogram that has a parameter of type T of mode out
56.f/3
Reason: This overrides the 13.1.1 rule that says that a boolean aspect with a value True cannot be changed.
56.g/5
{AI12-0427-1} The second sentence is to avoid violating the rules specified in 6.4.1 about view conversions of out parameters with a specified Default_Value aspect. 

Name Resolution Rules

56.5/3
  {AI05-0228-1} The expected type for the expression specified for the Default_Value aspect is the type defined by the full_type_declaration on which it appears. 
57
NOTE 1   The evaluation of S'First or S'Last never raises an exception. If a scalar subtype S has a nonnull range, S'First and S'Last belong to this range. These values can, for example, always be assigned to a variable of subtype S. 
57.a
Discussion: This paragraph addresses an issue that came up with Ada 83, where for fixed point types, the end points of the range specified in the type definition were not necessarily within the base range of the type. However, it was later clarified (and we reconfirm it in 3.5.9, “Fixed Point Types”) that the First and Last attributes reflect the true bounds chosen for the type, not the bounds specified in the type definition (which might be outside the ultimately chosen base range).
58/5
NOTE 2   {AI12-0442-1} For a subtype of a scalar type, the result delivered by the attributes Succ, Pred, and Value can be outside to the subtype; similarly, the actual parameters of the attributes Succ, Pred, and Image can also be outside the subtype.
59/5
NOTE 3   {AI95-00285-01} {AI12-0020-1} For any value V (including any nongraphic character) of an enumeration subtype S without a specified Put_Image (see 4.10), S'Value(S'Image(V)) equals V, as do S'Wide_Value(S'Wide_Image(V)) and S'Wide_Wide_Value(S'Wide_Wide_Image(V)). None of these expressions ever raise Constraint_Error. 

Examples

60
Examples of ranges:
61
-10 .. 10
X .. X + 1
0.0 .. 2.0*Pi
Red .. Green     -- see 3.5.1
1 .. 0           -- a null range
Table'Range      -- a range attribute reference (see 3.6)
62
Examples of range constraints: 
63
range -999.0 .. +999.0
range S'First+1 .. S'Last-1

Incompatibilities With Ada 83

63.a/1
S'Base is no longer defined for nonscalar types. One conceivable existing use of S'Base for nonscalar types is S'Base'Size where S is a generic formal private type. However, that is not generally useful because the actual subtype corresponding to S might be a constrained array or discriminated type, which would mean that S'Base'Size might very well overflow (for example, S'Base'Size where S is a constrained subtype of String will generally be 8 * (Integer'Last + 1)). For derived discriminated types that are packed, S'Base'Size might not even be well defined if the first subtype is constrained, thereby allowing some amount of normally required “dope” to have been squeezed out in the packing. Hence our conclusion is that S'Base'Size is not generally useful in a generic, and does not justify keeping the attribute Base for nonscalar types just so it can be used as a prefix.

Extensions to Ada 83

63.b
The attribute S'Base for a scalar subtype is now permitted anywhere a subtype_mark is permitted. S'Base'First .. S'Base'Last is the base range of the type. Using an attribute_definition_clause, one cannot specify any subtype-specific attributes for the subtype denoted by S'Base (the base subtype).
63.c
The attribute S'Range is now allowed for scalar subtypes.
63.d
The attributes S'Min and S'Max are now defined, and made available for all scalar types.
63.e
The attributes S'Succ, S'Pred, S'Image, S'Value, and S'Width are now defined for real types as well as discrete types.
63.f
Wide_String versions of S'Image and S'Value are defined. These are called S'Wide_Image and S'Wide_Value to avoid introducing ambiguities involving uses of these attributes with string literals. 

Wording Changes from Ada 83

63.g
We now use the syntactic category range_attribute_reference since it is now syntactically distinguished from other attribute references.
63.h
The definition of S'Base has been moved here from 3.3.3 since it now applies only to scalar types.
63.i
More explicit rules are provided for nongraphic characters. 

Extensions to Ada 95

63.j/2
{AI95-00285-01} The attributes Wide_Wide_Image, Wide_Wide_Value, and Wide_Wide_Width are new. Note that Wide_Image and Wide_Value are now defined in terms of Wide_Wide_Image and Wide_Wide_Value, but the image of types other than characters have not changed. 

Wording Changes from Ada 95

63.k/2
{AI95-00285-01} The Wide_Image and Wide_Value attributes are now defined in terms of Wide_Wide_Image and Wide_Wide_Value, but the images of numeric types have not changed. 

Inconsistencies With Ada 2005

63.l/3
{AI05-0181-1} Correction: Soft hyphen (code point 173) is nongraphic in ISO/IEC 10646:2011 (and also in the 2003 version of that standard). Thus, we have given it the language-defined name soft_hyphen. This changes the result of Character'Image (and all of the related types and Image attributes) for this character, and changes the behavior of Character'Value (and all of the related types and Value attributes) for this character, and (in unusual circumstances), changes the result for Character'Width (and all of the related types and Width attributes). The vast majority of programs won't see any difference, as they are already prepared to handle nongraphic characters.
63.m/3
{AI05-0182-1} Correction: Added an Implementation Permissions to let Wide_Wide_Value, Wide_Value, and Value accept strings in the form of literals containing nongraphic characters and "Hex_hhhhhhhh" for Latin-1 and graphic characters. These were required to raise Constraint_Error in Ada 2005. Since these attributes aren't very useful, implementations were inconsistent as to whether these were accepted, and since code that would care why the attribute failed seems unlikely, this should not be a problem in practice. 

Extensions to Ada 2005

63.n/3
{AI05-0228-1} The new aspect Default_Value allows defining implicit initial values (see 3.3.1) for scalar types.

Extensions to Ada 2012

63.o/4
{AI12-0124-1} Corrigendum: An object can be now used as the prefix of the Image attribute (as well as Wide_Image and Wide_Wide_Image), a convenience feature already present in some implementations.
63.p/5
{AI12-0020-1} All of the Image-family attributes have been moved to 4.10.

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