9.7. Arrays
Recall that arrays
are ordered collections of data elements of the same type that are contiguously stored
in memory. Statically allocated single
dimension arrays have the form Type arr[N]
where Type
is the data type, arr
is the
identifier associated with the array, and N
is the number of data elements. Declaring
an array statically as Type arr[N]
or dynamically as arr = malloc(N*sizeof(Type))
allocates
N x sizeof
(Type) total bytes of memory.
To access the element at index i in array arr
, use the syntax arr[i]
.
Compilers commonly convert array references into pointer arithmetic
prior to translating to assembly. So arr+i
is
equivalent to &arr[i]
and *(arr+i)
is equivalent to arr[i]
. Since each data element
in arr
is of type Type
, arr+i
implies that element i is stored at address
arr + sizeof(Type) * i
.
Table 1 outlines some common array operations and their corresponding assembly
instructions. In the examples that follow, suppose we declare an int
array of length 10
(e.g. int arr[10]
). Assume register x1
stores the address of arr
, register x2
stores the
int
value i
and register x0
represents some variable x
(also of type int
). Recall that
int
variables take up 4
bytes of space, while int *
variables take up 8
bytes of space.
Operation | Type | Assembly Representation |
---|---|---|
|
int * |
|
|
int |
|
|
int |
|
|
int * |
|
|
int * |
|
|
int |
|
Note that to access element arr[5]
(or *(arr+5)
using pointer arithmetic) the
compiler performs a memory lookup on address arr*5*4
instead of arr*5
. To understand
why this is necessary, recall that any element at index i in an array is stored at address
arr + sizeof(Type) * i
. The compiler must therefore multiply the index by the size of the
data type (in this case 4
, since sizeof(int)=4
) to compute the correct offset. Recall also
that memory is byte-addressable; offsetting by the correct number of bytes is the same as
computing an address.
As an example, consider a sample array (array
) with ten integer elements ([FigArray6]):

Notice that since array
is an array of integers, each element takes up exactly four bytes. Thus, an
integer array with ten elements consumes 40 bytes of contiguous memory.
To compute the address of element 3, the compiler multiplies the index 3 by the data size of the integer
type (4) to yield an offset of 12
(or 0xc
). Sure enough, element 3 in Figure 1 is located at byte offset a12.
Let’s take a look at a simple C function called sumArray()
that sums up all the elements
in an array:
int sumArray(int *array, int length) {
int i, total = 0;
for (i = 0; i < length; i++) {
total += array[i];
}
return total;
}
The sumArray()
function takes the address of an array and the array’s associated length
and sums up all the elements in the array. Now take a look at the corresponding assembly
of the sumArray()
function:
Dump of assembler code for function sumArray: 0x874 <+0>: sub sp, sp, #0x20 // grow the stack by 32 bytes (new frame) 0x878 <+4>: str x0, [sp, #8] // store x0 at sp + 8 (array address) 0x87c <+8>: str w1, [sp, #4] // store w1 at sp + 4 (length) 0x880 <+12>: str wzr, [sp, #28] // store 0 at sp + 28 (total) 0x884 <+16>: str wzr, [sp, #24] // store 0 at sp + 24 (i) 0x888 <+20>: b 0x8b8 <sumArray+68> // goto <sumArray+68> 0x88c <+24>: ldrsw x0, [sp, #24] // x0 = i 0x890 <+28>: lsl x0, x0, #2 // left shift i by 2 (i << 2, or i*4) 0x894 <+32>: ldr x1, [sp, #8] // x1 = array 0x898 <+36>: add x0, x1, x0 // x0 = array + i*4 0x89c <+40>: ldr w0, [x0] // w0 = array[i] 0x8a0 <+44>: ldr w1, [sp, #28] // w1 = total 0x8a4 <+48>: add w0, w1, w0 // w0 = total + array[i] 0x8a8 <+52>: str w0, [sp, #28] // store (total + array[i]) in total 0x8ac <+56>: ldr w0, [sp, #24] // w0 = i 0x8b0 <+60>: add w0, w0, #0x1 // w0 = w0 + 1 (i+1) 0x8b4 <+64>: str w0, [sp, #24] // store (i + 1) in i (i.e. i+=1) 0x8b8 <+68>: ldr w1, [sp, #24] // w1 = i 0x8bc <+72>: ldr w0, [sp, #4] // w0 = length 0x8c0 <+76>: cmp w1, w0 // compare i and length 0x8c4 <+80>: b.lt 0x88c <sumArray+24> // if (i < length) goto <sumArray+24> 0x8c8 <+84>: ldr w0, [sp, #28] // w0 = total 0x8cc <+88>: add sp, sp, #0x20 // revert stack to original state 0x8d0 <+92>: ret // return (total)
When tracing the above assembly code, consider whether the data being accessed represents a pointer or
a value. For example, the instruction at <sumArray+12>
results in stack location sp + 28
containing a
variable of type int
which is initially set to 0
. In contrast, the argument stored at location sp + 8
is the first
argument to the function (array
) which is of type int *
and corresponds to the base address of the
array. A different variable (which we call i
) is stored at location sp + 24
and is initially set to 0.
The astute reader will notice a previously unseen instruction at line <sumArray+30>
called ldrsw
. The
ldrsw
instruction stands for "load register signed word" and converts the 32-bit int
value stored at
sp + 24
to a 64-bit integer value and stores it in x0
. This operation is necessary because the instructions
that follow perform pointer arithmetic. Recall that on 64-bit systems, pointers take up 8 bytes of space.
The compiler’s use of ldrsw
simplifies the process by ensuring that all data are stored in full 64-bit
registers instead of their 32-bit components.
Let’s take a closer look at the seven instructions between locations <sumArray+28>
and <sumArray+52>
:
0x890 <+28>: lsl x0, x0, #2 // left shift i by 2 (i << 2, or i*4) 0x894 <+32>: ldr x1, [sp, #8] // x1 = array 0x898 <+36>: add x0, x1, x0 // x0 = array + i*4 0x89c <+40>: ldr w0, [x0] // w0 = array[i] 0x8a0 <+44>: ldr w1, [sp, #28] // w1 = total 0x8a4 <+48>: add w0, w1, w0 // w0 = total + array[i] 0x8a8 <+52>: str w0, [sp, #28] // store (total + array[i]) in total
The compiler uses the lsl
to perform a left shift on the value i
stored in x0
. Once this
instruction completes execution, register x0
contains i << 2
, or i * 4
. At this point,
x0
contains the number of bytes to calculate the correct offset of array[i]
(or sizeof(int) = 4
).
The next instruction (ldr x1, [sp, #8]
) loads the first argument to the function (i.e. the base address of array
) into
register x1
. Adding x1
to x0
in the next instruction causes x0
to contain array+i*4
.
Recall that the element at index i in array
is stored at address array + sizeof(T) * i
Therefore, x0
now contains the assembly level computation of address &array[i]
.
The instruction at <sumArray+40>
dereferences the value located at x0
, placing the value array[i]
into w1
. Notice the use of the component register w1
, since array[i]
contains a 32-bit int
value! In contrast,
the variable i
was changed to a 64-bit integer on line <sumArray+24>
since i
was about to be used for address computation.
Again, addresses (pointers) are stored as 64-bit words.
The last three instructions between <sumArray+44>
and <sumArray+52>
load the current value of total
into component register
w1
, adds array[i]
to it and stores the result in component register w0
, before updating total at location sp + 28
with the
new sum. Therefore, the seven instructions between <sumArray+28>
and <sumArray+52>
are equivalent to the line total += array[i]
in the sumArray()
function.