42 LIBFT Project Report 📘

Introduction

The Libft project is a fundamental project in the curriculum of many programming courses, particularly in those teaching the C programming language. In this project, students are tasked with creating their own library of essential functions in C. The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of C programming, standard library functions, and writing modular and reusable code.

Project Overview 🚀

• Objective: Create a library of essential functions in C.
• Purpose:
  • Reinforce understanding of C programming concepts.
  • Practice writing modular and reusable code.
  • Gain familiarity with standard library functions.
• Key Components:
  • Implementation of standard library functions (e.g., strlen, strcpy, atoi, etc.).
  • Additional utility functions (e.g., linked list manipulation, string manipulation, etc.).
• Requirements:
  • Functions must be implemented according to the project requirements.
  • Functions should be thoroughly tested to ensure correctness.

Project Structure 📁

• libft.h: Header file containing function prototypes and necessary macros.
• libft.a: Compiled library file containing the implemented functions.
• Source Files: Implementation of individual functions.
• Makefile: Build script for compiling the library.

Challenges and Learning 💡

• Understanding Standard Library Functions: Implementing functions similar to those found in the standard library requires a solid understanding of their behavior and implementation.
• Memory Management: Proper memory allocation and deallocation are crucial aspects of writing robust C code.
• Modular Design: Designing functions that are modular and reusable improves code readability and maintainability.
• Testing: Thoroughly testing each function is essential to ensure correctness and identify any potential issues.

Conclusion 🎉

The libft project is a foundational exercise that helps students develop essential skills in C programming. By creating their own library of functions, students gain a deeper understanding of programming concepts, improve their coding abilities, and prepare themselves for more advanced projects and challenges.

References

Project

Fun Part

atoi.c

int	ft_atoi(char *str)
{
	long long   to_dec = 0;
	int			neg = 1;

	while (!(*str ^ ' ') || (*str >= '\t' && *str <= '\r'))
		str = (char *)-~(unsigned long long)str; // Wtff dude
	while ((!(*str ^ '+') || !(*str ^ '-')))
		if (!(*str++ ^ '-'))
			neg = ~(neg - 1);
	while (*str >= '0' && *str <= '9')
		to_dec = (to_dec << 1) + (to_dec << 3) + (*str++ & 0xF);
	if (to_dec > 0x7FFFFFFF || to_dec > -0x80000000) return (0);
	return (to_dec * neg);
}

Update

A forthcoming update to the libft will be fully optimized thanks to Intel Intrinsics instructions. This will enable more efficient operations through SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions) and AVX (Advanced Vector Extensions), as well as other commonly used instruction sets.

SSE, a SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) extension, allows a single instruction to perform multiple operations, often optimal for your program. It primarily focuses on operations on 16 bytes (128 bits), which is ideal for many tasks.

In contrast, AVX, being more recent, expands this capability by enabling vectorization operations on wider registers. It offers operations on 32 bytes (256-bit) registers (AVX) and even 64 bytes (512-bit) registers (AVX-512), compared to the 16 bytes (128 bits) offered by SSE. This means AVX can process larger amounts of data in parallel, thereby improving performance for computationally intensive tasks.

In summary, while SSE is effective for operations on smaller and more common data sets, AVX extends this capability to handle larger data amounts, making it particularly suitable for heavier workloads and applications requiring increased parallelism.

This project is still ongoing and should soon come to fruition. The main branch will be 42, after being validated and corrected. Another branch, latest, will be available for using this library

Subject

Download the libft subject here