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Note

This article is a feature specification. The specification serves as the design document for the feature. It includes proposed specification changes, along with information needed during the design and development of the feature. These articles are published until the proposed spec changes are finalized and incorporated in the current ECMA specification.

There may be some discrepancies between the feature specification and the completed implementation. Those differences are captured in the pertinent language design meeting (LDM) notes.

You can learn more about the process for adopting feature speclets into the C# language standard in the article on the specifications.

Summary

This is a revision on the initial native integers feature (spec), where the nint/nuint types were distinct from the underlying types System.IntPtr/System.UIntPtr. In short, we now treat nint/nuint as simple types aliasing System.IntPtr/System.UIntPtr, like we do for int in relation to System.Int32. The System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeFeature.NumericIntPtr runtime feature flag triggers this new behavior.

Design

8.3.5 Simple types

C# provides a set of predefined struct types called the simple types. The simple types are identified through keywords, but these keywords are simply aliases for predefined struct types in the System namespace, as described in the table below.

Keyword Aliased type
sbyte System.SByte
byte System.Byte
short System.Int16
ushort System.UInt16
int System.Int32
uint System.UInt32
nint System.IntPtr
nuint System.UIntPtr
long System.Int64
ulong System.UInt64
char System.Char
float System.Single
double System.Double
bool System.Boolean
decimal System.Decimal

[...]

8.3.6 Integral types

C# supports eleven integral types: sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, and char. [...]

8.8 Unmanaged types

In other words, an unmanaged_type is one of the following:

  • sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, double, decimal, or bool.
  • Any enum_type.
  • Any user-defined struct_type that is not a constructed type and contains fields of unmanaged_types only.
  • In unsafe code, any pointer_type.

10.2.3 Implicit numeric conversions

The implicit numeric conversions are:

  • From sbyte to short, int, nint, long, float, double, or decimal.
  • From byte to short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, float, double, or decimal.
  • From short to int, nint, long, float, double, or decimal.
  • From ushort to int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, float, double, or decimal.
  • From int to nint, long, float, double, or decimal.
  • From uint to nuint, long, ulong, float, double, or decimal.
  • From nint to long, float, double, or decimal.
  • From nuint to ulong, float, double, or decimal.
  • From long to float, double, or decimal.
  • From ulong to float, double, or decimal.
  • From char to ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, float, double, or decimal.
  • From float to double.

[...]

10.2.11 Implicit constant expression conversions

An implicit constant expression conversion permits the following conversions:

  • A constant_expression of type int can be converted to type sbyte, byte, short, ushort, uint, nint, nuint, or ulong, provided the value of the constant_expression is within the range of the destination type. [...]

10.3.2 Explicit numeric conversions

The explicit numeric conversions are the conversions from a numeric_type to another numeric_type for which an implicit numeric conversion does not already exist:

  • From sbyte to byte, ushort, uint, nuint, ulong, or char.
  • From byte to sbyte or char.
  • From short to sbyte, byte, ushort, uint, nuint, ulong, or char.
  • From ushort to sbyte, byte, short, or char.
  • From int to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, uint, nuint, ulong, or char.
  • From uint to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, nint, or char.
  • From long to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, ulong, or char.
  • From nint to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nuint, ulong, or char.
  • From nuint to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, long, or char.
  • From ulong to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, or char.
  • From char to sbyte, byte, or short.
  • From float to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, or decimal.
  • From double to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, or decimal.
  • From decimal to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, or double.

[...]

10.3.3 Explicit enumeration conversions

The explicit enumeration conversions are:

  • From sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, double, or decimal to any enum_type.
  • From any enum_type to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, double, or decimal.
  • From any enum_type to any other enum_type.

12.6.4.7 Better conversion target

Given two types T₁ and T₂, T₁ is a better conversion target than T₂ if one of the following holds:

  • An implicit conversion from T₁ to T₂ exists and no implicit conversion from T₂ to T₁ exists
  • T₁ is Task<S₁>, T₂ is Task<S₂>, and S₁ is a better conversion target than S₂
  • T₁ is S₁ or S₁? where S₁ is a signed integral type, and T₂ is S₂ or S₂? where S₂ is an unsigned integral type. Specifically: [...]

12.8.12 Element access

[...] The number of expressions in the argument_list shall be the same as the rank of the array_type, and each expression shall be of type int, uint, nint, nuint, long, or ulong, or shall be implicitly convertible to one or more of these types.

11.8.12.2 Array access

[...] The number of expressions in the argument_list shall be the same as the rank of the array_type, and each expression shall be of type int, uint, nint, nuint, long, or ulong, or shall be implicitly convertible to one or more of these types.

[...] The run-time processing of an array access of the form P[A], where P is a primary_no_array_creation_expression of an array_type and A is an argument_list, consists of the following steps: [...]

  • The index expressions of the argument_list are evaluated in order, from left to right. Following evaluation of each index expression, an implicit conversion to one of the following types is performed: int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong. The first type in this list for which an implicit conversion exists is chosen. [...]

12.8.16 Postfix increment and decrement operators

Unary operator overload resolution is applied to select a specific operator implementation. Predefined ++ and -- operators exist for the following types: sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, double, decimal, and any enum type.

12.9.2 Unary plus operator

The predefined unary plus operators are:

...
nint operator +(nint x);
nuint operator +(nuint x);

12.9.3 Unary minus operator

The predefined unary minus operators are:

  • Integer negation:

    ...
nint operator –(nint x);

12.8.16 Postfix increment and decrement operators

Predefined ++ and -- operators exist for the following types: sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, double, decimal, and any enum type.

11.7.19 Default value expressions

In addition, a default_value_expression is a constant expression if the type is one of the following value types: sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, double, decimal, bool, or any enumeration type.

12.9.5 Bitwise complement operator

The predefined bitwise complement operators are:

...
nint operator ~(nint x);
nuint operator ~(nuint x);

12.9.6 Prefix increment and decrement operators

Predefined ++ and -- operators exist for the following types: sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, double, decimal, and any enum type.

12.10 Arithmetic operators

12.10.2 Multiplication operator

The predefined multiplication operators are listed below. The operators all compute the product of x and y.

  • Integer multiplication:

    ...
nint operator *(nint x, nint y);
nuint operator *(nuint x, nuint y);

12.10.3 Division operator

The predefined division operators are listed below. The operators all compute the quotient of x and y.

  • Integer division:

    ...
nint operator /(nint x, nint y);
nuint operator /(nuint x, nuint y);

12.10.4 Remainder operator

The predefined remainder operators are listed below. The operators all compute the remainder of the division between x and y.

  • Integer remainder:

    ...
nint operator %(nint x, nint y);
nuint operator %(nuint x, nuint y);

12.10.5 Addition operator

  • Integer addition:

    ...
nint operator +(nint x, nint y);
nuint operator +(nuint x, nuint y);

12.10.6 Subtraction operator

  • Integer subtraction:

    ...
nint operator –(nint x, nint y);
nuint operator –(nuint x, nuint y);

12.11 Shift operators

The predefined shift operators are listed below.

  • Shift left:

    ...
nint operator <<(nint x, int count);
nuint operator <<(nuint x, int count);

  • Shift right:

    ...
nint operator >>(nint x, int count);
nuint operator >>(nuint x, int count);

    The >> operator shifts x right by a number of bits computed as described below.

    When x is of type int, nint or long, the low-order bits of x are discarded, the remaining bits are shifted right, and the high-order empty bit positions are set to zero if x is non-negative and set to one if x is negative.

    When x is of type uint, nuint or ulong, the low-order bits of x are discarded, the remaining bits are shifted right, and the high-order empty bit positions are set to zero.

  • Unsigned shift right:

    ...
nint operator >>>(nint x, int count);
nuint operator >>>(nuint x, int count);

For the predefined operators, the number of bits to shift is computed as follows: [...]

  • When the type of x is nint or nuint, the shift count is given by the low-order five bits of count on a 32 bit platform, or the lower-order six bits of count on a 64 bit platform.

12.12 Relational and type-testing operators

12.12.2 Integer comparison operators

The predefined integer comparison operators are:

...
bool operator ==(nint x, nint y);
bool operator ==(nuint x, nuint y);

bool operator !=(nint x, nint y);
bool operator !=(nuint x, nuint y);

bool operator <(nint x, nint y);
bool operator <(nuint x, nuint y);

bool operator >(nint x, nint y);
bool operator >(nuint x, nuint y);

bool operator <=(nint x, nint y);
bool operator <=(nuint x, nuint y);

bool operator >=(nint x, nint y);
bool operator >=(nuint x, nuint y);

12.12 Logical operators

12.12.2 Integer logical operators

The predefined integer logical operators are:

...
nint operator &(nint x, nint y);
nuint operator &(nuint x, nuint y);

nint operator |(nint x, nint y);
nuint operator |(nuint x, nuint y);

nint operator ^(nint x, nint y);
nuint operator ^(nuint x, nuint y);

12.22 Constant expressions

A constant expression may be either a value type or a reference type. If a constant expression is a value type, it must be one of the following types: sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, char, float, double, decimal, bool, or any enumeration type.

[...]

An implicit constant expression conversion permits a constant expression of type int to be converted to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, uint, nint, nuint, or ulong, provided the value of the constant expression is within the range of the destination type.

17.4 Array element access

Array elements are accessed using element_access expressions of the form A[I₁, I₂, ..., Iₓ], where A is an expression of an array type and each Iₑ is an expression of type int, uint, nint, nuint, long, ulong, or can be implicitly converted to one or more of these types. The result of an array element access is a variable, namely the array element selected by the indices.

23.5 Pointer conversions

23.5.1 General

[...]

Additionally, in an unsafe context, the set of available explicit conversions is extended to include the following explicit pointer conversions:

  • From any pointer_type to any other pointer_type.
  • From sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, or ulong to any pointer_type.
  • From any pointer_type to sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, nint, nuint, long, or ulong.

23.6.4 Pointer element access

[...] In a pointer element access of the form P[E], P shall be an expression of a pointer type other than void*, and E shall be an expression that can be implicitly converted to int, uint, nint, nuint, long, or ulong.

23.6.7 Pointer arithmetic

In an unsafe context, the + operator and – operator can be applied to values of all pointer types except void*. Thus, for every pointer type T*, the following operators are implicitly defined:

[...]
T* operator +(T* x, nint y);
T* operator +(T* x, nuint y);
T* operator +(nint x, T* y);
T* operator +(nuint x, T* y);
T* operator -(T* x, nint y);
T* operator -(T* x, nuint y);

Given an expression P of a pointer type T* and an expression N of type int, uint, nint, nuint, long, or ulong, the expressions P + N and N + P compute the pointer value of type T* that results from adding N * sizeof(T) to the address given by P. Likewise, the expression P – N computes the pointer value of type T* that results from subtracting N * sizeof(T) from the address given by P.

Various considerations

Breaking changes

One of the main impacts of this design is that System.IntPtr and System.UIntPtr gain some built-in operators (conversions, unary and binary).
Those include checked operators, which means that the following operators on those types will now throw when overflowing:

  • IntPtr + int
  • IntPtr - int
  • IntPtr -> int
  • long -> IntPtr
  • void* -> IntPtr

Metadata encoding

This design means that nint and nuint can simply be emitted as System.IntPtr and System.UIntPtr, without the use of System.Runtime.CompilerServices.NativeIntegerAttribute.
Similarly, when loading metadata NativeIntegerAttribute can be ignored.