llvm / llvm/llvm-project

[Clang] Add a builtin to get the bit width of an enum type

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clang:frontend enhancement
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LLVM
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Description

It's often useful to know how many bits are needed to store any value of an enum. A common use case is packing an enum into a bitfield alongside other data:

```c++
enum Flags {
FlagA = (1 << 0),
FlagB = (1 << 1),
FlagC = (1 << 2),
};

struct Packed {
uintptr_t uniqueID : (sizeof(uintptr_t) * CHAR_BIT) - __builtin_enum_bit_width(enum Flags);
enum Flags flags : __builtin_enum_bit_width(enum Flags);
};
```

This applies equally to non-bitmask enums:

```c++
enum Color {
Red, // 0
Green, // 1
Blue, // 2
};
```

Today there is no clean way to get this as a compile-time constant. A common workaround for bitmask enums is:

```c++
enum Flags {
FlagA = (1 << 0),
FlagB = (1 << 1),
FlagC = (1 << 2),
_FlagsLastPlusOne,
};

#define FlagBitCount (1 + __builtin_ctz((_FlagsLastPlusOne - 1)))
```

This has several problems:
- `_FlagsLastPlusOne` is not a valid flag value and pollutes the enum's value space.
- If the enum uses all bits of its underlying type, `_FlagsLastPlusOne` overflows.
- It's fragile and non-obvious and easy to get wrong when maintaining the enum.

One natural definition of the builtin would be to return the minimum bitfield width that would not trigger `-Wbitfield-enum-conversion`.

Thoughts on whether this would be useful and what the right spelling/semantics should be?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No implementation files or tests are named. Start by tracing Clang's builtin handling and the -Wbitfield-enum-conversion diagnostic; settle the spelling and compile-time semantics, then add coverage for bitmask and non-bitmask enums.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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