Type System

Strong Typing

One of the main characteristics of Ada is its strong typing (i.e., relative absence of implicit type conversions). This may take some getting used to. For example, you can't divide an integer by a float. You need to perform the division operation using values of the same type, so one value must be explicitly converted to match the type of the other (in this case the more likely conversion is from integer to float). Ada is designed to guarantee that what's done by the program is what's meant by the programmer, leaving as little room for compiler interpretation as possible. Let's have a look at the following example:

[Ada]

procedure Strong_Typing is
   Alpha  : Integer := 1;
   Beta   : Integer := 10;
   Result : Float;
begin
   Result := Float (Alpha) / Float (Beta);
end Strong_Typing;

[C++]

void weakTyping () {
   int   alpha = 1;
   int   beta = 10;
   float result;

   result = alpha / beta;
}

[Java]

void weakTyping () {
   int   alpha = 1;
   int   beta = 10;
   float result;

   result = alpha / beta;
}

Are the three programs above equivalent? It may seem like Ada is just adding extra complexity by forcing you to make the conversion from Integer to Float explicit. In fact it significantly changes the behavior of the computation. While the Ada code performs a floating point operation 1.0 / 10.0 and stores 0.1 in Result, the C++ and Java versions instead store 0.0 in result. This is because the C++ and Java versions perform an integer operation between two integer variables: 1 / 10 is 0. The result of the integer division is then converted to a float and stored. Errors of this sort can be very hard to locate in complex pieces of code, and systematic specification of how the operation should be interpreted helps to avoid this class of errors. If an integer division was actually intended in the Ada case, it is still necessary to explicitly convert the final result to Float:

-- Perform an Integer division then convert to Float
Result := Float (Alpha / Beta);

In Ada, a floating point literal must be written with both an integral and decimal part. 10 is not a valid literal for a floating point value, while 10.0 is.

Language-Defined Types

The principal scalar types predefined by Ada are Integer, Float, Boolean, and Character. These correspond to int, float, bool/boolean, and char, respectively. The names for these types are not reserved words; they are regular identifiers.

Application-Defined Types

Ada's type system encourages programmers to think about data at a high level of abstraction. The compiler will at times output a simple efficient machine instruction for a full line of source code (and some instructions can be eliminated entirely). The careful programmer's concern that the operation really makes sense in the real world would be satisfied, and so would the programmer's concern about performance.

The next example below defines two different metrics: area and distance. Mixing these two metrics must be done with great care, as certain operations do not make sense, like adding an area to a distance. Others require knowledge of the expected semantics; for example, multiplying two distances. To help avoid errors, Ada requires that each of the binary operators +, -, *, and / for integer and floating-point types take operands of the same type and return a value of that type.

procedure Main is
   type Distance is new Float;
   type Area is new Float;

   D1 : Distance := 2.0;
   D2 : Distance := 3.0;
   A  : Area;
begin
   D1 := D1 + D2;        -- OK
   D1 := D1 + A;         -- NOT OK: incompatible types for "+" operator
   A  := D1 * D2;        -- NOT OK: incompatible types for ":=" assignment
   A  := Area (D1 * D2); -- OK
end Main;

Even though the Distance and Area types above are just Floats, the compiler does not allow arbitrary mixing of values of these different types. An explicit conversion (which does not necessarily mean any additional object code) is necessary.

The predefined Ada rules are not perfect; they admit some problematic cases (for example multiplying two Distances yields a Distance) and prohibit some useful cases (for example multiplying two Distances should deliver an Area). These situations can be handled through other mechanisms. A predefined operation can be identified as abstract to make it unavailable; overloading can be used to give new interpretations to existing operator symbols, for example allowing an operator to return a value from a type different from its operands; and more generally, GNAT has introduced a facility that helps perform dimensionality checking.

Ada enumerations work similarly to C++ and Java's enums.

[Ada]

type Day is
  (Monday,
   Tuesday,
   Wednesday,
   Thursday,
   Friday,
   Saturday,
   Sunday);

[C++]

enum Day {
   Monday,
   Tuesday,
   Wednesday,
   Thursday,
   Friday,
   Saturday,
   Sunday};

[Java]

enum Day {
   Monday,
   Tuesday,
   Wednesday,
   Thursday,
   Friday,
   Saturday,
   Sunday}

But even though such enumerations may be implemented using a machine word, at the language level Ada will not confuse the fact that Monday is a Day and is not an Integer. You can compare a Day with another Day, though. To specify implementation details like the numeric values that correspond with enumeration values in C++ you include them in the original enum statement:

[C++]

enum Day {
   Monday    = 10,
   Tuesday   = 11,
   Wednesday = 12,
   Thursday  = 13,
   Friday    = 14,
   Saturday  = 15,
   Sunday    = 16};

But in Ada you must use both a type definition for Day as well as a separate representation clause for it like:

[Ada]

for Day use
  (Monday    => 10,
   Tuesday   => 11,
   Wednesday => 12,
   Thursday  => 13,
   Friday    => 14,
   Saturday  => 15,
   Sunday    => 16);

Type Ranges

Contracts can be associated with types and variables, to refine values and define what are considered valid values. The most common kind of contract is a range constraint introduced with the range reserved word, for example:

procedure Main is
   type Grade is range 0 .. 100;

   G1, G2  : Grade;
   N       : Integer;
begin
   ...                -- Initialization of N
   G1 := 80;          -- OK
   G1 := N;           -- Illegal (type mismatch)
   G1 := Grade (N);   -- Legal, run-time range check
   G2 := G1 + 10;     -- Legal, run-time range check
   G1 := (G1 + G2)/2; -- Legal, run-time range check
end Main;

In the above example, Grade is a new integer type associated with a range check. Range checks are dynamic and are meant to enforce the property that no object of the given type can have a value outside the specified range. In this example, the first assignment to G1 is correct and will not raise a run-time exceprion. Assigning N to G1 is illegal since Grade is a different type than Integer. Converting N to Grade makes the assignment legal, and a range check on the conversion confirms that the value is within 0 .. 100. Assigning G1+10 to G2 is legal since + for Grade returns a Grade (note that the literal 10 is interpreted as a Grade value in this context), and again there is a range check.

The final assignment illustrates an interesting but subtle point. The subexpression G1 + G2 may be outside the range of Grade, but the final result will be in range. Nevertheless, depending on the representation chosen for Grade, the addition may overflow. If the compiler represents Grade values as signed 8-bit integers (i.e., machine numbers in the range -128 .. 127) then the sum G1+G2 may exceed 127, resulting in an integer overflow. To prevent this, you can use explicit conversions and perform the computation in a sufficiently large integer type, for example:

G1 := Grade ((Integer (G1) + Integer (G2)) / 2);

Range checks are useful for detecting errors as early as possible. However, there may be some impact on performance. Modern compilers do know how to remove redundant checks, and you can deactivate these checks altogether if you have sufficient confidence that your code will function correctly.

Types can be derived from the representation of any other type. The new derived type can be associated with new constraints and operations. Going back to the Day example, one can write:

type Business_Day is new Day range Monday .. Friday;
type Weekend_Day is new Day range Saturday .. Sunday;

Since these are new types, implicit conversions are not allowed. In this case, it's more natural to create a new set of constraints for the same type, instead of making completely new ones. This is the idea behind subtypes in Ada. A subtype is a type with optional additional constraints. For example:

subtype Business_Day is Day range Monday .. Friday;
subtype Weekend_Day is Day range Saturday .. Sunday;
subtype Dice_Throw is Integer range 1 .. 6;

These declarations don't create new types, just new names for constrained ranges of their base types.

Generalized Type Contracts: Subtype Predicates

Range checks are a special form of type contracts; a more general method is provided by Ada subtype predicates, introduced in Ada 2012. A subtype predicate is a boolean expression defining conditions that are required for a given type or subtype. For example, the Dice_Throw subtype shown above can be defined in the following way:

subtype Dice_Throw is Integer
   with Dynamic_Predicate => Dice_Throw in 1 .. 6;

The clause beginning with with introduces an Ada aspect, which is additional information provided for declared entities such as types and subtypes. The Dynamic_Predicate aspect is the most general form. Within the predicate expression, the name of the (sub)type refers to the current value of the (sub)type. The predicate is checked on assignment, parameter passing, and in several other contexts. There is a Static_Predicate form which introduce some optimization and constrains on the form of these predicates, outside of the scope of this document.

Of course, predicates are useful beyond just expressing ranges. They can be used to represent types with arbitrary constraints, in particular types with discontinuities, for example:

type Not_Null is new Integer
   with Dynamic_Predicate => Not_Null /= 0;

type Even is new Integer
   with Dynamic_Predicate => Even mod 2 = 0;

Attributes

Attributes start with a single apostrophe ("tick"), and they allow you to query properties of, and perform certain actions on, declared entities such as types, objects, and subprograms. For example, you can determine the first and last bounds of scalar types, get the sizes of objects and types, and convert values to and from strings. This section provides an overview of how attributes work. For more information on the many attributes defined by the language, you can refer directly to the Ada Language Reference Manual.

The 'Image and 'Value attributes allow you to transform a scalar value into a String and vice-versa. For example:

declare
   A : Integer := 99;
begin
   Put_Line (Integer'Image (A));
   A := Integer'Value ("99");
end;

Certain attributes are provided only for certain kinds of types. For example, the 'Val and 'Pos attributes for an enumeration type associates a discrete value with its position among its peers. One circuitous way of moving to the next character of the ASCII table is:

[Ada]

declare
   C : Character := 'a';
begin
   C := Character'Val (Character'Pos (C) + 1);
end;

A more concise way to get the next value in Ada is to use the 'Succ attribute:

declare
   C : Character := 'a';
begin
   C := Character'Succ (C);
end;

You can get the previous value using the 'Pred attribute. Here is the equivalent in C++ and Java:

[C++]

char c = 'a';
c++;

[Java]

char c = 'a';
c++;

Other interesting examples are the 'First and 'Last attributes which, respectively, return the first and last values of a scalar type. Using 32-bit integers, for instance, Integer'First returns -2³¹ and Integer'Last returns 2³¹ - 1.

Arrays and Strings

C++ arrays are pointers with offsets, but the same is not the case for Ada and Java. Arrays in the latter two languages are not interchangable with operations on pointers, and array types are considered first-class citizens. Arrays in Ada have dedicated semantics such as the availability of the array's boundaries at run-time. Therefore, unhandled array overflows are impossible unless checks are suppressed. Any discrete type can serve as an array index, and you can specify both the starting and ending bounds — the lower bound doesn't necessarily have to be 0. Most of the time, array types need to be explicitly declared prior to the declaration of an object of that array type.

Here's an example of declaring an array of 26 characters, initializing the values from 'a' to 'z':

[Ada]

declare
   type Arr_Type is array (Integer range <>) of Character;
   Arr : Arr_Type (1 .. 26);
   C : Character := 'a';
begin
   for I in Arr'Range loop
      Arr (I) := C;
      C := Character'Succ (C);
   end loop;
end;

[C++]

char Arr [26];
char C = 'a';

for (int I = 0; I < 26; ++I) {
   Arr [I] = C;
   C = C + 1;
}

[Java]

char [] Arr = new char [26];
char C = 'a';

for (int I = 0; I < Arr.length; ++I) {
   Arr [I] = C;
   C = C + 1;
}

In C++ and Java, only the size of the array is given during declaration. In Ada, array index ranges are specified using two values of a discrete type. In this example, the array type declaration specifies the use of Integer as the index type, but does not provide any constraints (use <>, pronounced box, to specify "no constraints"). The constraints are defined in the object declaration to be 1 to 26, inclusive. Arrays have an attribute called 'Range. In our example, Arr'Range can also be expressed as Arr'First .. Arr'Last; both expressions will resolve to 1 .. 26. So the 'Range attribute supplies the bounds for our for loop. There is no risk of stating either of the bounds incorrectly, as one might do in C++ where I <= 26 may be specified as the end-of-loop condition.

As in C++, Ada Strings are arrays of Characters. The C++ or Java String class is the equivalent of the Ada type Ada.Strings.Unbounded_String which offers additional capabilities in exchange for some overhead. Ada strings, importantly, are not delimited with the special character '\0' like they are in C++. It is not necessary because Ada uses the array's bounds to determine where the string starts and stops.

Ada's predefined String type is very straighforward to use:

My_String : String (1 .. 26);

Unlike C++ and Java, Ada does not offer escape sequences such as '\n'. Instead, explicit values from the ASCII package must be concatenated (via the concatenation operator, &). Here for example, is how to initialize a line of text ending with a new line:

My_String : String := "This is a line with a end of line" & ASCII.LF;

You see here that no constraints are necessary for this variable definition. The initial value given allows the automatic determination of My_String's bounds.

Ada offers high-level operations for copying, slicing, and assigning values to arrays. We'll start with assignment. In C++ or Java, the assignment operator doesn't make a copy of the value of an array, but only copies the address or reference to the target variable. In Ada, the actual array contents are duplicated. To get the above behavior, actual pointer types would have to be defined and used.

[Ada]

declare
   type Arr_Type is array (Integer range <>) of Integer;
   A1 : Arr_Type (1 .. 2);
   A2 : Arr_Type (1 .. 2);
begin
   A1 (1) := 0;
   A1 (2) := 1;

   A2 := A1;
end;

[C++]

int A1 [2];
int A2 [2];

A1 [0] = 0;
A1 [1] = 1;

for (int i = 0; i < 2; ++i) {
   A2 [i] = A1 [i];
}

[Java]

int [] A1 = new int [2];
int [] A2 = new int [2];

A1 [0] = 0;
A1 [1] = 1;

A2 = Arrays.copyOf(A1, A1.length);

In all of the examples above, the source and destination arrays must have precisely the same number of elements. Ada allows you to easily specify a portion, or slice, of an array. So you can write the following:

[Ada]

declare
   type Arr_Type is array (Integer range <>) of Integer;
   A1 : Arr_Type (1 .. 10);
   A2 : Arr_Type (1 .. 5);
begin
   A2 (1 .. 3) := A1 (4 .. 6);
end;

This assigns the 4th, 5th, and 6th elements of A1 into the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd elements of A2. Note that only the length matters here: the values of the indexes don't have to be equal; they slide automatically.

Ada also offers high level comparison operations which compare the contents of arrays as opposed to their addresses:

[Ada]

declare
   type Arr_Type is array (Integer range <>) of Integer;
   A1 : Arr_Type (1 .. 2);
   A2 : Arr_Type (1 .. 2);
begin
   if A1 = A2 then

[C++]

int A1 [2];
int A2 [2];

bool eq = true;

for (int i = 0; i < 2; ++i) {
   if (A1 [i] != A2 [i]) {
      eq = false;
   }
}

if (eq) {

[Java]

int [] A1 = new int [2];
int [] A2 = new int [2];

if (Arrays.equals (A1, A2)) {

You can assign to all the elements of an array in each language in different ways. In Ada, the number of elements to assign can be determined by looking at the right-hand side, the left-hand side, or both sides of the assignment. When bounds are known on the left-hand side, it's possible to use the others expression to define a default value for all the unspecified array elements. Therefore, you can write:

declare
   type Arr_Type is array (Integer range <>) of Integer;
   A1 : Arr_Type := (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9);
   A2 : Arr_Type (-2 .. 42) := (others => 0);
begin
   A1 := (1, 2, 3, others => 10);

   -- use a slice to assign A2 elements 11 .. 19 to 1
   A2 (11 .. 19) := (others => 1);
end;

Heterogeneous Data Structures

In Ada, there's no distinction between struct and class as there is in C++. All heterogeneous data structures are records. Here are some simple records:

[Ada]

declare
   type R is record
      A, B : Integer;
      C    : Float;
   end record;

   V : R;
begin
   V.A := 0;
end;

[C++]

struct R {
   int A, B;
   float C;
};

R V;
V.A = 0;

[Java]

class R {
   public int A, B;
   public float C;
}

R V = new R ();
V.A = 0;

Ada allows specification of default values for fields just like C++ and Java. The values specified can take the form of an ordered list of values, a named list of values, or an incomplete list followed by others => <> to specify that fields not listed will take their default values. For example:

type R is record
   A, B : Integer := 0;
   C    : Float := 0.0;
end record;

V1 : R := (1, 2, 1.0);
V2 : R := (A => 1, B => 2, C => 1.0);
V3 : R := (C => 1.0, A => 1, B => 2);
V4 : R := (C => 1.0, others => <>);

Pointers

Pointers, references, and access types differ in significant ways across the languages that we are examining. In C++, pointers are integral to a basic understanding of the language, from array manipulation to proper declaration and use of function parameters. In Java, direct pointer manipulation is abstracted by the Java runtime. And in Ada, direct pointer manipulation is possible, but unlike C++, they are not required for basic usage with arrays and parameter passing.

We'll continue this section by explaining the difference between objects allocated on the stack and objects allocated on the heap using the following example:

[Ada]

declare
   type R is record
      A, B : Integer;
   end record;

   V1, V2 : R;
begin
   V1.A := 0;
   V2 := V1;
   V2.A := 1;
end;

[C++]

struct R {
   int A, B;
};

R V1, V2;
V1.A = 0;
V2 = V1;
V2.A = 1;

[Java]

public class R {
   public int A, B;
}

R V1, V2;
V1 = new R ();
V1.A = 0;
V2 = V1;
V2.A = 1;

There's a fundamental difference between the Ada and C++ semantics above and the semantics for Java. In Ada and C++, objects are allocated on the stack and are directly accessed. V1 and V2 are two different objects and the assignment statement copies the value of V1 into V2. In Java, V1 and V2 are two references to objects of class R. Note that when V1 and V2 are declared, no actual object of class R yet exists in memory: it has to be allocated later with the new allocator operator. After the assignment V2 = V1, there's only one R object in memory: the assignment is a reference assignment, not a value assignment. At the end of the Java code, V1 and V2 are two references to the same objects and the V2.A = 1 statement changes the field of that one object, while in the Ada and the C++ case V1 and V2 are two distinct objects.

To obtain similar behavior in Ada, you can use pointers. It can be done through Ada's access type:

[Ada]

declare
   type R is record
      A, B : Integer;
   end record;
   type R_Access is access R;

   V1 : R_Access;
   V2 : R_Access;
begin
   V1 := new R;
   V1.A := 0;
   V2 := V1;
   V2.A := 1;
end;

[C++]

struct R {
   int A, B;
};

R * V1, * V2;
V1 = new R ();
V1->A = 0;
V2 = V1;
V2->A = 0;

For those coming from the Java world: there's no garbage collector in Ada, so objects allocated by the new operator need to be expressly freed.

Dereferencing is performed automatically in certain situations, for instance when it is clear that the type required is the dereferenced object rather than the pointer itself, or when accessing record members via a pointer. To explicitly dereference an access variable, append .all. The equivalent of V1->A in C++ can be written either as V1.A or V1.all.A.

Pointers to scalar objects in Ada and C++ look like:

[Ada]

procedure Main is
   type A_Int is access Integer;
   Var : A_Int := new Integer;
begin
   Var.all := 0;
end Main;

[C++]

int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
  int * Var = new int;
  *Var = 0;
}

An initializer can be specified with the allocation by appending '(value):

Var : A_Int := new Integer'(0);

When using Ada pointers to reference objects on the stack, the referenced objects must be declared as being aliased. This directs the compiler to implement the object using a memory region, rather than using registers or eliminating it entirely via optimization. The access type needs to be declared as either access all (if the referenced object needs to be assigned to) or access constant (if the referenced object is a constant). The 'Access attribute works like the C++ & operator to get a pointer to the object, but with a "scope accessibility" check to prevent references to objects that have gone out of scope. For example:

[Ada]

type A_Int is access all Integer;
Var : aliased Integer;
Ptr : A_Int := Var'Access;

[C++]

int Var;
int * Ptr = &Var;

To deallocate objects from the heap in Ada, it is necessary to use a deallocation subprogram that accepts a specific access type. A generic procedure is provided that can be customized to fit your needs — it's called Ada.Unchecked_Deallocation. To create your customized deallocator (that is, to instantiate this generic), you must provide the object type as well as the access type as follows:

[Ada]

with Ada.Unchecked_Deallocation;
procedure Main is
   type Integer_Access is access all Integer;
   procedure Free is new Ada.Unchecked_Deallocation (Integer, Integer_Access);
   My_Pointer : Integer_Access := new Integer;
begin
   Free (My_Pointer);
end Main;

[C++]

int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
  int * my_pointer = new int;
  delete my_pointer;
}