SDL_AtomicInt(3type)

📦
version 3.4.18 · 9 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44

💖 SDL_AtomicInt 💖

okay bestie, so this one lives in the SDL3 DATATYPES section of the manual, and it's literally called SDL_AtomicInt — a whole type for an atomic integer value. yes. an integer. but make it safe. iykyk.

✨ NAME ✨

SDL_AtomicInt — a type representing an atomic integer value. that's it, that's the girl. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <SDL3/SDL_atomic.h>

typedef struct SDL_AtomicInt { int value; } SDL_AtomicInt;

look at her. one field. int value. tiny. powerful. main character energy. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the vibe: this thing manages a value that stays synchronized across multiple CPUs without a race condition happening. the way it works is — when an app sets a value with SDL_SetAtomicInt, all other threads, no matter which CPU they're running on, will see that value when they retrieve it with SDL_GetAtomicInt. regardless of CPU caches, etc. no cap. 🫶

it's also lowkey perfect for atomic compare-and-swap operations: a thread can change the value as long as its current value matches expectations. and when you do that in a loop, you can guarantee data consistency across threads without a lock. slay.

okay but the usual warnings apply, and i need you to hear me: if you don't know what you're doing, or you don't do it carefully, you can confidently cause any number of disasters with this. so in most cases, you should use a mutex instead of this! 🚨😭

also — and this is the cute part — it's a struct on purpose, so people don't accidentally do numeric operations on it directly. you have to use the SDL atomic functions. no shortcuts, no funny business. 🎀

👑 AVAILABILITY 👑

this struct is available since SDL 3.2.0. she's not ancient, she's not brand new. she's established. periodt. ⭐

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

go read those next bestie, they're the whole friend group 🌈

and that's the page!! brought to you by Simple Directmedia Layer, version SDL 3.4.18, dated SDL_AtomicInt(3type) — yeah that's the same name as the page, the footer just does that, it's a whole thing 💜 bye ily, go use a mutex 🫶💖

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