buffer.distance

← buffer dialect

Return lhs_offset minus rhs_offset as a signed byte distance. Both positions must derive from the same buffer byte origin, proven before target lowering; otherwise compilation fails. Sharing an allocation without a common byte origin is insufficient. Nonnull positions must be live and in bounds or one-past. Two null positions at offset zero have distance zero. Offset values lie in [0, INT64_MAX], so their signed difference fits i64 and must also fit the signed result type. No address or payload bytes are observed.

Operation contract

Property	Value
Semantic phase	source structure
Traits	Pure
Ownership effects	borrow lhs (by_value), borrow rhs (by_value)

Signature

Kind	Name	Type	Cardinality	Description
Operand	lhs	buffer	required	Left storage root.
Operand	lhs_offset	offset	required	Left root-relative byte position.
Operand	rhs	buffer	required	Right storage root.
Operand	rhs_offset	offset	required	Right root-relative byte position.
Result	result	integer	required	Signed left-minus-right byte distance.

Examples

%bytes = buffer.distance %buffer[%end], %buffer[%begin] : i64