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x86 Assembly: Calling Conventions - cdecl versus stdcall

Use Visual C++ Express Edition 2005 for MASM development.

__cdecl is the default calling convention for C/C++ programs because it allows for variable argument functions, such as printf(). __cdecl creates larger executables because the calling code must clean up the stack whereas with the __stdcall (standard-call) calling convention, the stack is cleaned up inside the routine being called.

A __cdecl procedure:

TITLE 'extern "C" int __cdecl subtract_cdecl(int a, int b);'
.386P
.model FLAT
PUBLIC	_subtract_cdecl
_TEXT	SEGMENT
_subtract_cdecl PROC NEAR

	mov	eax, DWORD PTR [esp+4]	; move a to eax
	sub	eax, DWORD PTR [esp+8]	; subtract b from eax

	ret	0
_subtract_cdecl ENDP
_TEXT	ENDS
END

A __stdcall procedure:

TITLE 'extern "C" int __stdcall subtract_stdcall(int a, int b);'
.386P
.model FLAT
PUBLIC	_subtract_stdcall@8
_TEXT	SEGMENT
_subtract_stdcall@8 PROC NEAR

	mov	eax, DWORD PTR [esp+4]	; move a to eax
	sub	eax, DWORD PTR [esp+8]	; subtract b from eax

	ret	8
_subtract_stdcall@8 ENDP
_TEXT	ENDS
END

An example of calling both __cdecl and __stdcall conventions:

TITLE 'main procedure'
.386P
.model FLAT
PUBLIC	_main
EXTRN	_subtract_cdecl:NEAR
EXTRN	_subtract_stdcall@8:NEAR
_TEXT	SEGMENT
_main	PROC NEAR



; subtract_cdecl(2, 3)

	push	3
	push	2
	call	_subtract_cdecl
	add	esp, 8              ; MUST CLEAN UP THE STACK AFTER EVERY __cdecl CALLING



; subtract_stdcall(20, 30)

	push	30
	push	20
	call	_subtract_stdcall@8



; return 0;

	xor	eax, eax

	ret	0
_main	ENDP
_TEXT	ENDS
END

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