How would you write a variadic macro that can take either 1 or 0 arguments. I.e. something like this:
GREET() // returns #"Hello World"
GREET(#"John") // returns #"Hello John"
It's quite simple, you have something like this:
#define __NARGS(unused, _1, _2, _3, _4, _5, VAL, ...) VAL
#define NARGS(...) __NARGS(unused, ## __VA_ARGS__, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0)
#define __GREET(ARGC, ARGS...) GREET_ ## ARGC (ARGS)
#define _GREET(ARGC, ARGS...) __GREET(ARGC, ARGS)
#define GREET(...) _GREET(NARGS(__VA_ARGS__), __VA_ARGS__)
#define GREET_0(...) #"Hello World!"
#define GREET_1(ARG, ...) #"Hello, " ARG // strings are auto-concatenated in objc
int main()
{
NSLog(#"%#", GREET());
NSLog(#"%#", GREET(#"John"));
}
Output:
2012-09-30 11:56:48.478 TestProj[51823:303] Hello World!
2012-09-30 11:56:48.480 TestProj[51823:303] Hello, John
Now, this is quite complex, but assuming you understand at a basic level how the preprocessor works, you should be in a good position to understand what is happening.
I don't know if this would work for objective C, but for C99 and C11 you can use P99 that has a meta macro P99_IF_EMPTY
#define GREET(...) P99_IF_EMPTY(__VA_ARGS__)("Hello World")("Hello " __VA_ARGS__)
A good way to do this is to build a data structure with a repeating element, such as:
union greet_arg {
char *string;
};
struct greet_args {
union greet_arg *arg[2];
};
void greet_function(struct greet_args *x);
Your macro can then be implemented like this:
#define GREET(x...) greet_function(&(struct greet_args){0, x})
Now the reason this works is that if you call GREET("foo") then you get:
greet_function(&(struct greet_args){0, "foo"});
whereas if you call GREET() you get:
greet_function(&(struct greet_args){0, });
which is still valid; the "0" simply null-fills the rest of the array.
Your greet_function() then simply check x->arg[1].
Either a macro has variadic arguments, or it has a fixed number of arguments. To get the desired result, declare 2 macros, one with 0 parameters and one with 1 parameter.
Related
2023 update The last person to edit this Q deleted the critically important "LATEST LATEST UPDATE" part that #zentrunix had added near the top. I'm reinstating it.
LATEST LATEST UPDATE
Please see my answer below.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer and understand this question.
Original question
Say I have my event-driven TCP communications library in C.
From my Raku application, I can call a function in the C library using NativeCall.
my $server = create-server("127.0.0.1", 4000);
Now, from my callback in C (say onAccept) I want to call out to a Raku function in my application (say on-accept(connection) where connection will be a pointer to a C struct).
So, how can I do that: call my Raku function on-accept from my C function onAccept ?
ps. I tried posting using a simple title "How to call Raku code from C code", but for whatever reason stackoverflow.com wouldn't let me do it. Because of that I concocted this fancy title.
I was creating a 32-bit DLL.
We have to explicitly tell CMake to configure a 64-bit build.
cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64" ..
Anyway, now that the code runs, it's not really what I asked for, because the callback is still in C.
It seems that what I asked for it's not really possible.
I tried to use the approach suggested by Haakon, though I'm afraid I don't understand how it would work.
I'm in Windows, and unfortunately, Raku can't find my dlls, even if I put them in C:\Windows\System32. It finds "msvcrt" (C runtime), but not my dlls.
The dll code (Visual Studio 2015).
#include <stdio.h>
#define EXPORTED __declspec(dllexport)
typedef int (*proto)(const char*);
proto raku_callback;
extern EXPORTED void set_callback(proto);
extern EXPORTED void foo(void);
void set_callback(proto arg)
{
printf("In set_callback()..\n");
raku_callback = arg;
}
void foo(void)
{
printf("In foo()..\n");
int res = raku_callback("hello");
printf("Raku return value: %d\n", res);
}
Cmake code for the
CMAKE_MINIMUM_REQUIRED (VERSION 3.1)
add_library (my_c_dll SHARED my_c_dll.c)
Raku code.
use v6.d;
use NativeCall;
sub set_callback(&callback (Str --> int32))
is native("./my_c_dll"){ * }
sub foo()
is native("./my_c_dll"){ * }
sub callback(Str $str --> Int) {
say "Raku callback.. got string: {$str} from C";
return 32;
}
## sub _getch() returns int32 is native("msvcrt") {*};
## print "-> ";
## say "got ", _getch();
set_callback(&callback);
# foo();
When I run
$ raku test-dll.raku
Cannot locate native library '(null)': error 0xc1
in method setup at D:\tools\raku\share\perl6\core\sources
\947BDAB9F96E0E5FCCB383124F923A6BF6F8D76B (NativeCall) line 298
in block set_callback at D:\tools\raku\share\perl6\core\sources
\947BDAB9F96E0E5FCCB383124F923A6BF6F8D76B (NativeCall) line 594
in block <unit> at test-dll.raku line 21
Raku version.
$ raku -v
This is Rakudo version 2020.05.1 built on MoarVM version 2020.05
implementing Raku 6.d.
Another approach could be to save a callback statically in the C library, for example (libmylib.c):
#include <stdio.h>
static int (*raku_callback)(char *arg);
void set_callback(int (*callback)(char * arg)) {
printf("In set_callback()..\n");
raku_callback = callback;
}
void foo() {
printf("In foo()..\n");
int res = raku_callback("hello");
printf("Raku return value: %d\n", res);
}
Then from Raku:
use v6;
use NativeCall;
sub set_callback(&callback (Str --> int32)) is native('./libmylib.so') { * }
sub foo() is native('./libmylib.so') { * }
sub callback(Str $str --> Int) {
say "Raku callback.. got string: {$str} from C";
return 32;
}
set_callback(&callback);
foo();
Output:
In set_callback()..
In foo()..
Raku callback.. got string: hello from C
Raku return value: 32
Raku is a compiled language; depending on the implementation you've got, it will be compiled to MoarVM, JVM or Javascript. Through compilation, Raku code becomes bytecode in the corresponding virtual machine. So it's never, actually, binary code.
However, Raku code seems to be cleverly organized in a way that an object is actually a pointer to a C endpoint, as proved by Haakon Hagland answer.
WRT to your latest problem, please bear in mind that what you are calling is not a path, but a name that is converted to a navive shared library name and also uses local library path conventions to look for them (it's `PATH' on Windows). So if it's not finding it, add local path to it of simply copy the DLL to one of the searched directories.
First of all, my apologies to #Håkon and #raiph.
Sorry for being so obtuse. :)
Håkon's answer does indeed answer my question, although for whatever reason I have failed to see that until now.
Now the code I played with in order to understand Håkon's solution.
// my_c_dll.c
// be sure to create a 64-bit dll
#include <stdio.h>
#define EXPORTED __declspec(dllexport)
typedef int (*proto)(const char*);
proto raku_function;
extern EXPORTED void install_raku_function(proto);
extern EXPORTED void start_c_processing(void);
void install_raku_function(proto arg)
{
printf("installing raku function\n");
raku_function = arg;
}
void start_c_processing(void)
{
printf("* ----> starting C processing..\n");
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
printf("* %d calling raku function\n", i);
int res = raku_function("hello");
printf("* %d raku function returned: %d\n", i, res);
Sleep(1000);
}
}
# test-dll.raku
use v6.d;
use NativeCall;
sub install_raku_function(&raku_function (Str --> int32))
is native("./my_c_dll.dll") { * }
sub start_c_processing()
is native("./my_c_dll.dll") { * }
sub my_raku_function(Str $str --> Int)
{
say "# raku function called from C with parameter [{$str}]";
return 32;
}
install_raku_function &my_raku_function;
start { start_c_processing; }
for ^1000 -> $i
{
say "# $i idling in raku";
sleep 1;
}
$ raku test-dll.raku
installing raku function
# 0 idling in raku
* ----> starting C processing..
* 0 calling raku function
# 0 raku function called from C with parameter [hello]
* 0 raku function returned: 32
# 1 idling in raku
* 1 calling raku function
# 1 raku function called from C with parameter [hello]
* 1 raku function returned: 32
# 2 idling in raku
* 2 calling raku function
# 2 raku function called from C with parameter [hello]
* 2 raku function returned: 32
# 3 idling in raku
* 3 calling raku function
# 3 raku function called from C with parameter [hello]
* 3 raku function returned: 32
# 4 idling in raku
* 4 calling raku function
# 4 raku function called from C with parameter [hello]
* 4 raku function returned: 32
# 5 idling in raku
* 5 calling raku function
# 5 raku function called from C with parameter [hello]
* 5 raku function returned: 32
^CTerminate batch job (Y/N)?
^C
What amazes me is that the Raku signature for my_raku_function maps cleanly to the C signature ... isn't Raku wonderful ? :)
In my code i have a lot of code like:
if (block) block(....)
So I want to define a macro, something like
#define safetyCall(block, ...) if((block)) {block(##__VA_ARGS__)};
But i couldn't get it to work. Any idea?
You don't need the ## and the ; needs moving:
#define safetyCall(block, ...) if((block)) { block(__VA_ARGS__); }
This can run into issues if your block is inline and contains code that has a series of comma separated strings, etc.
Example:
safetyCall(^void() {
NSArray *foo = #[#"alice", "bob"];
};
The compiler will complain about "Expected ']' or '.'" and "Expected identifier or '('".
However, if you were to declare the inline block as a separate block before the macro, it will not generate an error.
Example:
void (^fooBlock)(void) = ^void() {
NSArray *foo = #[#"alice", #"bob"];
}
safetyCall(fooBlock);
I'd like a step by step explanation on how to parse the arguments of a variadic function
so that when calling va_arg(ap, TYPE); I pass the correct data TYPE of the argument being passed.
Currently I'm trying to code printf.
I am only looking for an explanation preferably with simple examples but not the solution to printf since I want to solve it myself.
Here are three examples which look like what I am looking for:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/1689228/3206885
https://stackoverflow.com/a/5551632/3206885
https://stackoverflow.com/a/1722238/3206885
I know the basics of what typedef, struct, enum and union do but can't figure out some practical application cases like the examples in the links.
What do they really mean? I can't wrap my brain around how they work.
How can I pass the data type from a union to va_arg like in the links examples? How does it match?
with a modifier like %d, %i ... or the data type of a parameter?
Here's what I've got so far:
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "my.h"
typedef struct s_flist
{
char c;
(*f)();
} t_flist;
int my_printf(char *format, ...)
{
va_list ap;
int i;
int j;
int result;
int arg_count;
char *cur_arg = format;
char *types;
t_flist flist[] =
{
{ 's', &my_putstr },
{ 'i', &my_put_nbr },
{ 'd', &my_put_nbr }
};
i = 0;
result = 0;
types = (char*)malloc( sizeof(*format) * (my_strlen(format) / 2 + 1) );
fparser(types, format);
arg_count = my_strlen(types);
while (format[i])
{
if (format[i] == '%' && format[i + 1])
{
i++;
if (format[i] == '%')
result += my_putchar(format[i]);
else
{
j = 0;
va_start(ap, format);
while (flist[j].c)
{
if (format[i] == flist[j].c)
result += flist[i].f(va_arg(ap, flist[i].DATA_TYPE??));
j++;
}
}
}
result += my_putchar(format[i]);
i++;
}
va_end(ap);
return (result);
}
char *fparser(char *types, char *str)
{
int i;
int j;
i = 0;
j = 0;
while (str[i])
{
if (str[i] == '%' && str[i + 1] &&
str[i + 1] != '%' && str[i + 1] != ' ')
{
i++;
types[j] = str[i];
j++;
}
i++;
}
types[j] = '\0';
return (types);
}
You can't get actual type information from va_list. You can get what you're looking for from format. What it seems you're not expecting is: none of the arguments know what the actual types are, but format represents the caller's idea of what the types should be. (Perhaps a further hint: what would the actual printf do if a caller gave it format specifiers that didn't match the varargs passed in? Would it notice?)
Your code would have to parse the format string for "%" format specifiers, and use those specifiers to branch into reading the va_list with specific hardcoded types. For example, (pseudocode) if (fspec was "%s") { char* str = va_arg(ap, char*); print out str; }. Not giving more detail because you explicitly said you didn't want a complete solution.
You will never have a type as a piece of runtime data that you can pass to va_arg as a value. The second argument to va_arg must be a literal, hardcoded specification referring to a known type at compile time. (Note that va_arg is a macro that gets expanded at compile time, not a function that gets executed at runtime - you couldn't have a function taking a type as an argument.)
A couple of your links suggest keeping track of types via an enum, but this is only for the benefit of your own code being able to branch based on that information; it is still not something that can be passed to va_arg. You have to have separate pieces of code saying literally va_arg(ap, int) and va_arg(ap, char*) so there's no way to avoid a switch or a chain of ifs.
The solution you want to make, using the unions and structs, would start from something like this:
typedef union {
int i;
char *s;
} PRINTABLE_THING;
int print_integer(PRINTABLE_THING pt) {
// format and print pt.i
}
int print_string(PRINTABLE_THING pt) {
// format and print pt.s
}
The two specialized functions would work fine on their own by taking explicit int or char* params; the reason we make the union is to enable the functions to formally take the same type of parameter, so that they have the same signature, so that we can define a single type that means pointer to that kind of function:
typedef int (*print_printable_thing)(PRINTABLE_THING);
Now your code can have an array of function pointers of type print_printable_thing, or an array of structs that have print_printable_thing as one of the structs' fields:
typedef struct {
char format_char;
print_printable_thing printing_function;
} FORMAT_CHAR_AND_PRINTING_FUNCTION_PAIRING;
FORMAT_CHAR_AND_PRINTING_FUNCTION_PAIRING formatters[] = {
{ 'd', print_integer },
{ 's', print_string }
};
int formatter_count = sizeof(formatters) / sizeof(FORMAT_CHAR_AND_PRINTING_FUNCTION_PAIRING);
(Yes, the names are all intentionally super verbose. You'd probably want shorter ones in the real program, or even anonymous types where appropriate.)
Now you can use that array to select the correct formatter at runtime:
for (int i = 0; i < formatter_count; i++)
if (current_format_char == formatters[i].format_char)
result += formatters[i].printing_function(current_printable_thing);
But the process of getting the correct thing into current_printable_thing is still going to involve branching to get to a va_arg(ap, ...) with the correct hardcoded type. Once you've written it, you may find yourself deciding that you didn't actually need the union nor the array of structs.
In my code i have a lot of code like:
if (block) block(....)
So I want to define a macro, something like
#define safetyCall(block, ...) if((block)) {block(##__VA_ARGS__)};
But i couldn't get it to work. Any idea?
You don't need the ## and the ; needs moving:
#define safetyCall(block, ...) if((block)) { block(__VA_ARGS__); }
This can run into issues if your block is inline and contains code that has a series of comma separated strings, etc.
Example:
safetyCall(^void() {
NSArray *foo = #[#"alice", "bob"];
};
The compiler will complain about "Expected ']' or '.'" and "Expected identifier or '('".
However, if you were to declare the inline block as a separate block before the macro, it will not generate an error.
Example:
void (^fooBlock)(void) = ^void() {
NSArray *foo = #[#"alice", #"bob"];
}
safetyCall(fooBlock);
I'm looking at some open source projects and I'm seeing the following:
NSLog(#"%s w=%f, h=%f", #size, size.width, size.height)
What exactly is the meaning of '#' right before the size symbol? Is that some kind of prefix for C strings?
To elaborate on dirkgently's answer, this looks like the implementation of a macro that takes an NSSize (or similar) argument, and prints the name of the variable (which is what the # is doing; converting the name of the variable to a string containing the name of the variable) and then its values. So in:
NSSize fooSize = NSMakeSize(2, 3);
MACRO_NAME_HERE(fooSize);
the macro would expand to:
NSLog(#"%s w=%f h=%f", "fooSize", fooSize.width, fooSize.height);
and print:
fooSize w=2.0 h=3.0
(similar to NSStringFromSize, but with the variable name)
The official name of # is the stringizing operator. It takes its argument and surrounds it in quotes to make a C string constant, escaping any embedded quotes or backslashes as necessary. It is only allowed inside the definition of a macro -- it is not allowed in regular code. For example:
// This is not legal C
const char *str = #test
// This is ok
#define STRINGIZE(x) #x
const char *str1 = STRINGIZE(test); // equivalent to str1 = "test";
const char *str2 = STRINGIZE(test2"a\""); // equivalent to str2 = "test2\"a\\\"";
A related preprocessor operator is the token-pasting operator ##. It takes two tokens and pastes them together to get one token. Like the stringizing operator, it is only allowed in macro definitions, not in regular code.
// This is not legal C
int foobar = 3;
int x = foo ## bar;
// This is ok
#define TOKENPASTE(x, y) x ## y
int foobar = 3;
int x = TOKENPASTE(foo, bar); // equivalent to x = foobar;
Is this the body of a macro definition? Then the # could be used to stringize the following identifier i.e. to print "string" (without the codes).