Templates in ANSI C – simple and convenient method for emulating c++ like templates in plain c. Sample project, which demonstrate this technics can be found at github.
So, it is our constraints:
- ANSI C (no templates, inheritance, overloading, default params etc.)
- set of almost the same user-defined structures (the common difference – is types of internal fields)
- set of the functions, which operates on user-defined structures and provide a common interface used in the whole app
The most straightforward way to solve such task is just hard coded all necessary routine by hand:
/* first type - type_int */
typedef struct type_int {
int data;
} type_int;
type_int
make_type_int(int init_val) {
type_int return_value;
return_value.data = init_val;
return return_value;
}
type_int
subtract_type_int (type_int A, type_int B) {
return make_type_int ( A.data - B.data );
}
/*
* and a lot of different functions here
*/
/* second type - type_float */
typedef struct type_float {
float data;
} type_float;
/*
* etc.
*/
This leads to a huge amount of copy-paste and increase chances of errors, especially in case of a large set of functions and vicious habit of the compiler to use implicit type conversion.
But what is most important – such way a bit annoying and leads to impression of bad “smell” of your own code.
So I decided to google around (all helpful link are located at the end of articles) and find out that indeed – the better way for emulating templates in plain C is exist!
Here is my how-to for generating declaration of structures and implementation of methods operating on them, which can be used further in the whole project.
The main trick here is to refresh the basis of C preprocessor and macros.
Firstly, lets define several helpful macros in file my_types.h:
#define CAT(X,Y) X##_##Y #define TYPE_NAME(X,Y) CAT(X,Y)
They will be used to generate names of your structures and methods using simple rule – merge two params, using underscore as delimiter.
Using macros above lets create our simple structure in file my_type_templates.h:
typedef struct TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) {
SUB_TYPE data;
} TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE);
And add declaration and implementation of all necessary functions:
#ifndef INCLUDED_IN_IMPLEMENTATION_FILE
/* if this file is included in any header - just add there definition of interface */
TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE)
TYPE_NAME(make, TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) ) ( SUB_TYPE init_value);
TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE)
TYPE_NAME(subtract, TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) ) ( TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) A, TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) B);
/*
* long list of supported functions
*/
#else
/* if this file is included in implementation file, where defined flag INCLUDED_IN_IMPLEMENTATION_FILE than generate implementaion of functions
*/
/* add implementain make_* functions */
TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE)
TYPE_NAME(make, TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) ) ( SUB_TYPE init_value ) {
TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) return_value;
return_value.data = init_value;
return return_value;
}
/* add implementain subtract_* functions */
TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE)
TYPE_NAME(subtract, TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) ) ( TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) A, TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) B) {
return TYPE_NAME(make, TYPE_NAME(TYPE, SUB_TYPE) ) ( A.data - B.data );
}
#endif
NOTE: you should not use any global ifdefs in file my_type_templates.h, because we have to include it multiple times, for every new custom type. Preprocessor will generate actual struct’s names and appropriate functions for manipulating them.
After that lets specify all types, which should be used in our project in usual header file my_types.h. For every type, which we want to generate – just add define/undef command like this:
#define TYPE type
#define SUB_TYPE int
#include <my_type_templates.h>
#undef TYPE
#undef SUB_TYPE
and add implementation of all functions to a source file – my_types.c – just define flag showing that it is actual implementation and include header file, containing all defined types:
#define INCLUDED_IN_IMPLEMENTATION_FILE #include <my_types.h>
In your project you should use my_types.h header as usual – just include it in all dependent sources. We have used ifdef for implementation part of our template, so header doesn’t contain any functions implementation – therefore there is no ambiguity during linking and all necessary function would be compile only once – during compilation of file my_types.c.
So the final files should looks like following:
my_types.h
#ifndef MY_TYPES #define MY_TYPES #define CAT(X,Y) X##_##Y #define TYPE_NAME(X,Y) CAT(X,Y) #define TYPE type #define SUB_TYPE int #include <my_type_templates.h> #undef SUB_TYPE #define SUB_TYPE float #include <my_type_templates.h> #undef SUB_TYPE #undef TYPE #endif /* MY_TYPES */
my_types.c
/* * Add all includes necessary for you implementations */ #define INCLUDED_IN_IMPLEMENTATION_FILE #include <my_types.h>
That’s it. Using this trick you will achieve compile-time type-checks, decrease amount of boring hand-coded routine and avoid possible errors using another approach, based on void pointers and multiple run-time casts.
Additional resources:
http://arnold.uthar.net/index.php?n=Work.TemplatesC
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1489932/c-preprocessor-and-concatenation
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/351733/can-you-write-object-oriented-code-in-c