Dynamic method of calling structures in C - c

Question

I have a project which involves writing a C program for some software used by my company. I want it to be as efficient as possible, but the way the software references the signals I'm working with is a little wonky. I'm working with 4 sets of 96 signals; these signals are grouped into 32 groups with 3 members each. Rather than generic functions to work with these signals (the generic functions exist, but there's no documentation on how they work), the auto-generated header file has defined a group of macros (I think) for each of these groups.
Each of the groups are defined as follows...
typedef struct {
//struct members
} AB_A_Group_A_Network
Each of those structures have a group of macros(?) defined like this...
void AB_A_Group_ZF_Network_Init(AB_A_Group_A_Network *pAbc)
{
double values[6]
...
pAbc->Member_1 = values[3] //array positions vary
pAbc->Member_2 = values[4]
pAbc->Member_3 = values[5]
}
The software's tech support suggested I do the following, but I was hoping there'd be a better way to do it. Of course this is a long method, but I can write it with a python script no problem, if need be. These 250+ lines of code will run every second in my application for each data set.
AB_A_Group_A_Network GroupA;
AB_A_Group_B_Network GroupB;
//...and so on
AB_A_Group_ZF_Network GroupZF;
AB_A_Group_A_Network_Init(&GroupA);
AB_A_Group_B_Network_Init(&GroupB);
//...and so on
AB_A_Group_ZF_Network_Init(&GroupZF);
CD_Array_Set(0,GroupA.Member_1); //a custom array function meant to interface with the software
CD_Array_Set(1,GroupA.Member_2);
//...and so on
CD_Array_Set(95,GroupZF.Member_96);
//...Repeat 3 times for 4 sets of data (Data sets A-D), with checks to see if that data exists
I thought of doing something like this, but I'm not sure you can use char arrays in this way. I'll add the disclaimer don't have much experience with C, so this might look/sound really stupid. This isn't working code, just a stream of consciousness. I'm also not sure if doing it in this way, if possible, would just end up losing efficiency. I'm completely open to other methods.
char groupName[70] = "AB_*_Group_*_Network";
char dataset = 'A';
char group = 'A';
char member = '1';
char groupInit[70]
//write a loop to increment dataset alphabetically
//check if dataset exists
groupName[3] = dataset;
//write a sub-loop to increment group alphabetically (each set has 32 groups)
groupName[27] = group;
//use groupName in place of struct name (not sure how or if this is possible with my current methods)
groupInit = strncat(groupName, "_Init", 5);
//use groupInit in place of _init macro name
//write a sub-loop to increment member numerically (each group has 3 members)
char member[10] = "Member_*";
member[7] = member;
CD_Array_Set(i,groupName.member);
Is the long method really the best way of doing this? Any advice you can offer is appreciated!

Answer 1

There's no way to refer to variables and type names dynamically from strings at runtime. But you can use token pasting in a macro to avoid all the repeated code.
#define INIT_GROUP(dataset, group) \
AB_ ## dataset ## _Group_ ## group ## _Network Group ## group; \
AB_ ## dataset ## _Group_ ## group ## _Network_Init(&Group ## group); \
CD_Array_Set(0,Group ## group .Member_1); \
CD_Array_Set(1,Group ## group .Member_2); \
...
CD_Array_Set(95,Group ## group .Member_96);
Unfortunately, there are no loops in the preprocessor, so you have to write all 96 CD_Array_Set lines in the macro.
With this macro, you can then write:
INIT_GROUP(A, A)
INIT_GROUP(A, B)
...
INIT_GROUP(A, ZF)

Answer 2

Auto generated C code
It is possible to do such things in C but it requires ugly Macros.
First thing i would look at is
An old Stackoverflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12591965/8964221
And the mentioned gist in it: https://gist.github.com/epatel/3786323
BUT!
I would think about the time it would consume to have it bug free and working.
It won`t be that easy to transform it to ur needs.