C code on the left, bash window on the right
I am trying to create a new .c file by putting #include "name.h" at the beginning of my file but as you can see I'm getting an error.
It's saying that it cannot find the include file. Am I not linking them together correctly using the bash commands?
You use the right commands, but you need to have a main() function somewhere in your code in order for your program to compile.
Also, you do not need to put #include "name.h" to create a .c (source) file, .h file (headers) are used to declare your functions so you can use them in other source files.
Related
Context:
I would like to add a custom library to a piece of Arduino code in the Arduino 1.5.7 IDE to ensure code is decentralized and readable
Attempted solution:
I make a folder called "mathsfunctions". In it I put two text files, one with a .c and another with a .h name extension.
The .c file is called "mathsfunctions.c" and has the following code in it:
#include "mathsfunctions.h"
int multiply (int a, int b)
{
return a*b;
}
The .h file is called "mathsfunctions.h" and has the following code in it:
int multiply (int, int);
In the main file, I add in the following include preprocessor directive:
#include "mathsfunctions.h"
//The rest of the code
After the above was coded, I imported the library. To do this, I did the following:
Toolbar -> Sketch -> Add Library -> c:.....\mathsfunctions
I can confirm that this is indeed imported because after doing such action, the same mathsfunctions folder appears in the Arduino libraries folder:
C:.....\Arduino\libraries\mathsfunctions
Problem: Upon compiling, the error dialogue box gives the following error:
mathsfunctions.h: No such file or directory
Assistance Required: Any idea on what the problem could be?
You should only have put the header and the source in the same directory as your main file. Also I would suggest putting the implementation in the header since this is the way that people generally include extra functions in C. I am unsure if C supports extra source files but it does support extra headers.
I am very new to C, so I apologize for this newby question.
I would like to use this source code in my project: http://base64.sourceforge.net/b64.c.
So, I include it in my test file:
#include <stdio.h>
#include "b64.c"
int main()
{
return 0;
}
However, main() is defined in b64.c as well, so upon compiling, I get:
test.c:4:5: error: redefinition of ‘main’
b64.c:495:5: note: previous definition of ‘main’ was here
test.c: In function ‘main’:
test.c:5:1: error: number of arguments doesn’t match prototype
b64.c:495:5: error: prototype declaration
What is the correct usage of this source file, or any? How do we correctly use it, or use functions defined in that file?
Edit: I understand that the problem is due to the duplicate definitions of main. I know there can only be one. My question is rather, won't every meaningful project need it's main method? Then why is there a main method defined in b64.c? Are we just supposed to delete this method from the source code? It seems odd that the source code doesn't just come ready to be included and used.
It is never a good idea to #include a C source file into your code. You can either copy the code from the other C source file into your code, or include the needed prototypes in your code and make a call to the functions, linking those after compiling them separately.
you should use one of the two main functions.
If you want a new main, write your main method in your file and remove it from the 'b64.c' file, if you want to use it from the 'b64.c' file remove your (empty) main.
If main is defined in b64.c either you cannot simply redefine it in your main source file.
What do you want is to use several functions from b64.c in your program. Delete the main function from it and create a header file where you protoype all of the functions in b64.c. After that, include this header file in your main program. Have a look at this short Wikipedia entry. It should give you an overview of the topic.
Besides this: It seems that you aren't very familar with C. Try out some tutorials and go on reading about C.
First of all, you must redeclare the .c file as a .h, and then you have to go through the source code and rename any duplicate methods or global variable names. The main method is the starting point of a program so there can only be one.
(Usualy you dont include .c files, only .h)
if you want the functions inside the "b64.c" you should delete the main function from "b54.c"!
A C application needs one main() function. Your file b64.c looks like a self-sufficient C program so you don't need your test.c. Just compile and run b64.c.
When you are including that source file you are getting 2 main() declaration which is incorrect. So you have redefined "main" in this case.
Including .c into another .c file doesn't make sense. C files compile to .obj files, which are linked by the linker into the executable code , so there is no need to include one .C file into another. Instead, you can make a .h file that lists the functions and include that .h file
I have a C project I'm importing to eclipse to work with. It was prewritten but not a C program, so I imported it as a C Makefile program. Actually for some reason the program was written with shell scripts which called the make in the appropriate directories, I added a Makefile that called the shell script, though I'll probably change it to use only make files.
Anyways the unusual thing is that I get exceptions on all the #define variables used in my C code. The variables are defined in a .h file which is included on the top of the C code, and the #include doesn't haev a warning. I can compile the code and run it without exception. Yet I still get dozens of errors where the #define values are used in the editor. The .h which defines the variables is in a different folder then the C code that throws the excception, but adding the folder with the .h into the C include path didn't do any good. Anyone know how I can get the editor to play nice with my #define variables?
Are you actually typing #DEFINE? It's supposed to be #define. C is case sensitive.
Here are some options to investigate the issue further:
Right-click your project in Eclipse, go to Properties -> C/C++ General -> Paths and Symbols -> Symbols. You can check the symbols defined there, maybe something is messing up the preprocessor there.
Add to your g++ command line the following option: -save-temps. This will output some intermediate compilation files. Check the .i or .ii files - these contain the preprocessed output. More information on this g++ option is here.
Also, it would be nice if you could give some more information about the actual errors/warnings.
How is the .h file included in the .c file?
#include <file.h>
or
#include "file.h"
These have different meanings in the preprocessor.
What is the error that you are getting? Is the .h file not found, causing the other errors?
I'm using embedded MATLAB to generate C code from an .m script. However, after the generation I'm left with about 15 files (most of them are source). If I want to write a standalone main in C how do I link to the MATLAB generated code? Is there a way to do this without writing my own Makefile?
So I figured out how to generate static libraries (.a) with the matlab generated code... can I build dynamically loaded libraries (.so)?
I don't know if this is particular to my project, but I find that I can include Matlab generated files the same way as you would normally include anything else.
I copy my generated matlab source files (.c and .h) into my project directly, and then I have to specifically add them to my project. ( I wonder if that has more to do with the IDE I use though).
Then, in main.c that you create, just add the line #include "yourGeneratedFile.h". Within main.c now, you should be able to use whatever functions were created by Matlab.
For instance, in an example:
within main.c, include the header file and use the function you need
#include "SPIUARTDemo30f.h"
//further down in the file
SPIUARTDemo30f_step(); //using the function I asked Matlab to generate
SPIUARTDemo30f.h and SPIUARTDemo30f.c are the generated files from Matlab:
within the .h you'll see
extern void SPIUARTDemo30f_step(void);
and, if you look at the .c you'll find:
void SPIUARTDemo30f_step(void)
{
/* lots of code */
}
It's all in the title; super-simple I reckon, but it's so hard to search for syntactical things anywhere.
These are two library files that I'm copying from CS50.net, and I'm wondering why they have two different extensions.
.c : c file (where the real action is, in general)
.h : header file (to be included with a preprocessor #include directive). Contains stuff that is normally deemed to be shared with other parts of your code, like function prototypes, #define'd stuff, extern declaration for global variables (oh, the horror) and the like.
Technically, you could put everything in a single file. A whole C program. million of lines. But we humans tend to organize things. So you create different C files, each one containing particular functions. That's all nice and clean. Then suddenly you realize that a declaration you have into a given C file should exist also in another C file. So you would duplicate them. The best is therefore to extract the declaration and put it into a common file, which is the .h
For example, in the cs50.h you find what are called "forward declarations" of your functions.
A forward declaration is a quick way to tell the compiler how a function should be called (e.g. what input params) and what it returns, so it can perform proper checking (for example if you call a function with the wrong number of parameters, it will complain).
Another example. Suppose you write a .c file containing a function performing regular expression matching. You want your function to accept the regular expression, the string to match, and a parameter that tells if the comparison has to be case insensitive.
in the .c you will therefore put
bool matches(string regexp, string s, int flags) { the code }
Now, assume you want to pass the following flags:
0: if the search is case sensitive
1: if the search is case insensitive
And you want to keep yourself open to new flags, so you did not put a boolean.
playing with numbers is hard, so you define useful names for these flags
#define MATCH_CASE_SENSITIVE 0
#define MATCH_CASE_INSENSITIVE 1
This info goes into the .h, because if any program wants to use these labels, it has no way of knowing them unless you include the info. Of course you can put them in the .c, but then you would have to include the .c code (whole!) which is a waste of time and a source of trouble.
Of course, there is nothing that says the extension of a header file must be .h and the extension of a C source file must be .c. These are useful conventions.
E:\Temp> type my.interface
#ifndef MY_INTERFACE_INCLUDED
#define MYBUFFERSIZE 8
#define MY_INTERFACE_INCLUDED
#endif
E:\Temp> type my.source
#include <stdio.h>
#include "my.interface"
int main(void) {
char x[MYBUFFERSIZE] = {0};
x[0] = 'a';
puts(x);
return 0;
}
E:\Temp> gcc -x c my.source -o my.exe
E:\Temp> my
a
They're not really library files. They're just source files. Like Stefano said, the .c file is the C source file which actually uses/defines the actual source of what it merely outlined in the .h file, the header file. The header file usually outlines all of the function prototypes and structures that will be used in the actual source file. Think of it like a reference/appendix. This is evident upon looking at the header file, as you will see :) So then when you want to use something that was written in these source files, you #include the header file, which contains the information that the compiler will need to know.
The .c is the source file and .h is the header file.
The .c files are source files which will be compiled. The .h files are used to expose the API of a program to either other part of that program or other program is you are creating a library.
For example, the program PizzaDelivery could have 1 .c file with the main program, and 1 .c file with utility functions. Now, for the main part of the program to be able to use the utility functions, you need to expose the API, via function prototype, into a .h file, this .h file being included by the main .c file.
.c : 'C' source code
.h : Header file
Usually, the .c files contain the implementation, and .h files contain the "interface" of an implementation.