#define woes – the macro that isn't - c-preprocessor

I'm trying to do something like:
#define __attribute__((aligned(2))) __attribute__((space(prog),aligned(2)))
but the compiler yields :
error: "(" may not appear in macro parameter list
Questions: What gives? How can I do a literal text replace, no bells, no frills ?

As soon as you start with a parenthesis, you're defining a macro with arguments, and that's bound to some rules.
So you can do, for example:
#define succ(x) (x + 1)
But you can't do:
#define pred(x + 1) x
The preprocessor only does a very limited set of pattern matching.
What you could do instead is something like:
#define __aligned2__ __attribute__((space(prog),aligned(2)))
And use that define instead. If that's not sufficient for your needs, you'll need to do some custom preprocessing using sed instead.

This is not possible with the C preprocessor. You can only define "literal txt replace"s, as you put it, if the text you want to replace is a single identifier ("object-like macro" in C standard parlance). What you wrote causes the preprocessor to think you're trying to define a "function-like macro", with a parameter named "(aligned(2))", which is a syntax error.
I would deal with this problem by wrapping the entire __attribute__ construct in an object-like macro:
#if appropriate condition
#define ATTRIBUTE_ALIGNED_2 __attribute__((space(prog),aligned(2)))
#else
#define ATTRIBUTE_ALIGNED_2 __attribute__((aligned(2)))
#endif
and then replacing __attribute__((aligned(2))) with ATTRIBUTE_ALIGNED_2 throughout the source code.

Related

Generalized iteration over arguments of macro in the C preprocessor

There were several questions here regarding variadic macros in C. These include:
How to make a variadic macro (variable number of arguments) which explains the basics, e.g., passing a variable number of arguments to functions such as printf
Is it possible to iterate over arguments in variadic macros?, which explains how to iteratively apply a macro to each of the arguments of the variadic macro.
https://github.com/swansontec/map-macro which explains how to do so on pairs
My question is related to the iteration technique. I am interested in a macro with this generalized semantics.
ITERATE(Before, Action, Between, After, Empty, ...)
that will place Before prior to all expansions, apply Action to each argument, place Between between every two consecutive applications, and will finally place the expansion of After. Moreover, if the number of argument With such a macro, it should be possible to write
// Loop elements
#define A(x) (x)
#define Befor (
#define After )
#define Between ||
#define Empty 1
// Define an OR macro
#define OR(...) ITERATE(Before, A, Between, Empty, __VA_ARGS__)
// Use it
OR() // Expands to 1
OR(a) // Expands to ((a))
OR(a,b) // Expands to ((a)||(b))
OR(a,b,c) // Expands to to ((a)||(b)||(c))
The purpose of course is not to write an OR function. A generalized functionality could be for more intricate applications. E.g., a macro for defining classes and functions, something to print the trace, etc.
I never liked the recursive REPEAT() macro idiom - it generates horrible hour long read error messages that are.. recursive, so you don't know where the error is and it's also hard to grasp how the OBSTRUCT(REPEAT_INDIRECT) () stuff works. Overall, overloading the macro on number of arguments and using an external tool (shell script or m4 preprocessor) to generate C source code is waay easier, easier to read, maintain and fix and also you can expand the macros on the tools side removing the burden of recursive expansion on C side. With that in mind, your ITERATE can be generated with existing preprocessor libraries, P99_FOR or BOOST_FOREACH comes to mind.
Also, typing shift all the time is strange - I prefer snake case. Here's a reduced example without Before and After macros with overloading the macro on number of arguments:
#define _in_ITERATE_0(f,b,e) e()
#define _in_ITERATE_1(f,b,e,_1) f(_1)
#define _in_ITERATE_2(f,b,e,_1,...) f(_1)b()_in_ITERATE_1(f,b,e,__VA_ARGS__)
#define _in_ITERATE_3(f,b,e,_1,...) f(_1)b()_in_ITERATE_2(f,b,e,__VA_ARGS__)
// or you could expand it instead of reusing previous one with same result:
#define _in_ITERATE_4(f,b,e,_1,_2,_3,_4) f(_1)b()f(_2)b()f(_3)b()f(_4)
// etc.... generate
#define _in_ITERATE_N(_0,_1,_2,_3,_4,_5,_6,_7,_8,_9,N,...) _in_ITERATE_##N
#define ITERATE(func, between, empty, ...) \
_in_ITERATE_N(0,##__VA_ARGS__,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0)(func, between, empty, ##__VA_ARGS__)
#define _in_OR_OP(x) (x)
#define _in_OR_EMPTY() 1
#define _in_OR_BETWEEN() ||
#define OR(...) (ITERATE(_in_OR_OP, _in_OR_BETWEEN, _in_OR_EMPTY, ##__VA_ARGS__))
// Use it
OR() // Expands to (1)
OR(a) // Expands to ((a))
OR(a,b) // Expands to ((a)||(b))
OR(a,b,c) // Expands to to ((a)||(b)||(c))
outputs:
(1)
((a))
((a)||(b))
((a)||(b)||(c))
For more examples on overloading macro on count of arguments see this thread. I am using ## GNU extension to remove the comma before __VA_ARGS__ because I am used to using it - I think __VA_OPT__(,) should be nowadays preferred, I am not sure.

How to parametrize single string containing # in C preprocessor?

I want to create parameterized preprocessor macro for IBM Metal C Prolog.
The initial unparametrized form is
#pragma prolog(Foo, " #MCPROLG MAIN=(YES,16,132)")
The real prolog is more complex, but for the sake of the question the important part is that there are values within a string.
#pragma directive itself can't be part of a macro, so I replace that with _Pragmalike that:
_Pragma("prolog(Foo, \" #MCPROLG MAIN=(YES,16,132)\")")
I can parameterize Foo like this:
#define STR(...) #__VA_ARGS__
#define PROLOG(function) _Pragma(STR(prolog( function , " #MCPROLG MAIN=(YES,16,132)")))
How can I create macro that parameterizes the value 16?
It appears that I need to concatenate strings within preprocessor, I've tried following approaches. All use this stringization macro:
#define STR(...) #__VA_ARGS__
Token that is replaced with 16 (let's name it size) can't be within a string itself so that it is replaced.
#define PROLOG(function, size) _Pragma(STR(prolog( function , " #MCPROLG MAIN=(YES, size ,132)")))
_Pragma only accepts a single string, so I can't peruse C string concatenation like this:
#define PROLOG(function, size) _Pragma(STR(prolog( function , " #MCPROLG MAIN=(YES," #size ",132)")))
I can't stringize the whole second argument of prolog like this:
#define PROLOG(function, size) _Pragma(STR(prolog( function , STR( #MCPROLG MAIN=(YES, size ,132)))))
because #MCPROLG needs to stay within a string so that its # is not treated as stringization token.
To address issue 1 (need to expand a parameter in the replacement list), you need an indirect stringify macro:
#define STR(X) STR_I(X)
#define STR_I(X) #X
You may make this variadic if you want but it's not necessary here (the commas in your string are surrounded by parentheses; the preprocessor will match those; e.g., FOO(A=(B,C,D)), given FOO is a function-like macro, has one argument).
To address issue 2, yes, you need to stringify the whole thing. Effectively there's no such thing as string literal concatenation to the preprocessor (because it runs in translation phase 4, and string literal concatenation doesn't happen until translation phase 6).
To address issue 3, just produce a hash from another macro (root it at an object-like macro, where # has no special meaning):
#define HASH #
#define HASHM() HASH
The function-like variant allows you to produce the same hash right next to something else (HASHMCPROLG does nothing useful; HASH MCPROLG produces # MCPROLG, HASHM()MCPROLG produces #MCPROLG).
Those pieces in hand, the rest is easy:
#define PROLOG(FN_,SZ_) _Pragma(STR(prolog(FN_, STR( HASHM()MCPROLG MAIN=(YES,SZ_,132)))))
Here I'm assuming you also need an end parentheses around the pragma prolog and that in the question this was a typo; that is, it should be:
_Pragma("prolog(foo, \"#MCPROLG MAIN=(YES,16,132)\")")
...not:
_Pragma("prolog(foo, \"#MCPROLG MAIN=(YES,16,132)\"")

Undefine a preprocesser directive that is used in another preprocessor directive

This is not my exact issue, but an example is as follows
// Method 1
#define Function(argument) (StupidLongArray[argument] + OtherStupidLongArrayName[argument] * WhyAreMyNamesSoLong[argument])
or, prefered
// Method 2
#define _SLA StupidLongArray
#define _OSLAN OtherStupidLongArrayName
#define _WAMNSL WhyAreMyNamesSoLong
#define Function(argument) (_SLA[argument] + _OSLAN[argument] * _WAMNSL[argument])
#undef _SLA
...
...
My understanding of these preprocessor directions implies that once Function has been defined, I can get rid of _SLA and friends. This is not the case.
How come? Is their a way around it?
Unfortunately, there's no way around this. Preprocessor processing basically involves substituting the macro into the original line, then reprocessing it again. So if you call Function(x), it becomes (_SLA[x] + _OSLAN[x] * _WAMNSL[x]) first, then the _SLA, _OSLAN, and _WAMNSL macros are substituted afterward. If they're not defined at the place where this substitution occurs, they'll be left as is.
In addition to the posted answer, you could consider rewriting the macro as:
#define Function(argument) \
( StupidLongArray[argument] \
+ OtherStupidLongArrayName[argument] \
* WhyAreMyNamesSoLong[argument] )
This much clearer and easier to read than your version with short, nonsense abbreviations.
Might also be wise to swap the order of appearance so that the multiplication operation is placed before the addition, to make the code easier to read.
As a side note, you should avoid giving identifiers names that start with _ since that might collide with library identifiers.

Is there a one-macro way to prefix and quote C macro argument

So when looking into getting my define macro to work, I found the # and ## macro helpers, and used them to simplify my macro. The key part of the macro sets a variable to a string containing the name of the variable (but not the variable name alone). As a simplified example, let's take a macro called SET(X) that should expand SET(something) into something = "pre_something".
The only way I've found to do it so far is with two macros like #define QUOTE(X) #X and #define SET(X) X = QUOTE(pre_##X). However, using multiple macros seems excessive, and may cause problems with further macro expansion (I think). Is there a cleaner, one-line way of doing the same thing?
#define SET(x) x = "pre_"#x
C does string concatenation at compile time, so two string literals next to each other are concatenated.
"hello " "world" -> "hello world"

Macro Meta Programming

I know this is probably either bad or impossible, but since this isn't a recursive macro I think it should be possible.
#define FOO 15
#define MAKE_BAR(x) BAR_##x
#define MY_FOO_BAR MAKE_BAR(FOO)
I'd like MY_FOO_BAR to evaluate to BAR_15. Is there a way to tell the preprocessor to evaluate FOO before passing it into MAKE_BAR?
You need another level of macro calls:
#define FOO 15
#define MAKE_BAR_INNER(x) BAR_##x
#define MAKE_BAR(x) MAKE_BAR_INNER(x)
#define MY_FOO_BAR MAKE_BAR(FOO)
This is because of how parameters are handled during functional macro expansion. The ## concatenation operator prevents parameter expansion, so you must "force" expansion by adding another "layer".

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