X-Macros

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One little-known usage pattern of the C preprocessor is known as “X-Macros”.[9][10][11][12] An X-Macro is a header file or macro. Commonly these use the extension “.def” instead of the traditional “.h”. This file contains a list of similar macro calls, which can be referred to as “component macros”. The include file is then referenced repeatedly in the following pattern. Here, the include file is “xmacro.def” and it contains a list of component macros of the style “foo(x, y, z)”.

#define foo(x, y, z) doSomethingWith(x, y, z);
#include "xmacro.def"
#undef foo

#define foo(x, y, z) doSomethingElseWith(x, y, z);
#include "xmacro.def"
#undef foo

(etc…)
The most common usage of X-Macros is to establish a list of C objects and then automatically generate code for each of them. Some implementations also perform any #undefs they need inside the X-Macro, as opposed to expecting the caller to undefine them.

Common sets of objects are a set of global configuration settings, a set of members of a struct, a list of possible XML tags for converting an XML file to a quickly-traversable tree, or the body of an enum declaration; other lists are possible.

Once the X-Macro has been processed to create the list of objects, the component macros can be redefined to generate, for instance, accessor and/or mutator functions. Structure serializing and deserializing are also commonly done.

Here is an example of an X-Macro that establishes a struct and automatically creates serialize/deserialize functions. For simplicity, this example doesn’t account for endianness or buffer overflows.

File star.def:

EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(x, int)
EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(y, int)
EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(z, int)
EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(radius, double)
#undef EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER
File star_table.c:

typedef struct {
  #define EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) type member;
  #include "star.def"
  } starStruct;

void serialize_star(const starStruct *const star, unsigned char *buffer) {
  #define EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) \
    memcpy(buffer, &(star->member), sizeof(star->member)); \
    buffer += sizeof(star->member);
  #include "star.def"
  }

void deserialize_star(starStruct *const star, const unsigned char *buffer) {
  #define EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) \
    memcpy(&(star->member), buffer, sizeof(star->member)); \
    buffer += sizeof(star->member);
  #include "star.def"
  }

Handlers for individual data types may be created and accessed using token concatenation ("##") and quoting ("#") operators. For example, the following might be added to the above code:

#define print_int(val)    printf("%d", val)
#define print_double(val) printf("%g", val)

void print_star(const starStruct *const star) {
  /* print_##type will be replaced with print_int or print_double */
  #define EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) \
    printf("%s: ", #member); \
    print_##type(star->member); \
    printf("\n");
  #include "star.def"
  }

Note that in this example you can also avoid the creation of separate handler functions for each datatype in this example by defining the print format for each supported type, with the additional benefit of reducing the expansion code produced by this header file:

#define FORMAT_(type) FORMAT_##type
#define FORMAT_int    "%d"
#define FORMAT_double "%g"

void print_star(const starStruct *const star) {
  /* FORMAT_(type) will be replaced with FORMAT_int or FORMAT_double */
  #define EXPAND_EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) \
    printf("%s: " FORMAT_(type) "\n", #member, star->member);
  #include "star.def"
  }

The creation of a separate header file can be avoided by creating a single macro containing what would be the contents of the file. For instance, the above file “star.def” could be replaced with this macro at the beginning of:

File star_table.c:

#define EXPAND_STAR \
  EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(x, int) \
  EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(y, int) \
  EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(z, int) \
  EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(radius, double)
and then all calls to #include "star.def" could be replaced with a simple EXPAND_STAR statement. The rest of the above file would become:

typedef struct {
  #define EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) type member;
  EXPAND_STAR
  #undef  EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER
  } starStruct;

void serialize_star(const starStruct *const star, unsigned char *buffer) {
  #define EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) \
    memcpy(buffer, &(star->member), sizeof(star->member)); \
    buffer += sizeof(star->member);
  EXPAND_STAR
  #undef  EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER
  }

void deserialize_star(starStruct *const star, const unsigned char *buffer) {
  #define EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) \
    memcpy(&(star->member), buffer, sizeof(star->member)); \
    buffer += sizeof(star->member);
  EXPAND_STAR
  #undef  EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER
  }

and the print handler could be added as well as:

#define print_int(val)    printf("%d", val)
#define print_double(val) printf("%g", val)

void print_star(const starStruct *const star) {
  /* print_##type will be replaced with print_int or print_double */
  #define EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) \
    printf("%s: ", #member); \
    print_##type(star->member); \
    printf("\n");
  EXPAND_STAR
  #undef EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER
}

or as:

#define FORMAT_(type) FORMAT_##type
#define FORMAT_int    "%d"
#define FORMAT_double "%g"

void print_star(const starStruct *const star) {
  /* FORMAT_(type) will be replaced with FORMAT_int or FORMAT_double */
  #define EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER(member, type) \
    printf("%s: " FORMAT_(type) "\n", #member, star->member);
  EXPAND_STAR
  #undef EXPAND_STAR_MEMBER
  }

A variant which avoids needing to know the members of any expanded sub-macros is to accept the operators as an argument to the list macro:

File star_table.c:

/*
 Generic
 */
#define STRUCT_MEMBER(member, type, dummy) type member;

#define SERIALIZE_MEMBER(member, type, obj, buffer) \
  memcpy(buffer, &(obj->member), sizeof(obj->member)); \
  buffer += sizeof(obj->member);

#define DESERIALIZE_MEMBER(member, type, obj, buffer) \
  memcpy(&(obj->member), buffer, sizeof(obj->member)); \
  buffer += sizeof(obj->member);

#define FORMAT_(type) FORMAT_##type
#define FORMAT_int    "%d"
#define FORMAT_double "%g"

/* FORMAT_(type) will be replaced with FORMAT_int or FORMAT_double */
#define PRINT_MEMBER(member, type, obj) \
  printf("%s: " FORMAT_(type) "\n", #member, obj->member);

/*
 starStruct
 */

#define EXPAND_STAR(_, ...) \
  _(x, int, __VA_ARGS__) \
  _(y, int, __VA_ARGS__) \
  _(z, int, __VA_ARGS__) \
  _(radius, double, __VA_ARGS__)

typedef struct {
  EXPAND_STAR(STRUCT_MEMBER, )
  } starStruct;

void serialize_star(const starStruct *const star, unsigned char *buffer) {
  EXPAND_STAR(SERIALIZE_MEMBER, star, buffer)
  }

void deserialize_star(starStruct *const star, const unsigned char *buffer) {
  EXPAND_STAR(DESERIALIZE_MEMBER, star, buffer)
  }

void print_star(const starStruct *const star) {
  EXPAND_STAR(PRINT_MEMBER, star)
  }

This approach can be dangerous in that the entire macro set is always interpreted as if it was on a single source line, which could encounter compiler limits with complex component macros and/or long member lists.

This technique was reported by Lars Wirzenius[13] in a web page dated January 17, 2000, in which he gives credit to Kenneth Oksanen for “refining and developing” the technique prior to 1997. The other references describe it as a method from at least a decade before the turn of the century.义目录标题)