C++ strcpy(Struct.Property, "VALUE") Use in C#? - c++

i created a Wrapper for a C++ dll. While reading the documentation
i reached to a point using this function strcpy(StructName.strPropGetter, "A STRING");
I'm not kinda C++ guy, i can't figure how to transfer this code in C#.
My wrapper gave me this property without a setter.
Any light would be nice. Thank you

It's simply StructName.strPropGetter = "A STRING";
edit
If you mean how should you implement strPropGetter, then this is difficult wihout any information on what strPropGetter is. But it may be something like:
class StructName
{
string strPropGetter { get; set; }
}
StructName.strPropGetter = "A STRING";
(This is a literal copy of the names to make it easier to see how it relates to the original snippet of code, but obviously "strPropGetter" etc should be named something more sensible. The "Getter" in the original name possibly refers to a "get" mehod for a property, in which case, this is generated automatically by C# for the "get;" part of the property in the code above.
I can't really help much more without a better idea of what code you're looking at wrapping/converting.

Related

C++: Smart Pointers & Fluent Design Pattern with References

I'm trying to learn C++ after being spoiled with high-level languages for all of my life.
I would like to use the fluent design pattern with a class, but I'm worried that I'm making a mistake somewhere and sacrificing performance.
Say that I have a class Builder, and it has some member properties and methods. All of it's methods look something like so:
Builder &doSomething(SomeTypeThatCouldBeAClassOrAPrimitive &thing)
{
// do stuff, such as
// modify a class member
memberThing = "something";
return *thing;
}
And say that I'm using it like so:
unique_ptr<Builder> builder(new Builder());
builder->doSomething(someVal)
.doAnotherThing(someOtherVal)
.doAFinalThing(someOtherOtherVal);
Just from the code provided, am I doing something wrong, or could something be done more efficiently?
Please let me know if I need to provide more information.
There's nothing wrong here, but there also isn't any need to allocate the Builder object on the heap. Consider instead:
Builder builder;
builder.doSomething(someVal)
.doAnotherThing(someOtherVal)
.doAFinalThing(someOtherOtherVal);
You could even use a temporary Builder and remove the variable entirely:
Builder{}.doSomething(someVal)
.doAnotherThing(someOtherVal)
.doAFinalThing(someOtherOtherVal);

C++ Multi type map like PHP stdClass

I'm using the libjson for parsing a JSON file in C++. I was wondering if you could do something like a PHP style notation for a map:
Just some pseudo code:
mapObj["id"] = 4;
mapObj["tags"] = vector {"Foo", "Bar"};
structMapObj = {
{"name", "FooBar"},
{"size", 1234567},
{"date", "2014-12-24"}
};
mapObj["file"] = anotherMapObject;
// for the vector
mapObj["tags"][0];
mapObj["tags"][1];
mapObj["tags"].size();
mapObj["tags"].pushBack("Foo");
// for the map
mapObj["file"]["name"]
...
Is it possible to receive a result like this?
Maybe an enum for the current type in the BaseClass?
myObj["key"].getType; // returns a 1 for example an INT
I tried to make it with a BaseClass and a template class, but I wasn't able to iterate through the object. Or should I even overload the operators for my BaseClass? Or is it necessary to inherit the BaseClass for each case (a class for the map-type object, a class for the int-type, for string and so on)?
I'm a a little bit desperate right now. Just need someone who leads me into the right direction :-P
PS: I don't want to use boost :-/
Thank you very much,
Daniel
I appreciate that you don't want to use boost. However, this problem has been solved in boost.
You are essentially wanting a map of strings to variants.
Have a look at the source code for boost::variant and boost::any. Take particular note of how boost gets round the problem of recursive definitions, for example when you want to store a map inside an element of another map.
This will teach you more than you ever wanted to know on this subject :-)
There is an open source project for C++Builder programmer called JSonCBB library. This library provides a semantic like to your need: http://www.cbuilderblog.com/jsoncbuilderblog-class-library/

How do I get a list of all declared classes inheriting from a particular class in C++

I know that isn't exactly possible in C++, but maybe a toolchain that can generate code which has a function, which when called gives me a list of all those classes. For example, across multiple files I have stuff like:
class MyClass : public ParticularClass {
....
}
class MyClass2 : public ParticularClass {
....
}
Then, during runtime, I just want a pointer to single instances of the class. Let's say my generated code looks something like this:
void __populate_classes() {
superList.append(new MyClass());
superList.append(new MyClass2());
}
Also, superList would be of type List<ParticularClass*>. Plus, I'll be using Qt and ParticularClass will be QObject derived, so I can fetch the name of the class anyways. I need to basically introspect the class, so my internal code doesn't really bother much about the newly defined type.
So, is there a way to generate this code with some toolchain? If it is possible with qmake alone, that'd be like icing on the freaking cake :)
Thanks a lot for your time.
Doxygen does a nice job at doing this -- offline. Various IDEs do a nice job at this -- offline. The compiler does not do this. Such knowledge is not needed or used by the compiler.
Here at work I use a tool called Understand 4 C++. It is a tool that helps you analyze your code. It will do this quite easily.
But my favorite part is it comes with a C and Perl API which allows you to take advantage of the abstract syntax tree that 'understand' encapsulates and write your own static analysis tools. I have written tons of tools using this API.
Anyways, it's written by SciTools. http://scitools.com and I don't work for them. I just wholeheartedly like their product. In fact I wrote a C# API that wraps their C API and posted it on CodePlex a few years ago. Sure beats using C or Perl to write static analysis tools.
I don't think what you're trying to do is a good idea. Those who will maintain code after you will have hard times to understand it.
Maybe instead of it you'll try see how you can do it in plan C++. One possible solution which comes to mind i to implement factory design pattern. Than you can iterate over all data types in factory and add then to superList.
Any way, using ack (simple grep replacement) can do the job if you always declare the inheritence in one line:
ack ": *public ParticularClass" *.h

Dynamic C++

I'm wondering about an idea in my head. I want to ask if you know of any library or article related to this. Or you can just tell me this is a dumb idea and why.
I have a class, and I want to dynamically add methods/properties to it at runtime. I'm well aware of the techniques of using composite/command design pattern and using embedded scripting language to accomplish what I'm talking about. I'm just exploring the idea. Not necessary saying that it is a good idea.
class Dynamic
{
public:
typedef std::map<std::string, boost::function<void (Dynamic&)> > FuncMap;
void addMethod(const std::string& name, boost::function<void (Dynamic&)> func) {
funcMap_[name] = func;
}
void operator[](const std::string& name) {
FuncMap::iterator funcItr = funcMap_.find(name);
if (funcItr != funcMap_.end()) {
funcItr->second(*this);
}
}
private:
FuncMap funcMap_;
};
void f(Dynamic& self) {
doStuffWithDynamic(self);
}
int main()
{
Dynamic dyn;
dyn.addMethod("f", boost::bind(&f, _1));
dyn["f"]; // invoke f
}
The idea is that I can rebind the name "f" to any function at runtime. I'm aware of the performance problem in string lookup and boost::function vs. raw function pointer. With some hard work and non-portable hack I think I can make the performance problem less painful.
With the same kind of technique, I can do "runtime inheritance" by having a "v-table" for name lookup and dispatch function calls base on dynamic runtime properties.
If just want to tell me to use smalltalk or Objective-C, I can respect that but I love my C++ and I'm sticking with it.
What you want is to change C++ into something very different. One of the (many) goals of C++ was efficient implementation. Doing string lookup for function calls (no matter how well you implement it), just isn't going to be very efficient compared to the normal call mechanisms.
Basically, I think you're trying to shoehorn in functionality of a different language. You CAN make it work, to some degree, but you're creating C++ code that no one else is going to be able (or willing) to try to understand.
If you really want to write in a language that can change it's objects on the fly, then go find such a language (there are many choices, I'm sure). Trying to shoehorn that functionality into C++ is just going to cause you problems down the road.
Please note that I'm no stranger to bringing in non-C++ concepts into C++. I once spent a considerable amount of time removing another engineer's attempt at bringing a based-object system into a C++ project (he liked the idea of containers of 'Object *', so he made every class in the system descend from his very own 'Object' class).
Bringing in foreign language concepts almost always ends badly in two ways: The concept runs up against other C++ concepts, and can't work as well as it did in the source language, AND the concept tends to break something else in C++. You end up losing a lot of time trying to implement something that just isn't going to work out.
The only way I could see something like this working at all well, is if you implemented a new language on top of C++, with a cfront-style pre-compiler. That way, you could put some decent syntax onto the thing, and eliminate some of your problems.
If you implemented this, even as a pure library, and then used it extensively, you would in a way be using a new language - one with a hideous syntax, and a curious combination of runtime method resolution and unreliable bounds checking.
As a fan of C/C++ style syntax and apparently a fan of dynamic method dispatch, you may be interested in C# 4.0, which is now in Beta, and has the dynamic keyword to allow exactly this kind of thing to be seamlessly mixed into normal statically typed code.
I don't think it would be a good idea to change C++ enough to make this work. I'd suggest working in another language, such as Lisp or Perl or another language that's basically dynamic, or imbedding a dynamic language and using it.
What you are doing is actually a variation of the Visitor pattern.
EDIT: By the way, another approach would be by using Lua, since the language allows you to add functions at runtime. So does Objective-C++.
EDIT 2: You could actually inherit from FuncMap as well:
class Dynamic;
typedef std::map<std::string, boost::function<void (Dynamic&)> > FuncMap;
class Dynamic : public FuncMap
{
public:
};
void f(Dynamic& self) {
//doStuffWithDynamic(self);
}
int main()
{
Dynamic dyn;
dyn["f"] = boost::bind(&f, _1);
dyn["f"](dyn); // invoke f, however, 'dyn'param is awkward...
return 0;
}
If I understand what you are trying to accomplish correctly, it seems as though dynamic linking (i.e. Dynamically loaded libraries in windows or linux) will do most of what you are trying to accomplish.
That is, you can, at runtime, select the name of the function you want to execute (eg. the name of the DLL), which then gets loaded and executed. Much in the way that COM works. Or you can even use the name of the function exported from that library to select the correct function (C++ name mangling issues aside).
I don't think there's a library for this exact thing.
Of course, you have to have these functions pre-written somehow, so it seems there would be an easier way to do what you want. For example you could have just one method to execute arbitrary code from your favorite scripting language. That seems like an easier way to do what you want.
I keep thinking of the Visitor pattern. That allows you to do a vtable lookup on the visiting object (as well as the visited object, thought that doesn't seem relevant to your question).
And at runtime, you could have some variable which refers to the visitor, and call
Dynamic dynamic;
DynamicVisitor * dv = ...;
dynamic->Accept(dv);
dv = ...; // something else
dynamic->Accept(dv);
The point is, the visitor object has a vtable, which you said you wanted, and you can change its value dynamically, which you said you wanted. Accept is basically the "function to call things I didn't know about at compile time."
I've considered doing this before as well. Basically, however, you'd be on your way to writing a simple VM or interpreter (look at, say, Lua or Topaz's source to see what I mean -- Topaz is a dead project that pre-dates Parrot).
But if you're going that route it makes sense to just use an existing VM or interpreter.

Best way to take a snapshot of an object to a file

What's the best way to output the public contents of an object to a human-readable file? I'm looking for a way to do this that would not require me to know of all the members of the class, but rather use the compiler to tell me what members exist, and what their names are. There have to be macros or something like that, right?
Contrived example:
class Container
{
public:
Container::Container() {/*initialize members*/};
int stuff;
int otherStuff;
};
Container myCollection;
I would like to be able to do something to see output along the lines of "myCollection: stuff = value, otherStuff = value".
But then if another member is added to Container,
class Container
{
public:
Container::Container() {/*initialize members*/};
int stuff;
string evenMoreStuff;
int otherStuff;
};
Container myCollection;
This time, the output of this snapshot would be "myCollection: stuff = value, evenMoreStuff=value, otherStuff = value"
Is there a macro that would help me accomplish this? Is this even possible? (Also, I can't modify the Container class.)
Another note: I'm most interested about a potential macros in VS, but other solutions are welcome too.
What you're looking for is "[reflection](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_(computer_science)#C.2B.2B)".
I found two promising links with a Google search for "C++ reflection":
http://www.garret.ru/cppreflection/docs/reflect.html
http://seal-reflex.web.cern.ch/seal-reflex/index.html
Boost has a serialization library that can serialize into text files. You will, however, not be able to get around with now knowing what members the class contains. You would need reflection, which C++ does not have.
Take a look at this library .
What you need is object serialization or object marshalling. A recurrent thema in stackoverflow.
I'd highly recommend taking a look at Google's Protocol Buffers.
There's unfortunately no macro that can do this for you. What you're looking for is a reflective type library. These can vary from fairly simple to home-rolled monstrosities that have no place in a work environment.
There's no real simple way of doing this, and though you may be tempted to simply dump the memory at an address like so:
char *buffer = new char[sizeof(Container)];
memcpy(buffer, containerInstance, sizeof(Container));
I'd really suggest against it unless all you have are simple types.
If you want something really simple but not complete, I'd suggest writing your own
printOn(ostream &) member method.
XDR is one way to do this in a platform independent way.