Thread: linked list sort with variable struct selection field

  1. #1
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    linked list sort with variable struct selection field

    If I want to write a sort function for a linked list that can use external functions for selecting between criteria (depending on whether the criteria is alpahabetic or numeric), what's the best way to pass this "selection field" option in? In other words, if I pass a node* in as the head, how can I also pass in an option to indicate which struct member should be used in the sort?

    My idea was to use a pointer to the offset of the data within the struct. I'm hoping there won't be padding that causes a problem.
    Code:
    typedef struct _node {
           char field1[64];
           char field2[64];
           int field3;
           struct _node *next;
    } node;
    
    node *sortfunc (node *head, int offset, int datatype) {
           node *one=head, *two=head->next;
           char *one_a, *two_a;
           int one_n, two_n;
           if (datatype==0) {
                    one_i=&int(head+offset);      //  ???
                    result=compnumbers(one_i,two_i);
           if (datatype==1) {
                   one_a=(char*)head+offset;
                   result=comparewords(one_a, two_a);
    Last edited by MK27; 01-17-2009 at 06:58 PM.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  2. #2
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    Consider a predicate function like what qsort() requires.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  3. #3
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by laserlight View Post
    Consider a predicate function like what qsort() requires.
    I thought about using a function pointer, but then I would either still need the datatype parameter or else do a lot of casting with void pointers (since the compare function will be accepting either two ints or two strings) which would be ridiculuous. If I keep the datatype parameter, etc, I might as well select one or the other within the sort function (since I only have to deal with two possibilities). In fact I suppose even using a separate function to compare two ints is unnecessary.

    Using an offset for the data field is easy enough for both me and the compiler. I was just wondering if there was another way.
    Last edited by MK27; 01-17-2009 at 10:53 PM.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

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