Generic function

Dear Experts,

i am trying to write one Generic function, where function name i will specify it gets the function pointer and pass as argument to the function.
my generic function looks like this

Code:

MyFunc(void *buff,numberofargs,return_typeofarg,arumentpointer,functionpointer)
in this way i generalized,
here void *buff= is the resulting buff which stores the resulting value,
numberofargs=arguments count
return_typeofarg=what exactly it has to return to the user.
arumentpointer=pointer to arguments for a given function pointer
functionpointer=actual function pinter

and i am using code

Code:

libload(".dll);//load the .dll
getprocaddr();//to get the function pointer address,

my question is given a function pointer how to fetch the arguments of a function which function pointer is referring to. please help me.

It is YOUR task to know what function to call and how.

You can then do a typedef of the function itself, and cast the result of the getprocaddr() to the appropriate type.

--
Mats

Thank you,
for your reply,

lets still simplify is there any method through which i can get the arguments pointer for a given function at runtime , because for my generic function i can only pass one argument which represents the argument list so that when i pass the argument pointer to my generic function so it resolves that pointer and can take the arguments from stack,

is there any way.

Can you describe a little bit more about what the problem is that you are actually trying to solve. This seems like another case of 'fixing a puncture by asking how to undo a wheel-nut'.

I'm pretty sure there is a "good way" to solve your overall problem, but I need to understand better what you are trying to ACTUALLY do.

--
Mats

As i described already also,

let me still clear the point , i will be passing a function at runtime which is not fixed, so i will get its function pointer through by loading a DLL which i can pass it to a generic function, along with the function pointer i want to pass its argument list how to get its argument list when i know only function pointer or function name,
for ex:
i have one function

Code:

ex1.c
call_me(int,float)
{
}
i created a DLL here call.dll
ex2.c
My_Generic_Function("outputbuffe,arg_list,fptr)
{
//here i want to resolve that arg_list so that i can give it to the actual function
call_me(int ,float);
}

int main()
{
HMODULE hwnt=libload("call.dll);//load the .dll
 fptr=getprocaddr(hwnt,"call_me");
My_Generic_Function("outputbuffe,arg_list,fptr);
}

so i want to send the arg_list for a given function how i can get it that is my question.

if this is not clear please tell me what u have understood so that we can continue from that perspective.

Right, maybe I'm being stupid, but I still don't understand what you actually want to do.

Give a realm example, with argument values to the function. [Don't worry about the syntax errors, but something, given the syntax was ok, would produce some understandable results]

--
Mats

I do not see how you can call the function without knowing its arguments. What is the purpose of this?

If I call puts - I call it to output a string and I should provide a string as a paramater.

If I even do not know what argumants puts expects - why would I bother to call it?

This kind of thing is much easier to accomplish in scripting languages. E.g in Python

Code:

def foo(a, b):
    print "summing", a, b
    return a + b

def bar():
    print "returning bar"
    return "bar"

def call_function(fun, *args):
    return fun(*args)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    a = call_function(foo, 2, 3)
    b = call_function(bar)
    print a
    print b
    #incorrect number of arguments
    #call_function(bar, "bar does not accept arguments")

   #first argument is not a callable
   #call_function(a, 42)

summing 2 3
returning bar
5
bar

Whereas code that is commented out would produce something like:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\pythonwin\pywin\framework\scriptutils.py" , line 310, in RunScript
exec codeObject in __main__.__dict__
File "C:\Python25\skripts\Script1.py", line 18, in <module>
call_function(bar, "bar does not accept arguments")
File "C:\Python25\skripts\Script1.py", line 10, in call_function
return fun(*args)
TypeError: bar() takes no arguments (1 given)

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\pythonwin\pywin\framework\scriptutils.py" , line 310, in RunScript
exec codeObject in __main__.__dict__
File "C:\Python25\skripts\Script1.py", line 18, in <module>
call_function(a, 42)
File "C:\Python25\skripts\Script1.py", line 10, in call_function
return fun(*args)
TypeError: 'int' object is not callable

(And of course you could catch exceptions and handle them more appropriately.)

While C is good for implementing scripting language interpreters, I don't see how it would be possible to determine without introspection whether the arguments are correct, how they should be cast etc. (Perhaps you might have more success in C++ if you have, for example, support for variadic templates...)

ok let me try,

ex:

Code:

i have one Function
Fn_2.c
void Fn_2_Call(float *res,int a)
{
//its definition goes here
}

i have created a Dll of that called test.dll
know my function
main.c

SMCallFunc(res,1,13,a, (fptr)fnptr)
{
//here some code here
//at last it calls
fnprt(res,a);

}

int main()
{
int a;
floar res[10];
HMODULE hwnd=LoadLibrary("c:\\callfunc\\test.dll"); 
fnptr=(void*)GetProcAddress(hwnd, "Fn_2_Call");
SMCallFunc(res,1,13,a, (fptr)fnptr);//this is my generic function
first arg=resulting function
1=         number of arg
13=stack memory in bytes
a=variable
fnptr=function pointer
  }

which runs very fine but one strict restriction is that my generic function will take only these 5 parameters nothing more than this, so the problem comes when i try to write a function which is some thing like this,

Code:

void Fn_3_Call(float *res,int a,cha *name,float sal)

if this is the senario how i should collect these parameters, because here i have fixed the
function to fun_2_call but it can be anything at runtime fun_3_call,fun_4_call which i can load from there corresponding dlls
which takes different arguments so how to resolve that problem with argument passing how can i pass the n number of argument into a single variable for my generic function
b
hope this may help me from u r side.

Are you asking for a generic function pointer that can point to any function?

The only way to do that is to designate a specific function pointer type as generic, and cast to the correct type before dereferencing it. Exactly like void * is used for normal pointers.

Use inline assembler...

Code:

repeat loop until i < args.length:
  //do type definition to args[i]
  arg = args[i]
  __asm {
    //push arg according to the calling convention stdcall/...
    push ptrToarg
  }

//call the function
__asm {
  call funcPtr
}

This one is called "naked call". Ocassionaly used in scripting extension that support native calls to DLL.

Originally Posted by vin_pll

ok let me try,

ex:

Code:

i have one Function
Fn_2.c
void Fn_2_Call(float *res,int a)
{
//its definition goes here
}

i have created a Dll of that called test.dll
know my function
main.c

SMCallFunc(res,1,13,a, (fptr)fnptr)
{
//here some code here
//at last it calls
fnprt(res,a);

}

int main()
{
int a;
floar res[10];
HMODULE hwnd=LoadLibrary("c:\\callfunc\\test.dll"); 
fnptr=(void*)GetProcAddress(hwnd, "Fn_2_Call");
SMCallFunc(res,1,13,a, (fptr)fnptr);//this is my generic function
first arg=resulting function
1=         number of arg
13=stack memory in bytes
a=variable
fnptr=function pointer
  }

which runs very fine but one strict restriction is that my generic function will take only these 5 parameters nothing more than this, so the problem comes when i try to write a function which is some thing like this,

Code:

void Fn_3_Call(float *res,int a,cha *name,float sal)

if this is the senario how i should collect these parameters, because here i have fixed the
function to fun_2_call but it can be anything at runtime fun_3_call,fun_4_call which i can load from there corresponding dlls
which takes different arguments so how to resolve that problem with argument passing how can i pass the n number of argument into a single variable for my generic function
b
hope this may help me from u r side.

If your generic function will always take those 5 parameters (which means you have 4 parameters to pass along to the 5th function pointer, if I'm understanding you) then why not make any and every callback function take those four parameters? (They can ignore them if they don't need them, after all.)

Thank u for all your replies,

i just started with some direction,

is there any way of making stack as generic using void * pointer so that it can accept anything(any data type)

for ex:
stack s[10];

s.push(12);
s.push("name");
s.push(12.34);

similarly the pop should happen with the single stack object is this is possible
if you have any appropriate links please send me because in net i hav seen
all generic implementations were in <template> for which i have to create

stack<int>
stack<float>
stack<char>

which i dont want i just want stack s;//which will any data type in c

in general i need a heterogeneous stack implementation.

You can use a generic pointer for pushing items onto the stack but you have to cast it to the proper type before popping them.

Now this appears to be a C++ question, so you might try Boost.Any or Boost.Variant, with something like:

Code:

std::stack<boost::any> s;