union for return values

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZeroMemory

anyway I'm gonna keep on with the classic method...I'll just declare a variable for each return type. Thanks for your help!

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I know what you mean though, I often have this is at the top of my scope blocks:

Code:

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short srcode = 0;
int ircode = 0;
long lrcode = 0;

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All just so you can print out the return code you got from the function! :(

QuantumPete

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Matsp

the compiler needs to store the result in the union (again, for the above reasons), rather than just using a register.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZeroMemory

is this true even if the union is a local variable (local in the function)?

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Yes, it would be true for more complex cases when the compiler doesn't actually know what's going on. In a simple case, it would "understand" what's actually going on, and thus work out same as the "several variables" variant. I wrote a small example and Visual Studio .Net did sort out the union example to be the same as the one with a simple integer. However, I have seen compilers do "stupid" things when unions are involved.

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Mats