Style question: #include

[Francine.Neary]

I have a program that uses a large lookup table, provided as a large
array in the source:

static int bigtbl[]={123, 456,
/* etc. etc. */
9999 };

Now this table is pretty big, and having it clutter up my main source
file is quite ugly. So I'd like to put it in a separate file and
#include that.

The style question is: should the separate file have a .c or .h
extension? There are two conventions, and I need to violate one of
them!
1) #including a .c file is weird.
2) putting a definition, rather than just declarations, in a .h file
is also weird.

Thoughts?

[Xu Weijiang]

Maybe you can put it in a special named file such as *bigtbl.data*.

Fr************@ googlemail.com writes:

I have a program that uses a large lookup table, provided as a large
array in the source:

static int bigtbl[]={123, 456,
/* etc. etc. */
9999 };

Now this table is pretty big, and having it clutter up my main source
file is quite ugly. So I'd like to put it in a separate file and
#include that.

The style question is: should the separate file have a .c or .h
extension? There are two conventions, and I need to violate one of
them!
1) #including a .c file is weird.
2) putting a definition, rather than just declarations, in a .h file
is also weird.

Thoughts?

Best regards
Xu Weijiang
--
everything has its rules!

[Mike Wahler]

<Fr************ @googlemail.com wrote in message
news:11******** **************@ d30g2000prg.goo glegroups.com.. .

>I have a program that uses a large lookup table, provided as a large
array in the source:

static int bigtbl[]={123, 456,
/* etc. etc. */
9999 };

Now this table is pretty big, and having it clutter up my main source
file is quite ugly. So I'd like to put it in a separate file and
#include that.

The style question is: should the separate file have a .c or .h
extension? There are two conventions, and I need to violate one of
them!
1) #including a .c file is weird.

Some might call it weird, others not. But it's perfectly
valid. I'd use either .c or some other extension which
indicates what it is, perhaps .tbl

2) putting a definition, rather than just declarations, in a .h file
is also weird.

Same remarks about 'weird' as above. In a file (whatever its
name) intended to be #included by more than one other file
(the traditional meaning of a 'header file), it would not be
a good idea.

I've also seen the following form in third party libraries I've used:
/* ext.h */
#define EXTERN extern
/* array.h */
EXTERN int array[SIZE];
/* array.c */
#define EXTERN
#include "array.h" /* 'EXTERN' resolves to nothing, so definition occurs */
/* otherfiles.c */
#include ext.h
#include array.h /* causes extern declaration */
I don't really care for that way, I'd probably use
something like a .tbl file

-Mike

[CBFalconer]

Fr************@ googlemail.com wrote:

>
I have a program that uses a large lookup table, provided as a large
array in the source:

static int bigtbl[]={123, 456,
/* etc. etc. */
9999 };

Now this table is pretty big, and having it clutter up my main source
file is quite ugly. So I'd like to put it in a separate file and
#include that.

The style question is: should the separate file have a .c or .h
extension? There are two conventions, and I need to violate one of
them!
1) #including a .c file is weird.
2) putting a definition, rather than just declarations, in a .h file
is also weird.

Thoughts?

No, including a .c file is NOT weird. Being a .c file, you are
warned not to #include it in multiple sources (as you normally can
a .h file). You could also make it a .d or .dat etc. file if you
wish.

--
<http://www.cs.auckland .ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt>
<http://www.securityfoc us.com/columnists/423>
<http://www.aaxnet.com/editor/edit043.html>
cbfalconer at maineline dot net

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[ranjeet.gupta]

Francine.Ne...@ googlemail.com wrote:

I have a program that uses a large lookup table, provided as a large
array in the source:

static int bigtbl[]={123, 456,
/* etc. etc. */
9999 };

Now this table is pretty big, and having it clutter up my main source
file is quite ugly. So I'd like to put it in a separate file and
#include that.

The style question is: should the separate file have a .c or .h
extension? There are two conventions, and I need to violate one of
them!
1) #including a .c file is weird.
2) putting a definition, rather than just declarations, in a .h file
is also weird.

Thoughts?

Can you share the logic/Algo which you are runnig on your lookup
table,
Just wanted to know as I also have such a big lookup table, and
my major concern about it is that I need to reduce the search time.
(Optimising)

Can others also help and provide there thoughts.

Thanks
Ranjeet Gupta

[William Pursell]

On 6 Jul, 04:51, Francine.Ne...@ googlemail.com wrote:

I have a program that uses a large lookup table, provided as a large
array in the source:

static int bigtbl[]={123, 456,
/* etc. etc. */
9999 };

Now this table is pretty big, and having it clutter up my main source
file is quite ugly. So I'd like to put it in a separate file and
#include that.

The style question is: should the separate file have a .c or .h
extension? There are two conventions, and I need to violate one of
them!
1) #including a .c file is weird.

I agree strongly.

2) putting a definition, rather than just declarations, in a .h file
is also weird.

Also agreed. You can conform to both of these by using
the linker...

$ for i in data.h data.c foo.c; do echo "***** $i *****"; cat $i; done
***** data.h *****

#define TBL_SIZE 3
extern int bigtbl[ TBL_SIZE ];
***** data.c *****
#include "data.h"

int bigtbl[ TBL_SIZE ] = { 0, 1, 2};
***** foo.c *****

#include <stdio.h>
#include "data.h"

int
main(void)
{
printf( "Last entry:%d\n", bigtbl[ TBL_SIZE - 1 ]);
return 0;
}
$ gcc -c data.c
$ gcc -c foo.c
$ gcc -o foo foo.o data.o
$ ./foo
Last entry:2

[Dave Hansen]

On Jul 5, 10:51 pm, Francine.Ne...@ googlemail.com wrote:

I have a program that uses a large lookup table, provided as a large
array in the source:

static int bigtbl[]={123, 456,
/* etc. etc. */
9999 };

Now this table is pretty big, and having it clutter up my main source
file is quite ugly. So I'd like to put it in a separate file and
#include that.

The style question is: should the separate file have a .c or .h
extension? There are two conventions, and I need to violate one of
them!
1) #including a .c file is weird.
2) putting a definition, rather than just declarations, in a .h file
is also weird.

Thoughts?

When I've done this sort of thing in the past, the #included file was
generated automatically, and did not contain the declaration itself.
It also had the extension ".data". So I'd do something like this in
main.c:

#include <stdio.h /* or whatever you need */

static int bigtbl[] = {
#include "bigtbl.dat a"
};

/* etc. */

HTH,

-=Dave

[tguclu]

On Jul 6, 5:23 pm, Dave Hansen <i...@hotmail.c omwrote:

On Jul 5, 10:51 pm, Francine.Ne...@ googlemail.com wrote:

I have a program that uses a large lookup table, provided as a large
array in the source:

static int bigtbl[]={123, 456,
/* etc. etc. */
9999 };

Now this table is pretty big, and having it clutter up my main source
file is quite ugly. So I'd like to put it in a separate file and
#include that.

The style question is: should the separate file have a .c or .h
extension? There are two conventions, and I need to violate one of
them!
1) #including a .c file is weird.
2) putting a definition, rather than just declarations, in a .h file
is also weird.

Thoughts?

When I've done this sort of thing in the past, the #included file was
generated automatically, and did not contain the declaration itself.
It also had the extension ".data". So I'd do something like this in
main.c:

#include <stdio.h /* or whatever you need */

static int bigtbl[] = {
#include "bigtbl.dat a"
};

/* etc. */

HTH,

-=Dave- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hi
How was "bigtb.data " structured ?
Since you have already used curly brackets , is it only values
seperated with commas ?

[Roland Pibinger]

On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:24:34 GMT, "Mike Wahler" wrote:

><Fr*********** *@googlemail.co mwrote:

>1) #including a .c file is weird.

Some might call it weird, others not. But it's perfectly
valid. I'd use either .c or some other extension which
indicates what it is, perhaps .tbl

Microsoft uses .inl (probably means 'inline').
--
Roland Pibinger
"The best software is simple, elegant, and full of drama" - Grady Booch

[Dave Hansen]

On Jul 6, 11:48 am, tguclu <tugrul.gu...@g mail.comwrote:

On Jul 6, 5:23 pm, Dave Hansen <i...@hotmail.c omwrote:

[...]

static int bigtbl[] = {
#include "bigtbl.dat a"
};

[...]

>
Hi
How was "bigtb.data " structured ?
Since you have already used curly brackets , is it only values
seperated with commas ?

Exactly. It made the application that generated bigtbl.data a little
easier to write as well.

Regards,

-=Dave