Passing a pointer to a struct in cython

Question

I'm attempting to write a cython interface to the complex version of the MUMPS solver (zmumps). I'm running into some problems as I have no previous experience with either C or cython. Following the example of the pymumps package I was able to get the real version of the code (dmumps) to work.

I believe that my problem are the pointers to the ZMUMPS_COMPLEX structures. For the

So far I have the following (lifted heavily from pymumps):

zmumps_c.pxd:

from libc.string cimport strncpy

cdef extern from "mumps_c_types.h":

    ctypedef struct ZMUMPS_COMPLEX "ZMUMPS_COMPLEX":
        double   r
        double   i

cdef extern from "zmumps_c.h":

    ctypedef int MUMPS_INT

    ctypedef struct c_ZMUMPS_STRUC_C "ZMUMPS_STRUC_C":
        MUMPS_INT      sym, par, job
        MUMPS_INT      comm_fortran    # Fortran communicator 
        MUMPS_INT      n

        # Assembled entry
        MUMPS_INT      nz
        MUMPS_INT      *irn
        MUMPS_INT      *jcn
        ZMUMPS_COMPLEX *a

        # RHS and statistics 
        ZMUMPS_COMPLEX *rhs
        MUMPS_INT      infog[40]

    void c_zmumps_c "zmumps_c" (c_ZMUMPS_STRUC_C *)

zmumps_c.pyx

cdef class ZMUMPS_STRUC_C:
    cdef c_ZMUMPS_STRUC_C ob

    property sym:
        def __get__(self): return self.ob.sym
        def __set__(self, value): self.ob.sym = value
    property par:
        def __get__(self): return self.ob.par
        def __set__(self, value): self.ob.par = value
    property job:
        def __get__(self): return self.ob.job
        def __set__(self, value): self.ob.job = value
    property comm_fortran:
        def __get__(self): return self.ob.comm_fortran
        def __set__(self, value): self.ob.comm_fortran = value
    property n:
        def __get__(self): return self.ob.n
        def __set__(self, value): self.ob.n = value
    property nz:
        def __get__(self): return self.ob.nz
        def __set__(self, value): self.ob.nz = value
    property irn:
        def __get__(self): return <long> self.ob.irn
        def __set__(self, long value): self.ob.irn = <MUMPS_INT*> value
    property jcn:
        def __get__(self): return <long> self.ob.jcn
        def __set__(self, long value): self.ob.jcn = <MUMPS_INT*> value
    property a:
        def __get__(self): return <long> self.ob.a
        def __set__(self, long value): self.ob.a = <ZMUMPS_COMPLEX*> value
    property rhs:
        def __get__(self): return <long> self.ob.rhs
        def __set__(self, long value): self.ob.rhs = <ZMUMPS_COMPLEX*> value

    property infog:
        def __get__(self):
            cdef MUMPS_INT[:] view = self.ob.infog
            return view


def zmumps_c(ZMUMPS_STRUC_C s not None):
    c_zmumps_c(&s.ob)

In my python code I'm able to set the irn and jcn using

import zmumps_c
import numpy as np

MUMPS_STRUC_C = staticmethod(zmumps_c.ZMUMPS_STRUC_C)
id = MUMPS_STRUC_C()
x = np.r_[1:10]
id.irn = x.__array_interface__['data'][0]

However, I have no idea how to set the values of a or rhs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

There is more than one way to achieve this - here's one approach.

The code below defines a wrapper for ZMUMPS_COMPLEX. It then defines a wrapper for ZMUMPS_STRUC_C, with __get__ and __set__ methods for the rhs property that allow it to accept the ZMUMPS_COMPLEX wrapper.

zmumps_c.pyx

cdef class ZMUMPS_COMPLEX:
    '''A wrapper for the ZMUMPS_COMPLEX struct'''
    cdef c_ZMUMPS_COMPLEX c_zm

    def __init__(self, double real, double imag=0):
        self.c_zm.r = real
        self.c_zm.i = imag

    property r:
        def __get__(self):
            return self.c_zm.r
        def __set__(self, value):
            self.c_zm.r = value

    property i:
        def __get__(self):
            return self.c_zm.i
        def __set__(self, value):
            self.c_zm.i = value

    def __repr__(self):
        return '({real}{imag:+}j)'.format(real=self.c_zm.r, imag=self.c_zm.i)

cdef class ZMUMPS_STRUC_C:
    '''A wrapper for the ZMUMPS_STRUC_C struct'''
    cdef c_ZMUMPS_STRUC_C ob
    cdef object _rhs

    property rhs:
        def __get__(self):
            return self._rhs
        def __set__(self, ZMUMPS_COMPLEX c):
            self._rhs = c
            self.ob.rhs = &c.c_zm

    def test(self):
        return (self.ob.rhs[0].r, self.ob.rhs[0].i,)

def main():
    z = ZMUMPS_STRUC_C()
    c = ZMUMPS_COMPLEX(-3.5, 2.0)
    z.rhs = c
    print z.rhs
    print z.test()
    c.r = 42.0
    print z.rhs
    z.rhs.i = -5.0
    print z.rhs

The main() function demonstrates the behaviour of the two objects. The output should look like this:

(-3.5+2.0j)
(-3.5, 2.0)
(42.0+2.0j)
(42.0-5.0j)

I don't have the library installed, so I tested this using the dummy definitions below:

zmumps_c.pxd

cdef struct c_ZMUMPS_COMPLEX "ZMUMPS_COMPLEX":
    double r
    double i

cdef struct c_ZMUMPS_STRUC_C "ZMUMPS_STRUC_C":
    c_ZMUMPS_COMPLEX *rhs

setup.py

from distutils.core import setup
from Cython.Build import cythonize

setup(
    ext_modules = cythonize("example.pyx")
)

Answer 2

This might help:

The following example lets you get at the C-level members of Python’s built-in “complex” object:

cdef extern from "complexobject.h":

    struct Py_complex:
        double real
        double imag

    ctypedef class __builtin__.complex [object PyComplexObject]:
        cdef Py_complex cval

# A function which uses the above type
def spam(complex c):
    print "Real:", c.cval.real
    print "Imag:", c.cval.imag

Grabbed from here.

As ZMUMPS_COMPLEX and the builtin Py_complex structs have exactly the same structure, you should be able to do the trick by creating a bridge between those two types (using typedefs and/or cast or a function that turns a Py_complex into a ZMUMPS_COMPLEX)...

I'd love to help more but I don't currently have mumps installed...