CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cpointersvoid-pointers
Anand
Anand

Reputation: 25

Is there a way in C to point to an array of pointers each of which points to different data types?

I am trying to create an automated template in embedded C, which has a fixed plane text format, interspersed with variable parameters which I need to pick up from say an array. So I am putting in place holders at the point of occurrence of the parameters. Some of the parameters are strings while others are integer values or floating point values.

I have inserted extended ASCII values as place holders and then subtract 0x80 to extract an index based on the point of occurrence of the place holder. But I don't have a way to point to different source tables yet.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 76

Answers (1)

Vagish
Vagish

Reputation: 2547

By definition Array is collection of similar data types. So there is no no straight forward way in which you can have a array of pointers to different data types.

One of the way by which you can achieve this is by type casting the array elements with intended data types while accessing/ de-referencing the elements.

To know the correct type while accessing the elements you need to store the type while defining the element.

A possible solution could look like this:

typedef struct
{
   int type; //0 - enumDay, 1 - Struct C etc
   void* data;
}mydata_t;

mydata_t myarray[10];

Assigning :

myarray[0].type = 2; //Lets assume 2 for string
myarray[0].data = "My String";

Using :

 if( myarray[0].type == 2) // is it a string?
 {
    printf("This is the string :%s \n",(char*)myarray[0].Data);
 }

Upvotes: 2

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