BilisDcs

Collection of Reliable Data Container Structures for Standard C

Quick Intro

1. Define your type

typedef struct {
 char name[20];
 int param_a;
 unsigned int param_b;
} NameAndValue;

2. Allocate space for the container

#define STACKSIZE 16
NameAndValue name_and_values[STACKSIZE];

3. Initialize the container

DcsStack nv_stack = dcsstack_init(sizeof(NameAndValue), STACKSIZE, name_and_values);

4. Use the container

NameAndValue nv0 = {"Foo", -123, 4};
dcsstack_push(&nv_stack, &nv0);
int nv_size = dcsstack_size(&nv_stack);
// etc.

Installation

Get the source

Either clone the git source or download and extract the zip. Cloning git source is preferred.

Autotools preparation

First, you need to run aclocal.

Next, run autoconf.

Finally, run automake --add-missing.

aclocal
autoconf
automake --add-missing

Configure & Install

The INSTALL file already describes how to run the configure script.

Installation prefix, compiler, target platform, etc. can be overridden at this step.

./configure
make
make install

Check examples

The make process compiles -along with other source files- the example files. The example binaries are placed in the examples directory. Check them out, e.g.,

examples/dcshashset_xmpl1_demo

Provided Structures

Structure	Description	Implementation	Documentation	Tests	Examples
DcsFIFO	Circular buffer based FIFO	missing	missing	missing	missing
DcsHashSet	Capacity constrained hashset	READY	READY	missing	2
DcsHS	Size optimized hashset	missing	missing	missing	missing
DcsHoF	Hall of Fame -- stores Top N elements	READY	READY	missing	1
DcsLinSet	Array based, ordered set	READY	in progress	missing	missing
DcsHashMultiMap	Multiple values with the same key	missing	missing	missing	missing
DcsStack	Simple, size constrained stack	READY	missing	missing	1

Key Features

• No dynamic memory allocation

  Memory area has to be allocated by the user. Initializer functions take a reference to the pre-allocated memory area as parameter.

• Access to container elements via byte pointers

  Standard C language does not support templates. There are multiple ways to overcome this gap. BilisDcs has chosen to employ the generic type: byte pointer (ElementPtr). Also, the size of the stored type (itemsize) always must be given at initialization of the container structure.

• Iterators and iterator functions

  Functions ~_begin() and ~_end() are defined for each container. Since the standard C language does not support operator overload, operators on iterators are also defined as functions:

  • ~_iterator_equals()
  • ~_next_iterator()
  • ~_deref_iterator()