Revision [22031]

This is an old revision of ProPgProcedurePointers made by fxm on 2017-12-02 10:42:29.

 

Pointers to Procedures


Pointers that point to procedures
Just as pointers can be made to point to an Integer or Single type, pointers can also point to procedures, that is, they can store the address of a procedure.

Declaration
To declare a pointer to procedure, use the Sub or Function keywords, followed by any parameters and return value type:

' declares a pointer to sub procedure that takes no arguments
Dim pointerToProcedure As Sub
Procedure pointers store procedure addresses, which are retrieved using Operator @ (Address of) or the ProcPtr operator:

'' pfunc.bi

Function Add (a As Integer, b As Integer) As Integer
    Return a + b
End Function

Dim pFunc As Function (As Integer, As Integer) As Integer = @Add


Calling a procedure pointer
The interesting thing about procedure pointers is that they can be called just like a procedure:

'' .. Add and pFunc as before ..
#include once "pfunc.bi"

Print "3 + 4 = " & pFunc(3, 4)
For a calling example of subroutine pointer, see the Operator @ (Address of) page.

Note: When calling a procedure through a procedure pointer, parentheses surrounding the argument list (even empty) are mandatory to resolve ambiguity with a simple access to the pointer value.

Passing procedure pointers to procedures
Passing procedure pointers to other procedures is similar as well:

'' .. Add and pFunc as before ..
#include once "pfunc.bi"

Function DoOperation (a As Integer, b As Integer, operation As Function (As Integer, As Integer) As Integer) As Integer
    Return operation(a, b)
End Function

Print "3 + 4 = " & DoOperation(3, 4, @Add)
Because procedure pointer declarations can be lengthy, it often helps to create a type alias for the procedure pointer, in an effort to make clearer code:

'' .. Add and pFunc as before ..
#include once "pfunc.bi"

Type operation As Function (As Integer, As Integer) As Integer

Function DoOperation (a As Integer, b As Integer, op As operation) As Integer
    Return op(a, b)
End Function

Print "3 + 4 = " & DoOperation(3, 4, @Add)


Pointers to procedure pointers
Because the syntax of a procedure pointer does not allow declaration of a pointer to procedure pointer when the procedure is a function (because ptr applies on return type and not on procedure), a type alias is used. Notice how it is necessary to surround a dereferenced pointer to procedure pointer by parenthesis when calling the procedure. This is because the function-call operator '()' has higher precedence than Operator * (Value of):

Function Halve (ByVal i As Integer) As Integer
    Return i / 2
End Function

Function Triple (ByVal i As Integer) As Integer
    Return i * 3
End Function

Type operation As Function (ByVal As Integer) As Integer

' an array of procedure pointers, NULL indicates the
' end of the array
Dim operations(20) As operation = _
{ @Halve, @Triple, 0 }

Dim i As Integer = 280

' apply all of the operations to a variable by iterating through the array
' with a pointer to procedure pointer
Dim op As operation Ptr = @operations(0)
While (*op <> 0)
    ' call the procedure that is pointed to, note the extra parenthesis
    i = (*op)(i)
    op += 1
Wend

Print "Value of 'i' after all operations performed: " & i


Pointers to member procedures
Method pointers are not implemented yet, but it is possible to work-around that by using a static wrapper:

/''
 ' This example shows how you can simulate getting a class method pointer,
 ' until support is properly implemented in the compiler.
 '
 ' When this is supported, you will only need to remove the static wrapper
 ' function presented here, to maintain compatibility.
 '/

Type T
    Declare Function test(ByVal number As Integer) As Integer
    Declare Static Function test(ByRef This As T, ByVal number As Integer) As Integer
    Dim As Integer i = 420
End Type

Function T.test(ByVal number As Integer) As Integer
    Return i + number
End Function

Function T.test(ByRef This As T, ByVal number As Integer) As Integer
    Return This.test(number)
End Function

Dim p As Function(ByRef As T, ByVal As Integer) As Integer
p = @T.test

Dim As T obj

Print p(obj, 69) '' prints 489


Typing rule for procedure pointer declaration
The procedure pointer declaration allows to assign to the pointer:
  • not only a procedure with the same parameters types, and if any, the same result type,
  • but also a procedure with contravariant byref (or by pointer) parameters or/and a covariant byref (or by pointer) result.

'Example of assigning to a function pointer a function with a contravariant parameter and a covariant result.

Type A
    Dim As Integer I
End Type

Type B Extends A
    Dim As Integer J
End Type

Function f (ByRef a0 As A) As B Ptr
    Print "instance of B created"
    Return New B(a0)
End Function

Dim As Function (ByRef As B) As A Ptr pf = @f

Dim As B b0
Dim As A Ptr pab = pf(b0)

Sleep
Delete CPtr(B Ptr, pab)


See also:
Back to Programmer's Guide




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