How to achieve function overloading in C?

Question

Is there any way to achieve function overloading in C? I am looking at simple functions to be overloaded like

foo (int a)  
foo (char b)  
foo (float c , int d)

I think there is no straight forward way; I'm looking for workarounds if any exist.

Answer 1

As already stated, overloading in the sense that you mean isn't supported by C. A common idiom to solve the problem is making the function accept a tagged union. This is implemented by a struct parameter, where the struct itself consists of some sort of type indicator, such as an enum, and a union of the different types of values. Example:

#include <stdio.h>

typedef enum {
    T_INT,
    T_FLOAT,
    T_CHAR,
} my_type;

typedef struct {
    my_type type;
    union {
        int a; 
        float b; 
        char c;
    } my_union;
} my_struct;

void set_overload (my_struct *whatever) 
{
    switch (whatever->type) 
    {
        case T_INT:
            whatever->my_union.a = 1;
            break;
        case T_FLOAT:
            whatever->my_union.b = 2.0;
            break;
        case T_CHAR:
            whatever->my_union.c = '3';
    }
}

void printf_overload (my_struct *whatever) {
    switch (whatever->type) 
    {
        case T_INT:
            printf("%d\n", whatever->my_union.a);
            break;
        case T_FLOAT:
            printf("%f\n", whatever->my_union.b);
            break;
        case T_CHAR:
            printf("%c\n", whatever->my_union.c);
            break;
    }

}

int main (int argc, char* argv[])
{
    my_struct s;

    s.type=T_INT;
    set_overload(&s);
    printf_overload(&s);

    s.type=T_FLOAT;
    set_overload(&s);
    printf_overload(&s);

    s.type=T_CHAR;
    set_overload(&s);
    printf_overload(&s); 
}

Answer 2

This may not help at all, but if you're using clang you can use the overloadable attribute - This works even when compiling as C

http://clang.llvm.org/docs/AttributeReference.html#overloadable

Header

extern void DecodeImageNow(CGImageRef image, CGContextRef usingContext) __attribute__((overloadable));
extern void DecodeImageNow(CGImageRef image) __attribute__((overloadable));

Implementation

void __attribute__((overloadable)) DecodeImageNow(CGImageRef image, CGContextRef usingContext { ... }
void __attribute__((overloadable)) DecodeImageNow(CGImageRef image) { ... }

Answer 3

I hope the below code will help you to understand function overloading

#include <stdio.h>
#include<stdarg.h>

int fun(int a, ...);
int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
   fun(1,10);
   fun(2,"cquestionbank");
   return 0;
}
int fun(int a, ...){
  va_list vl;
  va_start(vl,a);

  if(a==1)
      printf("%d",va_arg(vl,int));
   else
      printf("\n%s",va_arg(vl,char *));
}

Answer 4

Normally a wart to indicate the type is appended or prepended to the name. You can get away with macros is some instances, but it rather depends what you're trying to do. There's no polymorphism in C, only coercion.

Simple generic operations can be done with macros:

#define max(x,y) ((x)>(y)?(x):(y))

If your compiler supports typeof, more complicated operations can be put in the macro. You can then have the symbol foo(x) to support the same operation different types, but you can't vary the behaviour between different overloads. If you want actual functions rather than macros, you might be able to paste the type to the name and use a second pasting to access it (I haven't tried).

Answer 5

If your compiler is gcc and you don't mind doing hand updates every time you add a new overload you can do some macro magic and get the result you want in terms of callers, it's not as nice to write... but it's possible

look at __builtin_types_compatible_p, then use it to define a macro that does something like

#define foo(a) \
((__builtin_types_compatible_p(int, a)?foo(a):(__builtin_types_compatible_p(float, a)?foo(a):)

but yea nasty, just don't

EDIT: C1X will be getting support for type generic expressions they look like this:

#define cbrt(X) _Generic((X), long double: cbrtl, \
                              default: cbrt, \
                              float: cbrtf)(X)

Answer 6

The following approach is similar to a2800276's, but with some C99 macro magic added:

// we need `size_t`
#include <stddef.h>

// argument types to accept
enum sum_arg_types { SUM_LONG, SUM_ULONG, SUM_DOUBLE };

// a structure to hold an argument
struct sum_arg
{
    enum sum_arg_types type;
    union
    {
        long as_long;
        unsigned long as_ulong;
        double as_double;
    } value;
};

// determine an array's size
#define count(ARRAY) ((sizeof (ARRAY))/(sizeof *(ARRAY)))

// this is how our function will be called
#define sum(...) _sum(count(sum_args(__VA_ARGS__)), sum_args(__VA_ARGS__))

// create an array of `struct sum_arg`
#define sum_args(...) ((struct sum_arg []){ __VA_ARGS__ })

// create initializers for the arguments
#define sum_long(VALUE) { SUM_LONG, { .as_long = (VALUE) } }
#define sum_ulong(VALUE) { SUM_ULONG, { .as_ulong = (VALUE) } }
#define sum_double(VALUE) { SUM_DOUBLE, { .as_double = (VALUE) } }

// our polymorphic function
long double _sum(size_t count, struct sum_arg * args)
{
    long double value = 0;

    for(size_t i = 0; i < count; ++i)
    {
        switch(args[i].type)
        {
            case SUM_LONG:
            value += args[i].value.as_long;
            break;

            case SUM_ULONG:
            value += args[i].value.as_ulong;
            break;

            case SUM_DOUBLE:
            value += args[i].value.as_double;
            break;
        }
    }

    return value;
}

// let's see if it works

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    unsigned long foo = -1;
    long double value = sum(sum_long(42), sum_ulong(foo), sum_double(1e10));
    printf("%Le\n", value);
    return 0;
}