Re: is there a way to call a function depending on an integer at runtime?

From:
jkherciueh@gmx.net
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sun, 30 Dec 2007 09:02:19 +0100
Message-ID:
<fl7jb7$hik$1@aioe.org>
aaragon wrote:

On Dec 29, 8:07 pm, jkherci...@gmx.net wrote:

aaragon wrote:

On Dec 29, 4:44 pm, fl <rxjw...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 29 d9c, 15:09, aaragon <alejandro.ara...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Dec 29, 10:52 am, "Daniel T." <danie...@earthlink.net> wrote:

aaragon <alejandro.ara...@gmail.com> wrote:

The problem with using a map is that it needs to be instantiated
with every element in it (all vectors needed to be created). I
wanted to use a function because in that way only the vectors
that I use are initialized. Most likely, I will be using only 1
of those 30 vectors for each run, so it doesn't make sense to
initialize ALL of them.


Unless a single run is extremely fast, and you will be running
this program thousands of times per second, the extra time it take
to initialize all of the vectors is irrelevant. And if the run is
extremely fast and you are running the program thousands of times
per second, then you should be embedding this code in a program
that makes several passes per run.

So yes, it does make sense to initialize all of them.


Ok, so I decided to follow your advice but with a little twist.
Instead of having a map to a vector, I will have now a map to
function pointers. Inside those functions the arrays (known at
compilation time) are declared static so they're initialized only
once (when I call the function the first time). In this way, I don't
need to initialize what I won't use. Also, I don'tneed to have
annoying switch or if blocks. It looks like this:

// .h file
template <int v>
double loc(size_t);
// forward declarations of function specializations (defined in .cxx
file)
template <>
double loc<1>(size_t);
template <>
double loc<2>(size_t);
// and so on


Hi,
It is interesting. Could you fill the specific contents of the <>, so
I can learn something from you? Thanks a lot.

template <???????>
double loc<1>(size_t); // Really it is loc<1>?
template <???????>
double loc<2>(size_t);

template <
class MapPolicy = std::map<size_t, double (*)(size_t)>

struct Map {

  typedef MapPolicy MapType;
  MapType loc_;

  Map() : loc_() {
  // add location function pointers
  loc_[1] = &loc<1>; // ERROR!!!
  loc_[2] = &loc<2>; // ERROR!!!
  // and so on
  }
  inline double loc(size_t i, size_t gp) {
    return loc_[gp](i);
  }

};

// .cxx file, partial specializations for the function
template<>
double loc<1>(size_t i) {
  static const double loc[] = { 0.4 };
  return loc[i];}

template<>
double loc<2>(size_t i) {
  static const double loc[] = { 0.2, 0.6 };
  return loc[i];}

// and so on until 30

Ok, this looks good and it's just what I want. However, for some
strange reason that I really don't see, I cannot compile this code.
At those ERROR lines I have the following message:

testMap.h: In constructor 'fea::Map<MapPolicy>::Map()':
testMap.h:36: error: expected primary-expression before ';' token

It doesn't allow me to take the address of the templated function.
The strange thing is that I can do the same from the main.cxx file,
that is:

// main.cxx

    std::map<size_t, double (*)(size_t)> location;

    location[1] = &loc<1>;
    location[2] = &loc<2>;

    cout<<"what the -> "<<location[2](1)<<endl;

works fine! Is this a problem with my compiler or there is something
wrong with the syntax? I'm using gcc version 4.1.2. I know, I
know... I could just use regular functions and call them loc1, loc2
and so on and forget about the template (this will definitely work),
but hey, I'm learning day by day and I just cannot give up that
easily, right?

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Well, this is just a function templated by an integer constant that is
known at compilation time. So you can have the same function for
different values of the integer value. So first declare the function
but don't define it:

template <int v>
double loc(size_t);

and then using template specialization you can have as many functions
as you want with the same name:

template <>
double loc<1>(size_t) { // yes, it is actually loc<1>
  // do whatever you want to do here
}
// and the same for all other functions

Then you can call the functions just by using

cout<<"using loc<1>: "<<loc<1>(5)<<endl;

The cool thing is that the map maps integer to function pointers, and
these execute the right function. I wanted to do this because I have
very big arrays to be initialized but for a particular run I don't use
them all. Therefore, it didn't make sense to me to initialize all of
them. So, I declared the known arrays as static arrays inside the
functions so they are initialized only once. And the best part, is
that those functions that I don't use, don't initialize any arrays...
=)
This is just what I was looking for.


Hm. Although it is true that those functions that you don't execute don't
initialize arrays, it is still the case that the executable will contain
all the data that would be needed to initialize the arrays (after all,
the compiler cannot predict which array will be used at run-time). The
actual initialization of the array is probably a null-op since the
compiler already made the array reside in the data segment of the
executable.

In order to access the one array that you actually need, the map will
perform a search that is going to use roughly 5 comparisons (given that
there are about 30 function pointers).

I would consider _faking_ the existence of several arrays:

struct double2d {

  static
  double const * begin ( unsigned int i ) {
    static const double d [] =
      {
        0.1,
        0.2, 0.3, 0.4,
        0.2, 0.5
      };
    static const unsigned arr [] =
      { 0, 1, 4, 6 };
    return ( &d[0] + arr[i] );
  }

  static
  double const * end ( unsigned int i ) {
    return ( begin(i+1) );
  }

  static
  unsigned int size ( void ) {
    return ( 3 );
  }

};

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>

int main ( void ) {
  for ( unsigned int i = 0; i < double2d::size(); ++i ) {
    std::copy( double2d::begin(i), double2d::end(i),
               std::ostream_iterator<double>( std::cout, " " ) );
    std::cout << '\n';
  }

}

Best

Kai-Uwe Bux


Nope, that doesn't work for me. Imagine that you have to expand that
vector 30 times, the first array has only 1 element and the last one
has 30. It can be done, but why initialize the entire thing if it
won't be used? The memory in your approach is the same (the executable
will have the same size) but the run time will be much less if I only
initialize what I need.


I suggest you test that hypothesis by measuring. I bet, you will be
surprised.

You agreed that the size of the executable will be the same. How do you
think the data is encoded in the executable? It's just a binary dump of the
daty. Initialization of the variables d and arr above is probably a
null-op: the variable d will physically be placed whereever the program
loader has put the binary dump of the array from the executable. It doesn't
get any faster than that.

You seem to assume that after loading the executable into memory, there will
be a actual code executed copying the data into some other part of memory
thereby initializing d and arr. I strongly doubt that.

[snip]

Best

Kai-Uwe Bux

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