Re: memory alignment of structs in non trivial deriviation....
On 24 Apr 2007 09:20:25 -0700, ".rhavin grobert" <clqrq@yahoo.de> wrote:
i've the following:
struct SA {
DWORD dwA;
BYTE bA;
int iA;
};
struct SAX : public SA {
DWORD dwAx;
CString scAtest;
void Afoo();
};
struct SB : public SA {
DWORD dwB;
BYTE bB;
int iB;
};
struct SBX : public SB {
DWORD dwBx;
CString scBtest;
void Bfoo();
};
SBX sbxTest;
________________________________________________
what i want to have in memory at &sbxTest is this:
[ DWORD dwA ] [ BYTE bA ] [ int iA ] [ DWORD dwB ] [ BYTE bB ] [ int
iB ] [ rest of SAX ] [ rest of SBX ]
how do i force the compiler to do order it exactly this way?
The SAX struct doesn't appear in the derivation of SBX, and it's hard to
tell what you mean by "rest of SAX". If I were to guess, I'd say you meant
to use virtual inheritance, in which case, you really should forget about
trying to specify the layout. There are many complications such as hidden
vptrs which may appear between the bases in the object layout. The best you
can hope for in this case is some fragile, non-portable object layout, and
I have no idea if this will give it to you, but it seems to match your
specification to the extent it can be expressed in C++:
struct SAX : virtual SA {...};
struct SB : virtual SA {...};
struct SBC : SB, SAX {...};
Why do you care about this level of detail? If you're hoping to dump it to
a binary file, I suggest you reconsider and use XML or a record-based
approach like a traditional WKS or XLS spreadsheet file. If you still want
to dump the whole thing, get rid of the derivation and complex types like
CString. Stick to simple structs using native types and you'll have a lot
fewer worries.
--
Doug Harrison
Visual C++ MVP