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SWIG/Examples/perl5/constants/
Wrapping C Constants
$Header: /cvs/projects/SWIG/Examples/perl5/constants/index.html,v 1.1 2000/06/17 23:46:22 beazley Exp $
When SWIG encounters C preprocessor macros and C declarations that look like constants,
it creates Perl5 variables with an identical value. Click here
to see a SWIG interface with some constant declarations in it.
Accessing Constants from Perl
Click here to see a script that prints out the values
of the constants contained in the above file.
Key points
- The values of preprocessor macros are converted into Perl constants.
- Types are inferred by syntax (e.g., "3" is an integer and "3.5" is a float).
- Character constants such as 'x' are converted into Perl strings.
- C string literals such as "Hello World" are converted into Perl strings.
- Macros that are not fully defined are simply ignored. For example:
#define EXTERN extern
is ignored because SWIG has no idea what type of variable this would be.
- Expressions are allowed provided that all of their components are defined. Otherwise, the constant is ignored.
- Certain C declarations involving 'const' are also turned into Perl constants.
- The constants that appear in a SWIG interface file do not have to appear in any sort
of matching C source file since the creation of a constant does not require linkage
to a stored value (i.e., a value held in a C global variable or memory location).
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