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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).