How to get DllStruct element names and data types

[Tyranna]

     Is there a way to extract the element names and data type definitions from a DllStruct?

I have a DLLStruct with many elements and would like to set up an array that has the Datatype and element name to

display them on a generically created set of controls.   But I need to be able to insert an entry

in the DLLStruct definition when I want to,  and then,  not have to go back and renumber the array that is now out of order.

So what I want is to read the DLLStruct data and name by index.

Then load those values into the generic table. (The table consisting of labels and input boxes created in order so I can use an index value on them)

I suppose I could get the value, and use a GetVarType on it , but the element NAME string is what I define the element as and make reference to, so I would

like to be able to get that name.

 

And, is there a way to get the number of elements in the struct?  Like a Ubound function for DLLStructs...

Edited August 7, 2017 by Tyranna

[jchd]

I've writen a function that might help a bit but it doesn't actually cover all your bases, mainly as it doesn't even try to detect and output alignment directives, including STRUCT and ENDSTRUCT. That is [painfully] possible but would require a whole lot of new code for what I consider mostly corner cases. This quick'n'dirty code requires the beta in order to support Map datatype.

There is no possibility with current AutoIt to recover structure field names, but they are essentially cosmetic. In your case, setting up a 2D array to store field name along with a float to be able to insert betwwen existing entries + sort on that column before re-creation would do. Won't work forever but a double has enough precision to be workable.

VarDump.au3

Needless to say, all this is experimental at best, buggy most probably.

 

Edited August 7, 2017 by jchd

[Tyranna]

Hmm.

That is some crazy coding to determine what the elements are.

This seems to imply that if you want to know what element you want, you have to memorize the struct definition itself.

That simply cannot happen.

Especially if the structure definition is changing when new entries are added or deleted.

The Idea of adding a sort column is cool,  but the definition is already in place and I cant(wont) change the mile long thing.

I did have an idea though, and it goes something like this:

1.)  Store the Struct Elements and Types fields in a CSV file.  Ex: LINE1: "BYTE" , "ELEMENT1[20]"

2.)  Parse those into an array using 1-based index and 0 being the total elements in the struct

3. ) Create the struct definition from the array entries with concatenation.

Then maybe I could just go to the file and add an entry where ever I wanted to and could read the ELEMENTNAME from the array.

Then the Array element number could match the index of the Struct as well

Creating the original file would be very tedious work.....

What do you think?

 

 

 

[jchd]

28 minutes ago, Tyranna said:

This seems to imply that if you want to know what element you want, you have to memorize the struct definition itself.

That simply cannot happen.

Ahem, this is just what you do in the 1) 2) 3) points in your post.

I suggested an all-embedded way to do it. Relying on reading/editing of an external file wasn't in the original landscape, at least as I viewed it.

And yes, I had "some" fun dumping actual precise content of variables.

May I ask why you need such dynamically changing C structures?

[Tyranna]

I would have to respectfully disagree with the assessment that that is what i was doing in step 1,2, and 3. 

Because, at that point I can link the elementname with the index of the struct.

I do not want to have to go look at the struct definition every time I want to know the element name or vice versa.

I want to use the element name to derive the struct index.

I can access the struct with the name, or index, but to a loop outputting formatted output, it cant see the name at all.

I would end up with a list of data labeled 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 etc, which when all the data is numbers, would mean nothing

when displayed in table format.  That is why I want to get the name, so I can display the elements data and its corresponding name(Label)

I suppose i am using a struct as a database.  Maybe that's not a proper implementation for a database.  But, since the DLLStruct has that

elementname parameter that you can use to access the specific struct data it seemed to me, in my mind a perfect fit. At least until

I found  that I can't use the elementname.  Obviously somewhere in AutoIt there is a mapping from the struct elementname to the struct index,

because it maps it to it in the DLLStructGetData command.  It was an intuitive leap that I would be able to access that mapping somewhere.

 

[RTFC]

A different suggestion.

[Tyranna]

That post makes no sense to me, and

DllStructAnylyze appears to be an undefined  function.

I do not know if that is UDF, or an #INCLUDE or what.

[spudw2k]

The DllStructAnalyze and supporting functions are in the spoiler (Reveal hidden contents) of Ward's first post.

His example crashes though, at least when I tried executing it.  Has potential though.

Edited August 8, 2017 by spudw2k

[Tyranna]

Well, I implemented the file method with an asscociated array for referencing the elementname and it works well.

It is a round-about, but I can edit the file, and it re-creates the Struct by concatenating the array elements.