On Sun, 25 Apr 2004, mohammad siddiqui wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am having problem dealing with data structures in OCAML, I am translating 
> code from C to OCAML. As shown below one structure contains array of other 
> structures as its field. One of the guys here told me that we cant inline 
> structures into other structures in OCAML.

That was me.

Let's consider the C code:

typedef struct {
    int a;
    int b;
} foo_t;

typedef struct {
    int c;
    foo_t * arr;
} bar_t;

void f(bar_t * ptr) {
    /* Change a foo_t */
    ptr->arr[ptr->c].a += 1;
    ptr->arr[ptr->c].b -= 1;
}

Fairly simply, and basically what you want to do, right?  Now, Ocaml can't 
"inline" (unbox is what I should have said) the foo_t's into the array.  
So you can't do the above code.  What you *can* implement code like (C 
again):

typedef struct {
    int c;
    foo_t ** arr;
} bar_t;

void f(bar_t ptr) {
    ptr->arr[ptr->c]->a += 1;
    ptr->arr[ptr->c]->b -= 1;
}

Notice the extra level of indirection- arr is no longer a pointer to an 
array of foo_t's, but instead a pointer to an array of pointers to 
foo_t's.

Now, the precise translation of this, second version of the code, is this:

type foo_t = { mutable a: int; mutable b: int };;
type bar_t = { c: int; arr: foo_t array };;

let f ptr = 
    ptr.arr.(ptr.c).a <- ptr.arr.(ptr.c).a + 1;
    ptr.arr.(ptr.c).b <- ptr.arr.(ptr.c).b - 1
;;

But we can do better than this, by converting the structures to tuples, 
giving us:

type foo_t = int * int;;
type bar_t = int * (foo_t array);;

let f ((c, arr) : bar_t) =
    arr.(c) <-
        begin
            match (arr.(c)) with
                | (a, b) -> (a+1, b-1)
       end
;;

Here we're taking advantage of the fact that the foo_t's are boxed (not 
inlined), by simply throwing the old tuple out and replacing it with a new 
tuple with the correct new values.

Does this help?

-- 
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive,
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                                - Gene Spafford 
Brian

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