The Package Interfaces.C.Strings
Author: JTC1/SC22/WG9/ARG, by Randall Brukardt, ARG Editor

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# B.3.1 The Package Interfaces.C.Strings

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The package Interfaces.C.Strings declares types and subprograms allowing an Ada program to allocate, reference, update, and free C-style strings. In particular, the private type chars_ptr corresponds to a common use of “char *” in C programs, and an object of this type can be passed to a subprogram to which `with Import => True, Convention => C` has been specified, and for which “char *” is the type of the argument of the C function.

#### Static Semantics

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The library package Interfaces.C.Strings has the following declaration:
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package Interfaces.C.Strings is
pragma Preelaborate(Strings);
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type char_array_access is access all char_array;
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type chars_ptr is private;
pragma Preelaborable_Initialization(chars_ptr);
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type chars_ptr_array is array (size_t range <>) of aliased chars_ptr;
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Null_Ptr : constant chars_ptr;
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function To_Chars_Ptr (Item : in char_array_access;
Nul_Check : in Boolean := False)
return chars_ptr;
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function New_Char_Array (Chars : in char_array) return chars_ptr;
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function New_String (Str : in String) return chars_ptr;
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procedure Free (Item : in out chars_ptr);
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Dereference_Error : exception;
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function Value (Item : in chars_ptr) return char_array;
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function Value (Item : in chars_ptr; Length : in size_t)
return char_array;
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function Value (Item : in chars_ptr) return String;
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function Value (Item : in chars_ptr; Length : in size_t)
return String;
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function Strlen (Item : in chars_ptr) return size_t;
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procedure Update (Item : in chars_ptr;
Offset : in size_t;
Chars : in char_array;
Check : in Boolean := True);
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procedure Update (Item : in chars_ptr;
Offset : in size_t;
Str : in String;
Check : in Boolean := True);
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Update_Error : exception;
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private
... -- not specified by the language
end Interfaces.C.Strings;
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The type chars_ptr is C-compatible and corresponds to the use of C's “char *” for a pointer to the first char in a char array terminated by nul. When an object of type chars_ptr is declared, its value is by default set to Null_Ptr, unless the object is imported (see B.1).
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function To_Chars_Ptr (Item : in char_array_access;
Nul_Check : in Boolean := False)
return chars_ptr;
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If Item is null, then To_Chars_Ptr returns Null_Ptr. If Item is not null, Nul_Check is True, and Item.all does not contain nul, then the function propagates Terminator_Error; otherwise, To_Chars_Ptr performs a pointer conversion with no allocation of memory.
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function New_Char_Array (Chars : in char_array) return chars_ptr;
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This function returns a pointer to an allocated object initialized to Chars(Chars'First .. Index) & nul, where
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Index = Chars'Last if Chars does not contain nul, or
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Index is the smallest size_t value I such that Chars(I+1) = nul.
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Storage_Error is propagated if the allocation fails.
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function New_String (Str : in String) return chars_ptr;
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This function is equivalent to New_Char_Array(To_C(Str)).
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procedure Free (Item : in out chars_ptr);
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If Item is Null_Ptr, then Free has no effect. Otherwise, Free releases the storage occupied by Value(Item), and resets Item to Null_Ptr.
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function Value (Item : in chars_ptr) return char_array;
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If Item = Null_Ptr, then Value propagates Dereference_Error. Otherwise, Value returns the prefix of the array of chars pointed to by Item, up to and including the first nul. The lower bound of the result is 0. If Item does not point to a nul-terminated string, then execution of Value is erroneous.
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function Value (Item : in chars_ptr; Length : in size_t)
return char_array;
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If Item = Null_Ptr, then Value propagates Dereference_Error. Otherwise, Value returns the shorter of two arrays, either the first Length chars pointed to by Item, or Value(Item). The lower bound of the result is 0. If Length is 0, then Value propagates Constraint_Error.
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function Value (Item : in chars_ptr) return String;
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Equivalent to To_Ada(Value(Item), Trim_Nul=>True).
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function Value (Item : in chars_ptr; Length : in size_t)
return String;
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Equivalent to To_Ada(Value(Item, Length) & nul, Trim_Nul=>True).
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function Strlen (Item : in chars_ptr) return size_t;
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Returns Val'Length–1 where Val = Value(Item); propagates Dereference_Error if Item = Null_Ptr.
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procedure Update (Item : in chars_ptr;
Offset : in size_t;
Chars : in char_array;
Check : Boolean := True);
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If Item = Null_Ptr, then Update propagates Dereference_Error. Otherwise, this procedure updates the value pointed to by Item, starting at position Offset, using Chars as the data to be copied into the array. Overwriting the nul terminator, and skipping with the Offset past the nul terminator, are both prevented if Check is True, as follows:
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Let N = Strlen(Item). If Check is True, then:
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If Offset+Chars'Length>N, propagate Update_Error.
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Otherwise, overwrite the data in the array pointed to by Item, starting at the char at position Offset, with the data in Chars.
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If Check is False, then processing is as above, but with no check that Offset+Chars'Length>N.
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procedure Update (Item : in chars_ptr;
Offset : in size_t;
Str : in String;
Check : in Boolean := True);
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Equivalent to Update(Item, Offset, To_C(Str, Append_Nul => False), Check).

#### Erroneous Execution

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Execution of any of the following is erroneous if the Item parameter is not null_ptr and Item does not point to a nul-terminated array of chars.
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a Value function not taking a Length parameter,
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the Free procedure,
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the Strlen function.
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Execution of Free(X) is also erroneous if the chars_ptr X was not returned by New_Char_Array or New_String.
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Reading or updating a freed char_array is erroneous.
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Execution of Update is erroneous if Check is False and a call with Check equal to True would have propagated Update_Error.
NOTES
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9 New_Char_Array and New_String might be implemented either through the allocation function from the C environment (“malloc”) or through Ada dynamic memory allocation (“new”). The key points are
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the returned value (a chars_ptr) is represented as a C “char *” so that it may be passed to C functions;
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the allocated object should be freed by the programmer via a call of Free, not by a called C function.

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