reflection - Get list of C structure members

Question

Is it possible to get the list of members of a structure as a char ** ?

For example, something like this:

struct mystruct {
    int x;
    float y;
    char *z;
};

/* ... */

char **members = MAGIC(struct mystruct); /* {"x", "y", "z", NULL}. */

I am also interested in compiler-dependent methods. Is there such a thing ?

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

Here's a proof of concept:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define MEMBER(TYPE,NAME,MORE) TYPE NAME MORE

#define TSTRUCT(NAME,MEMBERS) 
  typedef struct NAME { 
    MEMBERS 
  } NAME; 
  const char* const NAME##_Members = #MEMBERS;

#define PRINT_STRUCT_MEMBERS(NAME) printStructMembers(NAME##_Members)

TSTRUCT(S,
  MEMBER(int,x;,
  MEMBER(void*,z[2];,
  MEMBER(char,(*f)(char,char);,
  MEMBER(char,y;,
  )))));

void printStructMembers(const char* Members)
{
  int level = 0;
  int lastLevel = 0;
  const char* p;
  const char* pLastType = NULL;
  const char* pLastTypeEnd = NULL;

  for (p = Members; *p; p++)
  {
    if (strstr(p, "MEMBER(") == p)
    {
      p += 6; // strlen("MEMBER")
      level++;
      lastLevel = level;
      pLastType = p + 1;
    }
    else if (*p == '(')
    {
      level++;
    }
    else if (*p == ')')
    {
      level--;
    }
    else if (*p == ',')
    {
      if (level == lastLevel)
      {
        if ((pLastType != NULL) && (pLastTypeEnd == NULL))
        {
          pLastTypeEnd = p;
        }
      }
    }
    else if (strstr(p, ";,") == p)
    {
      if ((pLastType != NULL) && (pLastTypeEnd != NULL))
      {
        const char* pp;
        printf("[");
        for (pp = pLastType; pp < pLastTypeEnd; pp++)
          printf("%c", *pp); // print type
        printf("] [");
        for (pp = pLastTypeEnd + 1; pp < p; pp++)
          printf("%c", *pp); // print name
        printf("]
");
      }
      pLastType = pLastTypeEnd = NULL;
    }
  }
}

char fadd(char a, char b)
{
  return a + b;
}

S s =
{
  1,
  { NULL, NULL },
  &fadd,
  'a'
};

int main(void)
{
  PRINT_STRUCT_MEMBERS(S);
  return 0;
}

This is it's output:

[int] [x]
[void*] [z[2]]
[char] [(*f)(char,char)]
[char] [y]

You can improve it to better support more complex member types and to actually build a list of names of the members.