How to make GCC evaluate functions at compile time?

Question

I am thinking about the following problem: I want to program a microcontroller (let's say an AVR mega type) with a program that uses some sort of look-up tables.

The first attempt would be to locate the table in a separate file and create it using any other scripting language/program/.... In this case there is quite some effort in creating the necessary source files for C.

My thought was now to use the preprocessor and compiler to handle things. I tried to implement this with a table of sine values (just as an example):

#include <avr/io.h>
#include <math.h>

#define S1(i,n) ((uint8_t) sin(M_PI*(i)/n*255))
#define S4(i,n) S1(i,n), S1(i+1,n), S1(i+2,n), S1(i+3,n)

uint8_t lut[] = {S4(0,4)};

void main()
{
    uint8_t val, i;

    for(i=0; i<4; i++)
    {
        val = lut[i];
    }
}

If I compile this code I get warnings about the sin function. Further in the assembly there is nothing in the section .data. If I just remove the sin in the third line I get the data in the assembly. Clearly all information are available at compile time.

Can you tell me if there is a way to achieve what I intent: The compiler calculates as many values as offline possible? Or is the best way to go using an external script/program/... to calculate the table entries and add these to a separate file that will just be #included?

Answer 1

The general problem here is that sin call makes this initialization de facto illegal, according to rules of C language, as it's not constant expression per se and you're initializing array of static storage duration, which requires that. This also explains why your array is not in .data section.

C11 (N1570) §6.6/2,3 Constant expressions (emphasis mine)

A constant expression can be evaluated during translation rather than runtime, and accordingly may be used in any place that a constant may be.

Constant expressions shall not contain assignment, increment, decrement, function-call, or comma operators, except when they are contained within a subexpression that is not evaluated.115)

However as by @ShafikYaghmour's comment GCC will replace sin function call with its built-in counterpart (unless -fno-builtin option is present), that is likely to be treated as constant expression. According to 6.57 Other Built-in Functions Provided by GCC:

GCC includes built-in versions of many of the functions in the standard C library. The versions prefixed with __builtin_ are always treated as having the same meaning as the C library function even if you specify the -fno-builtin option.

Answer 2

What you are trying is not part of the C language. In situations like this, I have written code following this pattern:

#if GENERATE_SOURCECODE
int main (void)
{
    ... Code that uses printf to write C code to stdout
}
#else
    // Source code generated by the code above
    ... Here I paste in what the code above generated

    // The rest of the program
#endif

Every time you need to change it, you run the code with GENERATE_SOURCECODE defined, and paste in the output. Works well if your code is self contained and the generated output only ever changes if the code generating it changes.