Is there a way to get the name a Verilog module was instantiated with?

Question

I'd like to do some simulation debugging in Verilog and want to add $display to some modules. However, I want to be able to track the output a single module provides. I'd like to be able to get the name that the current module was instantiated with to add to the $display.

For example:

module adder (...)
    ...
    $display($magic_instance_name, " ", in0, " + ", in1);
    ...

adder memory_address (...);
adder fifo_nvals (...);

And then the output would look like:

memory_address 100 + 8
fifo_nvals 3 + 1
...

One way I could do this is to add an instance_name parameter to each module. Is there an easier way?

Answer 1

You can use %m to get the full path including the unique instance name:

module tb;
    adder memory_address ();
    adder fifo_nvals ();
    initial #5 $finish;
endmodule

module adder;
    initial $display("   hello from ... %m");
endmodule

Prints:

   hello from ... tb.memory_address
   hello from ... tb.fifo_nvals