Article ID: 119394
Article Last Modified on 7/5/2005
APPLIES TO
- The C Run-Time (CRT), when used with:
- Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual C++ 1.5 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2.0 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2.1
- Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Service Pack 5
This article was previously published under Q119394
SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft C++, if you use functions that accept a variable number of arguments, you may encounter problems when trying to use the va_* family of functions to access the parameters if the second parameter used for the va_start macro is a reference type.
CAUSE
This problem is caused by the way that the va_start macro is defined and the way that the C++ language handles taking the address of a reference. Applying the "address of" operator to a reference type results in a pointer to the object that is being referred to. The va_start macro takes the address of the last named parameter to locate subsequent parameters. When the last named parameter is a reference, this causes problems because the macro is no longer referring to the current call stack but whatever follows the object being referred to, which could be a previous call stack or a global memory object.
RESOLUTION
The workaround is to redefine the va_start macro to use inline assembly to subvert the C++ language.
NOTE: This solution is not portable and will require changing if you intend your source code to be used on non-Intel platforms.
MORE INFORMATION
The va_start macro is used in conjunction with the va_arg macro to "walk" the stack to get the parameters passed to the variable argument list. The va_start macro is defined as follows:
#define va_start(ap,v) ( ap = (va_list)&v + _INTSIZEOF(v) )
where va_list is defined as a char * on Intel platforms. The macro parameter "ap" is of type va_list. The problem arises from taking the address of the second parameter, "v", if v is a reference type. The net result of this macro being expanded is that ap is supposed to point to the first of the variable parameters. Casting v to a non-reference type intuitively seems like the logical solution, but because the result of a cast is not an l-value, the compiler returns an error message.
NOTE: The only way to get an l-value from a cast is to cast the value to a reference type, which results in the same problem.
Sample Code
The sample code below demonstrates a solution for this problem:
/* Compile options needed: none
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
// Uncomment the following lines to work-around the problem:
//
// #ifdef va_start
// #undef va_start
//
// #ifdef _WIN32
// #define va_start(ap,v) {int var= _INTSIZEOF(v); \
// __asm lea eax,v __asm add eax,var __asm mov ap,eax \
// }
// #else
// #define va_start(ap,v) { int var=_INTSIZEOF(v);\
// __asm lea ax,v __asm add ax,var __asm mov ap,ax\
// }
// #endif
// #endif
void numprint( int &first ... )
{
va_list ap;
va_start( ap, first );
printf("%d\n", first );
int ival = va_arg( ap, int );
printf("%d\n", ival );
double dval = va_arg( ap, double );
printf( "%.2f\n", dval );
va_end(ap);
}
void main()
{
int i=100,j=1000;
float f=999.99;
numprint( i,j,f );
}
Additional query words: ellipsis
Keywords: kbcrt kbprb KB119394
