A structure like this:
class SMSMsg
{
public:
size_t mysize;
time_t when;
size_t szmsg;
int to;
char msg[1];
};
with a varying length string in msg cannot simply be
stored in a db_vector<SMSMsg> without some
configuration on your part. This is because, by default, dbstl uses the
sizeof() operator to get the size of
an object and then memcpy() to copy the object. This
process is not suitable for this use-case as it will fail to capture the
variable length string contained in msg.
There are currently two ways to store these kind of objects:
Register callback functions with dbstl that are used to measure an object's size, and then marshal/unmarshal the object.
Use a DbstlDbt wrapper object.
One way to store an object that contains variable-sized fields is to marshall all of the object's data into a single contiguous area in memory, and then store the contents of that buffer. This means that upon retrieval, the contents of the buffer must be unmarshalled. To do these things, you must register three callback functions:
typedef void (*ElemRstoreFunct)(T& dest, const void *srcdata);
This callback is used to unmarshal an object, updating dest
using data found in srcdata. The data in
srcdata contains the chunk of memory into which the
object was originally marshalled. The default unmarshalling function simply performs a cast
(for example, dest = *((T*)srcdata)), which assumes the
srcdata simply points to the memory layout of the object.
typedef size_t (*ElemSizeFunct)(const T& elem);
This callback returns the size in bytes needed to store the elem object. By default this function simply uses sizeof(elem) to determine the size of elem.
typedef void (*ElemCopyFunct)(void *dest, const T&elem);
This callback is used to arrange all data contained by elem
into the chunk of memory to which dest refers. The size of
dest is set by the ElemSizeFunct
function, discussed above. The default marshalling function simply uses
memcpy() to copy elem to
dest.
The DbstlElemTraits<SMSMsg>::instance()->set_size_function(),
set_copy_function() and set_restore_function() methods
are used to register these callback functions. If a callback is not registered, its
default function is used.
By providing non-default implementations of the callbacks described here, you can store objects of varying length and/or objects which do not reside in a continuous memory chunk — for example, objects containing a pointer which refers another object, or a string, and so forth. As a result, containers/iterators can manage variable length objects in the same as they would manage objects that reside in continuous chunks of memory and are of identical size.
To use a DbstlDbt wrapper object to store objects of variable length, a
db_vector<DbstlDbt> container is used to store complex objects in a
db_vector. DbstlDbt derives from DB C++ API's
Dbtclass, but can manage its referenced memory properly and release it
upon destruction. The memory referenced by DbstlDbt objects is required
to be allocated using the malloc()/realloc() functions
from the standard C library.
Note that the use of DbstlDbt wrapper class is not ideal. It exists only
to allow raw bytes of no specific type to be stored in a container.
To store an SMSMsg object into a db_vector<DbstlDbt>
container using a DbstlDbt object:
SMSMSg object into a DbstlDbt object,
then marshal the SMSMsg object properly into the memory chunk referenced by
DbstlDbt::data.
DbstlDbt object into a db_vector<DbstlDbt>
container. The bytes in the memory chunk referenced by the DbstlDbt object's
data member are stored in the
db_vector<DbstlDbt> container.
DbstlDbt object whose
data field points to the SMSMsg object
located in a continuous chunk of memory. The application needs to perform its own unmarshalling.
DbstlDbt::data is freed automatically,
and so the application should not attempt to free the memory.
ElementHolder should not be used to store objects of a class because it
doesn't support access to object members using (*iter).member
or iter->member expressions. In this case, the default
ElementRef<ddt> is used automatically.
ElementRef inherits from ddt, which allows
*iter to return the object stored in the container.
(Technically it is an ElementRef<ddt> object, whose "base class"
part is the object you stored). There are a few data members and member functions in
ElementRef, which all start with _DB_STL_. To avoid
potential name clashes, applications should not use names prefixing _DB_STL_
in classes whose instances may be stored into dbstl containers.
Example code demonstrating this feature can be found in the
TestAssoc::test_arbitrary_object_storage method, which can be located
in the dbstl test suite.
A sequence is a group of related objects, such as an array, a string, and so forth. You can store sequences of any structure using dbstl, so long as you implement and register the proper callback functions. By using these callbacks, each object in the sequence can be a complex object with data members that are all not stored in a continuous memory chunk.
Note that when using these callbacks, when you retrieve a stored sequence from the database, the entire sequence will reside in a single continuous block of memory with the same layout as that constructed by your sequence copy function.
For example, given a type RGB:
struct RGB{char r, g, b, bright;};
and an array of RGB objects, the following steps describe how to store an array into one
key/data pair of a db_map container.
db_map<int, RGB *, ElementHolder<RGB *> > container.
Define two functions. The first returns the number of objects in a sequence, the second that copies objects from a sequence to a defined destination in memory:
typedef size_t (*SequenceLenFunct)(const RGB*);
and
typedef void (*SequenceCopyFunct)(RGB*dest, const RGB*src);
typedef size_t (*SequenceLenFunct)(const RGB*);
A SequenceLenFunct function returns the number of objects in a sequence. It
is called when inserting into or reading from the database, so there must be enough information
in the sequence itself to enable the SequenceLenFunct function to tell how many
objects the sequence contains. The char* and wchar_t*
strings use a '\0' special character to do this. For example, RGB(0, 0, 0, 0)
could be used to denote the end of the sequence. Note that for your implementation of this
callback, you are not required to use a
trailing object with a special value like '\0' or
RGB(0, 0, 0, 0) to denote the end of the sequence. You are free to use
what mechanism you want in your
SequenceLenFunct function implementation to figure out the length of the sequence.
typedef void (*SequenceCopyFunct)(RGB*dest, const RGB*src);
SequenceCopyFunct copies objects from the sequence
src into memory chunk dest.
If the objects in the sequence do not reside in a continuous memory chunk, this function must
marshal each object in the sequence into the dest memory chunk.
The sequence objects will reside in the continuous memory chunk referred to by dest, which has been sized by SequenceLenFunct
and ElemSizeFunct if available (which is when objects in the sequence are
of varying lengths). ElemSizeFunct function is not needed in this example
because RGB is a simple fixed length type, the
sizeof() operator is sufficient to return the size of the sequence.
The get and set functions of this class are not protected by any mutexes. When using multiple threads to access the function pointers, the callback functions must be registered to the singleton of this class before any retrieval of the callback function pointers. Isolation may also be required among multiple threads. The best way is to register all callback function pointers in a single thread before making use of the any containers.
If objects in a sequence are not of identical sizes, or are not located in a consecutive
chunk of memory, you also need to implement and register the
DbstlElemTraits<>::ElemSizeFunct callback function to measure
the size of each object. When this function is registered, it is also used when
allocating memory space.
There is example code demonstrating the use this feature in
TestAssoc::test_arbitray_sequence_storage(), which is available
in the dbstl test suite.
A consequence of this dbstl feature is that you can not store a pointer value directly
because dbstl will think it is a sequence head pointer. Instead, you need to convert the
pointer into a long and then store it into a long
container. And please note that pointer values are probably meaningless if the stored
value is to be used across different application run times.