Return to Answer

I don't know about the __arm__ implementation, but for the AVR one, it is incomplete for handling the corner case when the program does not use the malloc() function. If your program never uses malloc(), the formula used in freeMemory() will produce the wrong result. A simple corrected version for AVR that I used is here:

extern unsigned int __heap_start;
extern char *__brkval;

int freeMemory() {
  char top_of_stack;

  if (__brkval == 0) {
    Serial.println(((int)&top_of_stack - (int)&__heap_start));
  } else {
    Serial.println((int)&top_of_stack - (int)__brkval);
  }
}

#define     PSTR(s)   ((const PROGMEM char *)(s))

It looks a little bit intimidating, but it is actually quite simple. It not only tells the avr-gcc that the string literal s should be kept in program memory (i.e., flash memory in the case of Arduino), but it allows the program to convert it into a const char *s PROGMEM variable, so that it can be pass around into some PROGMEM-aware functions as a parameter.

 // This is a PROGMEM-aware function in C
 printMsg_P(const char* str) {
     char buf[strlen_P(str)+1];
     strcpy_P(buf, str);
     puts(buf);
 }

 // This handles the normal string array function
 printMsg(const char* str) {
     puts(str);
 }

class __FlashStringHelper;
#define F(string_literal) (reinterpret_cast<const __FlashStringHelper *>(PSTR(string_literal)))

This has to do with C++'s function overload. Function overload is a feature of C++ where multiple methods could have the same function name, but each with different parameters. Within all the Serial.print() methods, there is a method Serial.print(const char* str) that will take in a string literal and print it to serial monitor, but it is not PROGMEM-aware. If you pass in a PROGMEM string literal Serial.print(PSTR("string literal"));, the same method will accept what you pass in because it meet the type checking (remember PSTR is actually const char*), but it will not print out the correct string for PSTR("string literal"), because it simply expecting a normal string.

Serial.print(const __FlashStringHelper *ifsh)

Serial.print((__FlashStringHelper*)PSTR("test"));

#define     PGM_P   const char *

const char *const string_table[] PROGMEM = {string_0, string_1, string_2, string_3, string_4, string_5};

PGM_P const string_table[] PROGMEM = {string_0, string_1, string_2, string_3, string_4, string_5};

With the code related to the __arm__ implementation aside, for the code related to the AVR, it is incomplete for handling the corner case when the program does not use the malloc() function. If your program never uses malloc(), the formula used in freeMemory() will produce the wrong result. A simple corrected version for AVR that I used is here:

extern unsigned int __heap_start;
extern char *__brkval;

int freeMemory() {
   char top_of_stack;

   if (__brkval == 0) {
     Serial.println(((int)&top_of_stack - (int)&__heap_start));
   } else {
     Serial.println((int)&top_of_stack - (int)__brkval);
   }
}

#define     PSTR(s)   ((const PROGMEM char *)(s))

It looks a little bit intimidating, but it is actually quite simple. It not only tells the avr-gcc that the string literal s should be kept in program memory (i.e., flash memory in the case of Arduino), but it allows the program to convert it into a const char *s PROGMEM pointer, so that it can be pass around into some PROGMEM-aware functions as a parameter.

// This is a PROGMEM-aware function in C
printMsg_P(const char* str) {
  char buf[strlen_P(str)+1];
  strcpy_P(buf, str);
  puts(buf);
}

// This handles the normal string array function
printMsg(const char* str) {
  puts(str);
}

class __FlashStringHelper;
#define F(string_literal) (reinterpret_cast<const __FlashStringHelper *>(PSTR(string_literal)))

This has to do with C++'s function overload. Function overload is a feature of C++ where multiple methods could have the same function name, but each with different parameters. Within all the Serial.print() methods, there is a method Serial.print(const char* str) that will take in a string literal and print it to serial monitor, but it is not PROGMEM-aware. If you pass in a PROGMEM string literal Serial.print(PSTR("string literal"));, the same overloaded method we just mentioned will accept what you pass in because it meet the type checking (remember PSTR is actually const char*), but it will not print out the correct string for PSTR("string literal"), because it simply expecting a normal string.

Serial.print(const __FlashStringHelper *ifsh)

Serial.print((__FlashStringHelper*)PSTR("test"));

#define     PGM_P   const char *

const char *const string_table[] PROGMEM = {string_0, string_1, string_2, string_3, string_4, string_5};

PGM_P const string_table[] PROGMEM = {string_0, string_1, string_2, string_3, string_4, string_5};

First, the freeMemory() function that you used from Adafruit was originated from a github, I don't know about the __arm__ implementation, but for the avr, it is incomplete for handling the corner case when the program does not use the malloc() function, if your program never use malloc(), the formula used in freeMemory() will produce the wrong result. A simple corrected version for AVR that I used is here:

PSTR came into Arduino from part of avr-libs(a C library) defined in avr/pgmspace.h, it is actually a macro, not a function as many think it was, and is defined as:

It looks a little bit intimidated but it actually quite simple, it not only tell the avr-gcc that the string literal s should be kept in program memory (i.e. Flash memory in the case of Arduino), but allows the program to convert it into a const char *s PROGMEM variable so that it can be pass around into some PROGMEM-aware functions as a parameter.

 //this is a PROGMEM-aware function in c
 printMsg_P(const char* str) {
     char buf[strlen_P(str)+1];
     strcpy_P(buf, str);
     puts(buf);
 }

 // this handle the normal string array function
 printMsg(const char* str) {
     puts(str);
 }

F() is also a macro but it is not part of the avr/progmem.h, it is actually part of the String class defined in WString.h together with a definition of a class called __FlashStringHelper:

As you can see from the definition of F(), it casts a string literal into a const char* variable using PSTR(), and then re-cast it into a class __FlashStrngHelper. If you further looks at the __FlashStringHelper, it is actually an empty class without any construct or method, it is literally empty, so why is this useful? and why can't just pass the string literal around by just using PSTR().

This has to do with C++'s function overload. Function overload is a feature of C++ where multiple methods could have the same function name but each with different parameters. Within all the Serial.print() methods, there is a method Serial.print(const char* str) that will take in a string literal and print it to serial monitor, but it is not PROGMEM-aware, if you pass in a PROGMEM string literal Serial.print(PSTR("string literal"));, the same method will accept what you pass in because it meet the type checking (remember PSTR is actually const char*), but it will not print out the correct string for PSTR("string literal") because it simply expecting a normal string.

In c, as we see before, we solves the problem by using two functions with different names for handling normal string and PROGMEM string, but Serial is a C++ class, it needs another function overloaded method to be PROGMEM-aware, and PSTR() is clearly not the solution as we just mentioned.

What WSting.h and Print.cpp did is to create an overload method that is PROGMEM-aware by accepting a class as parameter, so that you can pass a F() wrapped string literal which has a data type of class __FlashStringHelper into the Serial.print() and get the print out correctly from program memory. See the source code yourself.

So in summary, the F() and PSTR() are alike, both telling the compiler to keep the string literal in the program memory, and allow the string literal to be pass around into some function as parameter. But it was designed for different purpose from different programming paradigm (C versus C++). F() is Serail.print()-friendly, while PSTR() is not. If you are getting PSTR() in a function and yet you want to send it to Serial.print(), you will have to explicitly cast it into __FlashStringHelper like this:

Whether you want to use PGM_P or const char * is a personal preference, for example, this is copy from https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/language/variables/utilities/progmem/:

This is a lengthy explanation, but I hope this will help on better understand the subject and therefore be able to use the PROGMEM and all the associated macros effectively.

First, the freeMemory() function that you used from Adafruit was originated from a GitHub repository.

I don't know about the __arm__ implementation, but for the AVR one, it is incomplete for handling the corner case when the program does not use the malloc() function. If your program never uses malloc(), the formula used in freeMemory() will produce the wrong result. A simple corrected version for AVR that I used is here:

PSTR came into Arduino from part of avr-libs (a C library) defined in avr/pgmspace.h. It is actually a macro, not a function as many think it was, and is defined as:

It looks a little bit intimidating, but it is actually quite simple. It not only tells the avr-gcc that the string literal s should be kept in program memory (i.e., flash memory in the case of Arduino), but it allows the program to convert it into a const char *s PROGMEM variable, so that it can be pass around into some PROGMEM-aware functions as a parameter.

 // This is a PROGMEM-aware function in C
 printMsg_P(const char* str) {
     char buf[strlen_P(str)+1];
     strcpy_P(buf, str);
     puts(buf);
 }

 // This handles the normal string array function
 printMsg(const char* str) {
     puts(str);
 }

F() is also a macro, but it is not part of the avr/progmem.h. It is actually part of the String class defined in WString.h together with a definition of a class called __FlashStringHelper:

As you can see from the definition of F(), it casts a string literal into a const char* variable using PSTR(), and then recast it into a class __FlashStrngHelper. If you further look at the __FlashStringHelper, it is actually an empty class without any construct or method. It is literally empty, so why is this useful? And why can't it just pass the string literal around by just using PSTR()?

This has to do with C++'s function overload. Function overload is a feature of C++ where multiple methods could have the same function name, but each with different parameters. Within all the Serial.print() methods, there is a method Serial.print(const char* str) that will take in a string literal and print it to serial monitor, but it is not PROGMEM-aware. If you pass in a PROGMEM string literal Serial.print(PSTR("string literal"));, the same method will accept what you pass in because it meet the type checking (remember PSTR is actually const char*), but it will not print out the correct string for PSTR("string literal"), because it simply expecting a normal string.

In C, as we see before, we solve the problem by using two functions with different names for handling normal string and PROGMEM string, but Serial is a C++ class. It needs another function overloaded method to be PROGMEM-aware, and PSTR() is clearly not the solution as we just mentioned.

WSting.h and Print.cpp create an overload method that is PROGMEM-aware by accepting a class as parameter, so that you can pass a F() wrapped string literal which has a data type of class __FlashStringHelper into the Serial.print() and get the print out correctly from program memory. See the source code yourself.

So in summary, the F() and PSTR() are alike. Both are telling the compiler to keep the string literal in the program memory, and allow the string literal to be pass around into some function as parameter. But it was designed for different purpose from different programming paradigm (C versus C++). F() is Serial.print()-friendly, while PSTR() is not. If you are getting PSTR() in a function and yet you want to send it to Serial.print(), you will have to explicitly cast it into __FlashStringHelper like this:

Whether you want to use PGM_P or const char * is a personal preference. For example, this is copy from PROGMEM (Arduino reference):

This is a lengthy explanation, but I hope this will help with better understanding the subject and therefore be able to use the PROGMEM and all the associated macros effectively.

So in summary, the F() and PSTR() are alike, both telling the compiler to keep the string literal in the program memory, and allow the string literal to be pass around into some function as parameter. But it was designed for different purpose from different programming paradigm (C versus C++). F() is Serail.print()-friendly, while PSTR() is not. If you are getting PST() in a function and yet you want to send it to Serial.print(), you will have to explicitly cast it into __FlashStringHelper like this:

So in summary, the F() and PSTR() are alike, both telling the compiler to keep the string literal in the program memory, and allow the string literal to be pass around into some function as parameter. But it was designed for different purpose from different programming paradigm (C versus C++). F() is Serail.print()-friendly, while PSTR() is not. If you are getting PSTR() in a function and yet you want to send it to Serial.print(), you will have to explicitly cast it into __FlashStringHelper like this: