Hardcoding large data set into executable?

Question

I'd like to hardcode large sets of data (integer arrays of varying length, a library of text strings, etc) directly into an executable file, so there are no additional files.

My question is, what is the most practical and organized method for doing this in C++? Where would I place the data, in terms of header or source files? What structure should I use?

I realize this isn't the accepted way of dealing with data. But humour me!

try putting it in a different .cpp file, for example, resources.cpp, then make it extern and give it a header file. — user529758
– user529758, Commented Dec 16, 2012 at 21:24
stackoverflow.com/questions/410980/… related, not exactly what I was looking for. — djechlin
– djechlin, Commented Dec 16, 2012 at 21:25
What is your target OS? If it's Windows you can use raw resources linked into your project. You can access them as usual (example). — Stan
– Stan, Commented Dec 16, 2012 at 21:32
@stan - I'm compiling on windows, but I'd need to switch compilers at some point to make mac/debian binaries I'm afraid — Anne Quinn
– Anne Quinn, Commented Dec 16, 2012 at 21:37

vleo · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-16 22:12:28Z

8

For both C++ and C, you may use header file to put declarations for these variables, and then place actual initialization code into .c (or .cc) file. Both C and C++ have decent initializers syntax. For example:

mydata.h:

extern int x;
extern int a[10];
extern unsigned char *s;

mydata.c:

#include "mydata.h"
int x = 123;
int a[10] = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10};
unsigned char *s = "mystring";

then main.c will have:

#include "mydata.h"
#include <stdio.h>

int main(const int argc, char *argv[])
{
  printf("%d, %d, %s\n", x,a[5],s);
}

test run looks like this:

$gcc -o main main.c mydata.c
$ ./main 
123, 6, mystring

Now, to really get organized, one would write Perl/Python/PHP script to generate such formed files from your datasources, like SQL database of CSV files.

edited Dec 16, 2012 at 22:12

answered Dec 16, 2012 at 22:04

vleo

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Comments

Pavel Radzivilovsky · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-16 22:17:02Z

1

Try this:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bin2obj/

Convert your data to an OBJ and link into your project.

answered Dec 16, 2012 at 22:17

Pavel Radzivilovsky

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