ARM > Efficient C for ARM > Pointer Chains

by David Thomas on —

Pointer Chains

Pointer chains are frequently used to access data in structures.

Examples

This code must reload o->pos after each assignment.

typedef struct { int x,y,z; } Point3;
typedef struct { Point3 *pos, *dir; } Object;

void setPos1(Object *o)
{
  o->pos->x = 0;
  o->pos->y = 0;
  o->pos->z = 0;
}

setPos1 LDR r2,[r0,#0]
        MOV r1,#0
        STR r1,[r2,#0]
        LDR r2,[r0,#0] ; *** redundant load
        STR r1,[r2,#4]
        LDR r0,[r0,#0]
        STR r1,[r0,#8]
        MOV pc,lr

This improved version caches o->pos in a local variable.

Another possibility is to fold Point3 into its parent Object structure.

typedef struct { int x,y,z; } Point3;
typedef struct { Point3 *pos, *dir; } Object;

void setPos2(Object *o)
{
  Point3 *pos = o->pos;
  pos->x = 0;
  pos->y = 0;
  pos->z = 0;
}

setPos2 LDR r0,[r0,#0]
        MOV r1,#0
        STR r1,[r0,#0]
        STR r1,[r0,#4]
        STR r1,[r0,#8]
        MOV pc,lr

Remarks

To put it another way, the compiler does not know that o->pos->x is not an alias for o->pos.

This is from ARM Application Note 34, Section 8.2.3. (Now withdrawn? I can no longer find it online.)