Question

I am trying to extract debug information from a compiled C program with C#, and need to store the global variables.

If I have the variable:

const unsigned char * volatile MyVariable;

the name of the variable will be MyVariable, and the type is unsigned char. what will be const and volatile. Are they part of the type?

I have to represent a variable with a class and I am lost on how to construct it. This is how I have represented it right now:

public class MyVariable
{
     public string Name;
     public string Type;

     public bool IsArray;
     public bool IsPointer;
     public bool IsConstant;
     public bool IsVolatile;
     // etc...

     public int Size; // in bytes
}

Should I make volatile and const part of the type? What are they? Attributes?

Edit

Sorry I think I did not explained my self correctly. my question should have been how should I construct MyVariable class I know what the const keyword does to a variable and also the volatile. I use the volatile keyword when I create a variable that will be accessed by multiple threads for example.

Anyways so based on the answers I should be constructing my class as:

public class MyVariable
{
     public string Name;
     public string Type;

     public string[] TypeQualifiers;

     public int Size; // in bytes
}

where TypeQualifiers will be an array of those keywords (type qualifiers). Thanks a lot for the help.

Answer 1

const and volatile are both type qualifiers, although they are completely independent.

The const keyword specifies that the object or variable cannot be changed within the code.

The volatile qualifier declares the data can have its value changed in ways outside the control or detection of the compiler, preventing the compiler from applying any optimizations on the code (such as storing the object’s value in a register rather than the memory, where it may have changed).

A variable which is both const and volatile means that it is guaranteed not to be changed in the current code, but that does not mean that it cannot be changed externally.

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EDIT: As a sidenote, unsigned is a type modifiers in C, just like signed and long.
I suggest that you also have independent type fields such as IsSigned, IsUnsigned and IsLong in addition to the type itself (int, char, etc…).