Question

I am working on creating a python c extension but am having difficulty finding documentation on what I want to do. I basically want to create a pointer to a cstruct and be able to have access that pointer. The sample code is below. Any help would be appreciated.

typedef struct{
 int x;
 int y;
} Point;

typedef struct {
 PyObject_HEAD
 Point* my_point;
} PointObject;

static PyTypeObject PointType = {
    PyObject_HEAD_INIT(NULL)
    0,                         /*ob_size*/
    "point",             /*tp_name*/
    sizeof(PointObject), /*tp_basicsize*/
    0,                         /*tp_itemsize*/
    0,                         /*tp_dealloc*/
    0,                         /*tp_print*/
    0,                         /*tp_getattr*/
    0,                         /*tp_setattr*/
    0,                         /*tp_compare*/
    0,                         /*tp_repr*/
    0,                         /*tp_as_number*/
    0,                         /*tp_as_sequence*/
    0,                         /*tp_as_mapping*/
    0,                         /*tp_hash */
    0,                         /*tp_call*/
    0,                         /*tp_str*/
    0,                         /*tp_getattro*/
    0,                         /*tp_setattro*/
    0,                         /*tp_as_buffer*/
    Py_TPFLAGS_DEFAULT,        /*tp_flags*/
    "point objects",           /* tp_doc */
};

static PyObject* set_point(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
 PyObject* point; 

 if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O", &point))
 {
  return NULL;
 }

    //code to access my_point    
}

Answer 1

Your PyArg_ParseTuple should not use format O but O! (see the docs):

O! (object) [typeobject, PyObject *]

Store a Python object in a C object
pointer. This is similar to O, but
takes two C arguments: the first is
the address of a Python type object,
the second is the address of the C
variable (of type PyObject*) into
which the object pointer is stored. If
the Python object does not have the
required type, TypeError is raised.

Once you’ve done that, you know that in your function’s body (PointObject*)point will be a correct and valid pointer to a PointObject, and therefore its ->my_point will be the Point* you seek. With a plain format O you’d have to do the type checking yourself.

Edit: the OP in a comments asks for the source…:

static PyObject*
set_point(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
    PyObject* point; 

    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O!", &PointType, &point))
    {
        return NULL;
    }

    Point* pp = ((PointObject*)point)->my_point;

    // ... use pp as the pointer to Point you were looking for...

    // ... and incidentally don't forget to return a properly incref'd
    // PyObject*, of course;-)
}