Question

I have 2 functions in C doing exactly the same thing, the only difference is the data types passed to each function e.g. one is int the other one char* .
Is there a way to combine these functions to one so that when I call this one function I need not worry about the data type. This can be done in C++ using template but I want to do the same thing in C and do not know how, thx.

Answer 1

I know two common ways to deal with such situtation in C.
1)Replace int and “char *”, with “void *p” and “int size”

void f1(int i); void f2(char *str); -> void f(void *p, int s);
f(&i, sizeof(i)); f(str, strlen(str);//or may be f(str, sizeof(str[0]);

for example see qsort from stdlib

2)Use preprocessor, like

#define f(arg) do { \
   //magic
} while (0)

things like this used to emulate std::list in linux kernel.