I’m sorry if this is a basic question(I’m new to c/c++, but I’m a little confused at how to get the answer. stxxl is a c++ library but some of my code is in c. I know c++ can use c code(my c code is embedded in c++), but does it work the other way around so c can run c++ code?
Their site only mentions c++ but I’m wondering if there’s something special that can be done to run c++ libraries within c?
Sorry the books I have read talk about using c code in c++ and the c book I read was written before c++ came out. Right now my c function is sending data to my c++ code which is using the c++ library and then sending results back so I’m thinking I want to test performance if I cut the middle man(c++).
You can link to a C++ library from C only when the C++ library has been designed to be used from C. Specifically, the functions the library provides need to be exported with
extern "C" {}block to avoid name mangling, and the interface should be designed in a way to be usable from plain C (i.e. no classes or member functions, only functionless structs and plain functions).It is worth mentioning that you can compile your C code with a C++ compiler, and it will for the most part be OK. This lets you pretend that your C code is a C++ code, and freely mix in functionality provided through C++ – specific interfaces.