Method for Implementing Virtual Function Tables in a Compiler for an Object-Oriented Programming Language

This invention relates generally to the field of compilers for computer programming languages and, more specifically, to compilers for languages having object-oriented features.

The use of object-oriented programming techniques can facilitate the development of complex computer programs. Programming languages that support object-oriented techniques have been developed. One such programming language is C++.

Two common characteristics of object-oriented programming languages are support for data encapsulation and data type inheritance. Data encapsulation refers to the binding of functions and data. Inheritance refers to the ability to declare a data type in terms of other data types.

In the C++ language, object-oriented techniques are supported through the use of classes. A class is a user-defined type. A class declaration describes the data members and function members of the class. For example, the following declaration defines the data members and the function member of a class named CIRCLE.

Variables x and y specify the center location of a circle and variable radius specifies the radius of the circle. These variables are referred to as data members of the class CIRCLE. The function draw is a user-defined function that draws the circle of the specified radius at the specified location. The function draw is referred to as a function member of class CIRCLE. The data members and function members of a class are bound together in that the function operates an instance of the class. An instance of a class is also called an object of the class.

In the syntax of C++, the following statement declares the objects a and b to be of type class CIRCLE.

CIRCLE a, b;

This declaration causes the allocation of memory for the objects a and b, such an allocation is called an instance of the class. The following statements assign data to the data members of objects a and b.

a.x=2;

a.y=2;

a.radus=1;

b.x=4;

b.y=5;

b.radius =2;

The following statements are used to draw the circles defined by objects a and b.

a.draw( );

b.draw( );

A derived class is a class that inherits the characteristics--data members and function members--of its base classes. For example, the following derived class CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL inherits the characteristics of the base class CIRCLE.

This declaration specifies that class CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL includes all the data and function members that are in class CIRCLE in addition to the those data and function members introduced in the declaration of class CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL, that is, data member pattern and function member fill. In this example, class CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL would have data members x, y, radius, and pattern and function members draw and fill. Class CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL is said to "inherit" the characteristics of class CIRCLE. A class that inherits the characteristics of another class is a derived class (e.g., CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL). A class that does not inherit the characteristics of another class is a primary class (e.g., CIRCLE). A class whose characteristics are inherited by another class is a base class (e.g., CIRCLE is a base class of CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL). A derived class may inherit the characteristics of several classes, that is, a derived class may have several base classes. This is referred to as multiple inheritance.

A class may specify whether its function members are to be virtually inherited. Declaring that a function member is virtual means that the function can be overridden by a function of the same name and type in a derived class. In the following example, the function draw is declared to be virtual in classes CIRCLE and CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL.

Continuing with the example, the following statement declares object a to be of type class CIRCLE and object b to be of type class CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL.

CIRCLE a;

CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL b;

The following statement refers to the function draw as defined in class CIRCLE.

a.draw( );

Whereas, the following statement refers to the function draw defined in class CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL.

b draw( );

Moreover, the following statements type cast object b to an object of type class CIRCLE and invoke the function draw that is defined in class CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL.

Thus, the type casting preserves the call to the overriding function CIRCLE.sub.-- FILL::draw.

Although object-oriented techniques facilitate the development of complex computer programs, the resulting computer programs can be less efficient in execution speed and require more memory than a program developed without object-oriented techniques. It would be desirable to have method and system for implementing the techniques of object-oriented programming to improve the execution speed and reduce the memory requirements of the computer program.

It is an object of the present invention to provide improved methods of implementing virtual functions in a compiler for an object-oriented programming language

It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved compiler for an object-oriented programming language that reduces the run-time storage requirements for a class.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method in a compiler for an object-oriented programming language in which virtual function tables can be shared between a derived class and a base class.

These and other objects of the invention, which will become more apparent as the invention is described more fully below, are obtained by providing an improved computer system. The computer system provides a virtual function table for a class having a plurality of function members. The virtual function table includes a tile table and a plurality of sub-tables. The computer system allocates a plurality of sub-tables, each sub-table having entries; allocates a tile table for the class, the tile table containing an entry for each allocated sub-table; stores in each tile table entry a pointer to an allocated sub-table; and stores in each sub-table entry a pointer to the executable code associated with a virtual function member. In a preferred embodiment, a child class is allocated its own tile table, but the child class shares the sub-tables of a parent class when the child class does not override any of the functions associated with the sub-table.

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of the object data structure, the virtual function table, and the function members of class A of a prior art system.

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of the data structures for class A and the object data structure, the virtual function table, and the introduced and overriding function members of class B of a prior art system.

FIG. 1C is a schematic diagram of the data structures for class A and the object data structure, the virtual function table, and the overriding and introduced function members of class B of a prior art system.

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of the object data structure, the virtual function table, and the function members of class A in a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of the data structure for class A, and the object data structure, the virtual function table, and the overriding and introduced functions of class B in a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a method to allocate a virtual function table in a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method to initialize a virtual function table in a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention provides an improved method and system for implementing the object-oriented techniques of virtual functions. A preferred embodiment of the present invention is C++ compiler that implements virtual functions as described herein. Although the present invention is described in terms of a compiler for the C++ programming language, one skilled in the art would appreciate that the methods of the present invention are applicable to other programming languages that support virtual functions.

In a preferred embodiment, the compiler defines an object data structure for each class. If a class introduces a virtual function or has an overriding function, then the compiler allocates a virtual function table for the class. The class object data structure contains the layout of the data members and a virtual function table pointer. The virtual function table pointer is initialized during run time to point to the virtual function table associated with the class. During compile time, the compiler initializes the virtual function table with addresses corresponding to virtual functions.

A virtual function table for a class contains addresses corresponding to the virtual function members associated with that class. The virtual function table is used at run time to invoke the virtual functions indirectly. Each primary class with a virtual function member has an associated virtual function table. The virtual function table contains the addresses of each virtual function member. The object data structure for such a class contains a virtual function table pointer (vfptr). When memory for an object is allocated at run time, the virtual function table pointer is initialized with the address of the associated virtual function table. Thus, all objects of the same class type point to the same virtual function table. To implement the invoking of a virtual function, the compiler generates code to access the virtual function member through the virtual function table.

Classes A and B as declared below are used to illustrate the methods of the present invention. Class A is an example of a primary class with 4 data members and 10 virtual function members.

Class B is an example of a derived class that inherits the data and function members of class A and that declares 2 data members and 5 function members. Function members fa7() and fa8() override the functions of the same name that are inherited from class A. Also, class B introduces function members fb11(), fb12(), and fb13().

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of the object data structure 101, the virtual function table 102, and the function members 103-112 of class A of a prior art system. The object data structure 101 contains the virtual function pointer A::vfptr and the data members A::ma1, A::ma2, A::ma3, and A::ma4. The virtual function table 102 contains pointers to each of the function members 103-112. The function members 103-112 contain the code for the functions. FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of the data structures for class A and the object data structure 151, the virtual function table 152, and the introduced and overriding function members 153-157 of class B of a prior art system. The object data structure 151 contains the virtual function pointer B::vfptr to the virtual function table 152 of class B, the data members defined in class A, and the data members B::mb1 and B::mb2 of class B. The virtual function table 152 contains pointers to each of the function members 103-108, 111, 112, and 153-157 of class B. In this prior art system, each derived class has a virtual function table that contains an entry for each virtual function in the parent class and an entry for each function introduced in the derived class. A virtual function for a class is identified by an offset into the virtual function table for the class. When a virtual function is to operate on an object, the virtual function table pointer for the object is retrieved, the function offset is added, and the address of the function is retrieved.

FIG. 1C is a schematic diagram of the data structures for class A and the object data structure 171, the virtual function table 172, and the overriding and introduced function members 173-177 of class B of another prior art system. The object data structure 171 contains the virtual function pointer B::vfptr to the virtual function table 172 of class B, the data members of class A, and the data member B::mb1 and B::mb2 of class B. The virtual function table 172 contains pointers to and names of the introduced and overriding function members 173-177 of class B and the virtual function pointer A::vfptr to the virtual function table 102 of class A. The function members 173-177 contain the code for the overriding and introduced functions of class B. In the prior system shown in FIG. 1C, the virtual function tables use a minimal number of entries: one entry for each virtual function member that is introduced or overriding and one entry for each base class. A derived class effectively shares the virtual function tables of its base classes. Each virtual function table entry contains, in addition to the pointer to the function, the name of the function. To determine the location of a function in a derived class, the system during run time scans the virtual function table for the derived class and then the virtual function tables for the base classes until a function with that name is located.

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of the object data structure 201, the virtual function table 202, and the function members 203-212 of class A in a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The object data structure 201 contains the virtual function table pointer A::vfptr and data members A::ma1, A::ma2, A::ma3, and A::ma4. The functions 203-212 contain the code for virtual functions A::fa1 through A::fa10. The virtual function table 202 contains the tile table 220 and the sub-tables 221, 222, 223. The virtual function table 202 provides two-level indirect addressing to the virtual functions. The tile table 220 contains pointers to the sub-tables 221, 222, 223. The sub-tables contains pointers to the virtual functions 203-212. Each sub-table, except for the last, contains 4 pointers. In preferred embodiments, the sub-table size is a power of 2. The virtual function table pointer of object data structure 201, A::vfptr, points to the tile table 220. FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of the class structure for class A, and the object data structure 251, the virtual function table 252, and the overriding and introduced functions 253-257 of class B. The object data structure 252 contains the virtual function table pointer B::vfptr, the data members of class A, and the data members B::mb1 and B::mb2 of class B. The virtual function table 252 contains the tile table 270 and the sub-tables 271-273. The tile table 270 contains pointers to sub-tables 271, 272, and 273. The sub-tables contain pointers to the functions of class B. The function members 253-257 contain the code for the introduced and overriding function of class B. In a preferred embodiment, the functions are identified by a tile table index and a sub-table index. If the sub-table size is a power of 2, then the function identifier can be conveniently represented as an integer. For example, if the sub-table size is 16, then the low order 4 bits represent the index into a sub-table and the remaining high order bits represent the index into the tile table.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a method to allocate a virtual function table in a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The input to this method is a class declaration. In step 301, the system allocates a tile table for the input class. The tile table size is the ceiling of the number of inherited virtual functions plus the number of introduced virtual functions divided by the standard size of the sub-tables. For example, in FIG. 2B class B inherits 10 virtual functions and introduces 3 virtual functions. The standard sub-table size is four. Thus, the tile table 270 has four entries ((10+3)/4). The size of the last sub-table is smaller than the standard sub-table size when the number of functions (inherited plus introduced) is not an even multiple of the standard sub-table size. In step 302, the system selects the next "n" inherited virtual functions, where "n" is the standard sub-table size. In step 303, if the input class overrides a selected inherited virtual function, then a new sub-table is needed and the system continues at step 304, else the system continues at step 305. In step 304, the system allocates a new sub-table for the input class. In step 305, if all the inherited virtual functions have been selected, then the system continues at step 306, else the system loops to step 302 to select the next inherited virtual functions. In step 306, if the input class introduces a virtual function, then the system continues at step 307, else the allocation is done and the system returns. In step 307, if there is enough room in the last sub-table processed to hold all the pointers to the introduced virtual functions, then the allocation is done and the system returns, else the system continues at step 308. In step 308, the system allocates enough sub-tables for the introduced functions and returns.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method to initialize a virtual function table in a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The input to this method is a class definition and the allocated virtual function table. In step 401, the system copies the tile table of the parent class of the input class to the tile table of the input class. In steps 402 through 407, the system initializes the sub-tables that were allocated in the method of FIG. 3 with pointers to inherited or overriding functions. In step 402, the system selects the next tile table entry and corresponding sub-table, starting with the first. In step 403, if all the tile table entries that were copied from the parent class have been processed, then the system continues at block 408, else the system continues at step 404. In step 404, if the input class defines an overriding function that is in the selected sub-table, then the system continues at step 405, else the input class can share the sub-table of the parent class and the system loops to step 402 to select the next sub-table. In step 405, the system copies the selected sub-table to a sub-table allocated for the input class. In step 406, the system replaces the pointers to the overridden functions in the allocated sub-table with the pointers to the overriding functions. In step 407, the system replaces the selected tile table entry with a pointer to the allocated sub-table for the input class and loops to step 402 to process the next tile table entry and sub-table. In steps 408 through 413, the system stores the pointers to the introduced virtual functions in the allocated sub-tables. In step 408, if the input class introduces a virtual function, then the system continues at step 409, else the initialization is done and the system returns. In step 409, if there is room in the last sub-table allocated in the method of FIG. 3, then the system continues at step 410, else the system continues at step 412. In step 410, the system fills in the last sub-table allocated with pointers to introduced virtual functions. In step 411, if there are more introduced virtual functions than can fit into last sub-table allocated, then the system continues at step 412, else the initialization is done and the system returns. In step 412, the system fills in the remaining allocated sub-tables with pointers to the introduced virtual functions. In step 413, the system fills in the tile table with pointers to the allocated sub-tables that contain only introduced virtual functions.

Although the methods of the present invention are described without reference to multiple inheritance, the methods are easily adapted in the manner described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/682,537, entitled, A METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING VIRTUAL FUNCTIONS AND VIRTUAL BASES IN A COMPILER FOR AN OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE," which is hereby incorporated by reference.

Although the methods and systems of the present invention have been disclosed and described herein primarily with respect to preferred embodiments designed to be used in a compiler for a C++ programming language, the invention is not intended to be limited by such embodiments. Rather, the present invention is intended to include all legally equivalent embodiments including those designed for use with other programming languages which implement virtual functions.