Contiguous variables

Introduction

This technical note describes how to enforce placement of variables in a specified order.

Discussion

The following methods of placing variables are described:

• using section names
• using a reserved space
• using symbol names
• using an anonymous struct

Using section names

In your source code, use the @ operator to place variables in named sections.

int ab[] @ "1st" = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8};
int a[] @ "2nd" = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
int abc[] @ "3rd" = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7};

In your linker configuration file, use a fixed order block to define the order between the variables by selecting the section names assigned to each variable.

define block ARRAYS with fixed order
{
  section 1st,
  section 2nd,
  section 3rd
};

Using a reserved space

This method can be used if your application requires some reserved space between variables.

In your linker configuration file, define a block with a fixed size, to represent the reserved RAM space, and in the fixed order block, place the reserved space block between variables.

define block RESERVED_SPACE with alignment = 8, size = 1024 { };

define block ARRAYS with fixed order
{
  section 1st,
  block RESERVED_SPACE,
  section 3rd
};

Using symbol names

In your source code, declare variables which are not placed in named sections.

int ab[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8};
int a[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
int abc[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7};

In your linker configuration file, use a fixed order block to define the order between the variables by selecting the symbol names.

define block ARRAYS with fixed order
{
  symbol ab,
  symbol a,
  symbol abc
};

Using an anonymous struct 

Use IAR C language extensions to declare an "anonymous struct" to place variables in a specified order without using linker directives.

struct
{
   int a;
   char b;
   int c;
};

For more information, see the sections Enabling language extensions and Anonymous structs and unions in C/C++ Development Guide available from the Help menu in the IDE.

Conclusion

To place variables in a specified order, you can use linker directives to define a fixed order block and select section names/symbol names, or use an anonymous struct.

This example contains a project for each of the described methods.

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