In C, the keyword "generic" is not used. Instead, C uses function pointers and template functions to achieve similar functionality.
Function pointers allow a programmer to pass a function as an argument to another function, and template functions allow a programmer to write a single function that can work with multiple data types.
For example, a template function to swap two values could be written as follows:
This function can be used to swap any type of variable, such as integers, floats, or custom data types.
The " _Generic" keyword was introduced in the C11 standard as a way to provide type-generic macros. It allows for the creation of macro functions that can operate on different types of variables, with type-checking.
The _Generic keyword is used in conjunction with a macro definition to specify different behavior for different types of input.
#define INC(x) _Generic((x), long double: INCl, \
default: INC, \
float: INCf)(x)
The macro definition above uses _Generic to define the behavior of the INC macro depending on the type of the input x. If x is a long double, the macro will translate to INCl(x), if x is of any other type, it will translate to INC(x) and if x is of type float, it will translate to INCf(x).
This allows the programmer to use the same macro function for different types of variables, while ensuring that the correct behavior is applied to each type. It also can help to avoid unexpected bugs and make the code more readable and maintainable.
