Re: [avr-gcc-list] array of pointers to PROGMEM strings

[Thedore A. Roth]

On Sat, 16 Nov 2002, raphael deimel wrote:

:)Hi,  I stumbled over a problem. I want to define an array of pointers to 
:)ascii strings, everything in progmem to save RAM.
:)
:)I thought about defining it like this:
:)
:)PGM_P PROGMEM array[2] = {
:)    "ascii string",
:)    "ascii string"
:)}
:)
:)But this would put the ascii strings into ram, right?
:)Does someone know how to define it?

This should be added to the FAQ. ;-) (I'll do it today.)

You need to do something like this:

cat <<EOF > foo.c
#include <avr/io.h>
#include <avr/pgmspace.h>

const char foo[] PROGMEM = "Foo";
const char bar[] PROGMEM = "Bar";

PGM_P array[2] PROGMEM = {
    foo,
    bar
};

int main (void)
{
    char buf[32];

    strcpy_P (buf, array[1]);   /* copy bar into buf */

    return 0;
}
EOF

Looking at the disassembly of the resulting object file we see that array in 
in flash as such:

0000008c <__ctors_end>:
  8c:   46 6f           ori r20, 0xF6   ; 246
  8e:   6f 00           .word   0x006f  ; ????

00000090 <bar>:
  90:   42 61           ori r20, 0x12   ; 18
  92:   72 00           .word   0x0072  ; ????

00000094 <array>:
  94:   8c 00           .word   0x008c  ; ????
  96:   90 00           .word   0x0090  ; ????

foo is at addr 0x008c
bar is at addr 0x0090
array is at addr 0x0094

Then in main() we see this:

    strcpy_P (buf, array[1]);   /* copy bar into buf */
  de:   60 e9           ldi r22, 0x90   ; 144
  e0:   70 e0           ldi r23, 0x00   ; 0
  e2:   ce 01           movw    r24, r28
  e4:   01 96           adiw    r24, 0x01   ; 1
  e6:   0e 94 79 00     call    0xf2

The addr of bar (0x0090) is loaded into the r23:r22 pair which is the second
parameter passed to strcpy_P. The r25:r24 pair is the addr of buf.

Is that what you intended to do?

Ted Roth

PS: If anyone sees a flaw in this discussion, please point it out so the FAQ 
entry will be correct. 

PSS: If someone has a better way to do this, I'm all ears.

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