How can I implement a string data type in LLVM?

Question

I have been looking at LLVM lately, and I find it to be quite an interesting architecture. However, looking through the tutorial and the reference material, I can\'t see any ex

Answer 1

Using the C API, instead of using LLVMConstString, you could use LLVMBuildGlobalString. Here is my implementation of

int main() {
    printf("Hello World, %s!\n", "there");
    return;
}

using C API:

LLVMTypeRef main_type = LLVMFunctionType(LLVMVoidType(), NULL, 0, false);
LLVMValueRef main = LLVMAddFunction(mod, "main", main_type);

LLVMTypeRef param_types[] = { LLVMPointerType(LLVMInt8Type(), 0) };
LLVMTypeRef llvm_printf_type = LLVMFunctionType(LLVMInt32Type(), param_types, 0, true);
LLVMValueRef llvm_printf = LLVMAddFunction(mod, "printf", llvm_printf_type);

LLVMBasicBlockRef entry = LLVMAppendBasicBlock(main, "entry");
LLVMPositionBuilderAtEnd(builder, entry);

LLVMValueRef format = LLVMBuildGlobalStringPtr(builder, "Hello World, %s!\n", "format");
LLVMValueRef value = LLVMBuildGlobalStringPtr(builder, "there", "value");

LLVMValueRef args[] = { format, value };
LLVMBuildCall(builder, llvm_printf, args, 2, "printf");

LLVMBuildRetVoid(builder);

I created strings like so:

LLVMValueRef format = LLVMBuildGlobalStringPtr(builder, "Hello World, %s!\n", "format");
LLVMValueRef value = LLVMBuildGlobalStringPtr(builder, "there", "value");

The generated IR is:

; ModuleID = 'printf.bc'
source_filename = "my_module"
target datalayout = "e-m:o-i64:64-f80:128-n8:16:32:64-S128"

@format = private unnamed_addr constant [18 x i8] c"Hello World, %s!\0A\00"
@value = private unnamed_addr constant [6 x i8] c"there\00"

define void @main() {
entry:
  %printf = call i32 (...) @printf(i8* getelementptr inbounds ([18 x i8], [18 x i8]* @format, i32 0, i32 0), i8* getelementptr inbounds ([6 x i8], [6 x i8]* @value, i32 0, i32 0))
  ret void
}

declare i32 @printf(...)