va_copy

< c‎ | variadic
 
C
 
Variadic functions
 
Defined in header <stdarg.h>
void va_copy( va_list dest, va_list src );
 (since C99)

The va_copy macro copies src to dest.

va_end should be called on dest before the function returns or any subsequent re-initialization of dest (via calls to va_start or va_copy).

Parameters

dest - an instance of the va_list type to initialize
src - the source va_list that will be used to initialize dest

Expanded value

(none)

Example

Run this code
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <math.h>
 
double sample_stddev(int count, ...) 
{
    /* Compute the mean with args1. */
    double sum = 0;
    va_list args1;
    va_start(args1, count);
    va_list args2;
    va_copy(args2, args1);   /* copy va_list object */
    for (int i = 0; i < count; ++i) {
        double num = va_arg(args1, double);
        sum += num;
    }
    va_end(args1);
    double mean = sum / count;
 
    /* Compute standard deviation with args2 and mean. */
    double sum_sq_diff = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < count; ++i) {
        double num = va_arg(args2, double);
        sum_sq_diff += (num-mean) * (num-mean);
    }
    va_end(args2);
    return sqrt(sum_sq_diff / count);
}
 
int main(void) 
{
    printf("%f\n", sample_stddev(4, 25.0, 27.3, 26.9, 25.7));
}

Possible output: 

0.920258

References

  • C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
  • 7.16.1.2 The va_copy macro (p: 270)
  • C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
  • 7.15.1.2 The va_copy macro (p: 250)

See also

 accesses the next variadic function argument
(function macro)
ends traversal of the variadic function arguments
(function macro)
holds the information needed by va_start, va_arg, va_end, and va_copy
(typedef)
enables access to variadic function arguments
(function macro)