SWIG Features
This information is based on the SWIG-4.3.0 release.
Code Generation
SWIG currently generates wrapper code for the following different target languages:
- C
- C#
- D
- Go
- Guile
- Java
- Javascript
- Lua
- MzScheme/Racket
- OCaml
- Octave
- Perl
- PHP
- Python
- R
- Ruby
- Scilab
- Tcl
In addition to this, the parse tree can be exported as XML.
ISO C
SWIG is capable of wrapping all of ISO C99. Features include:
- Handling of all ISO C datatypes.
- Global functions, global variables, and constants.
- Structures and unions.
- Pointers.
- Arrays and multidimensional arrays.
- Pointers to functions.
- Variable length arguments.
- Typedef.
- Callbacks.
- Enums.
ISO C++
SWIG provides wrapping support for ISO C++98 to C++20.
- All C++ datatypes.
- References.
- Pointers to members.
- Classes.
- Inheritance and multiple inheritance.
- Overloaded functions and methods (using dynamic dispatch).
- Overloaded operators.
- Static members.
- Namespaces (including using declarations, aliases, nesting, etc.)
- Templates
- Nested classes
- Member templates
- Template specialization and partial specialization.
- Smart pointers
- C++ library support for strings and the STL.
- The majority of the newer C++11 to C++20 standard features.
C++ users who rely on advanced template programming techniques
(e.g., template meta-programming) should also be aware that SWIG
currently requires manual instantiation of all template classes.
Therefore, if your application somehow involves the instantiation of 50000
template classes, your mileage might vary.
Preprocessing
SWIG provides a full C preprocessor with the following features:
- Macro expansion.
- Automatic wrapping of #define statements as constants (when applicable).
- Support for C99 (variadic macro expansion).
Doxygen documentation
Doxygen documentation comments in C++ comments are parsed and converted into equivalent
Java and Python documentation comments.
Customization features
SWIG provides control over most aspects of wrapper generation. Most
of these customization options are fully integrated into the C++ type
system--making it easy to apply customizations across inheritance
hierarchies, template instantiations, and more. Features include:
- Customized type conversion/marshaling.
- Exception handling.
- Class/structure extension.
- Memory management.
- Ambiguity resolution.
- Template instantiation.
- File import and cross-module linking.
- Code inclusion, helper function support.
- Extensive diagnostics (error/warning messages including fine grained warning suppression).
- Extended SWIG macro handling.
Feedback and questions regarding this website as well as patches for improvement should be raised on the SWIG www Github project.
Last modified : Sun Oct 20 17:02:45 2024
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