How to pass value and run c program in php( web application)

Question

I am having big c program.I want execute that function in php and get value

For example

C program

int add( int, int);         

void main()
{
  int i=1;
  printf("i starts out life as %d.", i);

  i = add(5, 10);           

  printf(" And becomes %d after function is executed.\n", i);
}


int add( int a, int b)          
{
  int c;
  c = a + b;
  return c;
}

my web form has value a and b. so when i submit form i want to call the c function add and get the output.

I know there is a function to execute external programs in php like

exec()
shell_exec()

But i am not familiar with this functions.so please give me sample of code. Should i place the c program file(in notepad) in server root folder.

Please guide me ! Thanks in advance

Things don't work like that. You need to structure your C application to parse input and then process it and return results. You can't just call C code from PHP. — Alin P.
– Alin P., Commented Jul 15, 2011 at 7:55
@Alin:How can i do that i am good with c . can give me piece of code and instruction — Gowri
– Gowri, Commented Jul 15, 2011 at 7:57
@gwori: Simlpest solutions are to send the parameters as command line arguments or send them via stdin. Other approaches would be to write the C program as a socket daemon and run the PHP code as a client or implement a PHP extension in C. But the latter 2 methods are a lot more complex — symcbean
– symcbean, Commented Jul 15, 2011 at 8:10
A small correction. As @symcbean pointed out, you can call C code from PHP if you put it inside an extension. But I doubt this should be done in your particular situation. — Alin P.
– Alin P., Commented Jul 15, 2011 at 8:18

Edgar Bonet · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-15 08:41:55Z

I guess the simplest way would be to call your C from PHP, passing the parameters as arguments. On the C side:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int i = add(atoi(argv[1]), atoi(argv[2]));
    printf("%d\n", i);
    return 0;
}

(obviously, you should add error checking). On the PHP side:

$a = ...;
$b = ...;
$c = exec("/path/to/sum $a $b");

assuming your C program is called sum.

Edit: Just adding a comment about the various approaches that have been suggested to you so far:

Starting your C program with exec(), as in my answer above, is really the simplest solution. However, it costs you the creation of a new process every time you call your C code, which can be expensive if you do it a lot.
A PHP extension spares the process creation and should be more efficient, especially if you are making many calls to your C code and your C code is fast to compute the result.
A daemon is more interesting if your C program is slow to startup (long initialization) but can then process queries fast.

Aleks G · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-15 08:07:18Z

0

There's a way to do that - but it's not trivial by any means. You need to write a php extension in c/c++, install it on the server where the php will be executed and update you php.ini - and then you'll have access to the c/c++ functions directly from php. Have a look here: http://devzone.zend.com/article/1021 about how to write extensions.

answered Jul 15, 2011 at 8:07

Aleks G

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1 Comment

MountainMan Over a year ago

Linkrot : devzone.zend.com/article/1021... but this approaches the subject : php.net/manual/en/internals2.ze1.zendapi.php

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