Agfdhyk

I have a small sketch that reads a wide variety of sensors, which all come down to either an integer or boolean value.

Every loop I want to print them as following:

"variableName; variableValue"
(which would give for example "distanceSenso; 432")

Currently this looks like

 int flame, distance, <etc>

 bool flame, touch;

    void loop(){

      noise = analogRead(SOUND_SENSOR);

      distance = analogRead(DISTANCE_SENSOR);

      ..etc..       

          Serial.print("flame;");

          Serial.println(flame);

          Serial.print("distance;");

          Serial.println(dist);

          Serial.print("motion;");

          Serial.println(motion);

          Serial.print("touch;");

          Serial.println(touch);

          Serial.print("noise;");

          Serial.println(noise);

          <etc for many more sensors>

    }

This works fine but isn't efficient. I would like to add each variable to an array and simply update the value each loop. This would allow be to use a simple for loop that prints each array element in a Serial.println.

However, this isn't possible as I'm using both int and bool variables. I could make two separate arrays or forget about the for loop and keep my current approach, but I'm learning to code and would like to know what the most efficient way would be to do this.

So, my question: how could I print each variable in said syntax in the most efficient possible way?

Sequential constructs in code are often the most efficient in terms of speed. If you are looking for improvements in readability (eg, how many lines of code) then looping will help, but likely reduce efficiency in other ways. That said, to reduce number of lines, say in a loop...

Use a combination of enum, const char array and struct. (struct is optional here, but something I often use for readability when working with a large number of members)

I do not have your environment, but for illustration using ANSI C, the following shows how enumerated values can tie string descriptions together with measurement values into the same struct instance, allowing results to be reported in a loop:

enum {

    FLAME_SENSOR,    // enumerated from 0 to max_sensor

    DISTANCE_SENSOR,

    MOTION_SENSOR,

    TOUCH_SENSOR,

    SOUND_SENSOR,

    // add more sensors???

    MAX_SENSOR

};



typedef struct { // optional struct

    int val;

    char descr[20];

}PARAM;



const char str[MAX_SENSOR][20] = {"flame","distance","motion","touch","noise"};



//simulation prototype    

int analogRead(int type); 



int main(void)

{

    int i;

    PARAM p;

    char buf[20];

    int result = 0;



    for(i=0;i<MAX_SENSOR;i++)

    {

        p.val = analogRead(i);// for use with struct

        result = analogRead(i);//for use without struct

        if(p.val /*(or result)*/ == some error)

        {

            //handle error

        }

        strcpy(p.descr, str[i]);//for use without struct

        sprintf(buf, "%s: %dn", p.descr, p.val);//for use with struct

        sprintf(buf, "%s: %dn", str[i], result);//for use without struct

        printf(buf);

        sleep(10);  //10ms delay, For simulation only, to allow clock tick for rand() function 

    }           

    return 0;

}



//simple simulation of  analog read function

int analogRead(int type)

{

    int meas = 0;

    srand(clock());

    switch(type)  {

        case FLAME_SENSOR:

            // meas = read flame sensor instrument

            meas = rand()%10;

            break;

        case DISTANCE_SENSOR:

            // meas = read dist sensor instrument

            meas = rand()%10;

            break;

        case MOTION_SENSOR:

            // meas = read motion sensor instrument

            meas = rand()%10;

            break;

        case TOUCH_SENSOR:

            // meas = read touch sensor instrument

            meas = rand()%10;

            break;

        case SOUND_SENSOR:

            // meas = read sound sensor instrument

            meas = rand()%10;

            break;

        // add more case statements ???

        default:

            meas = some error

            break;

    }

    return meas;

}

From arduino reference:

> analogRead()

>  

> Returns  

> int(0 to 1023)

So you are getting integers anyway.

Usually I create a temporary structure will all the different data and context I need to iterate through. Then a simple loop is sufficient.

struct data_s {

   const char *desc;

   int pin;

   enum data_type_s {

      DATA_INT,

      DATA_BOOL,

   } data_type;

} const datas = {

     { SOUND_SENSOR, "sound", DATA_INT },

     { DISTANCE_SENSOR, "distance", DATA_INT },

     { SOMEBOOLEAN_SENSOR, "someboolean", DATA_BOOL },

      ... and so on ...

};



for (size_t i = 0; i < sizeof(datas)/sizeof(*datas); ++i) {

     Serial.print(data[i].desc);

     Serial.print(";");

     const int readed_value = analogRead(data[i].pin);

     switch (data[i].type) {

     case DATA_BOOL:

          // custom int->bool conversion

          Serial.print(value ? "true" : "false");

          break;

     case DATA_INT:

          Serial.print(value);

          break;

     }

     Serial.print("n");

}