- Ensure you succesfully set up your dev environment.
Writing a smart contract in C
Learn how to write a smart contract in C.
Prerequisites
Note:
Sample contract functionality
The sample contract serves as a demonstration of general QVM logic.
It is capable of:
- registering users into the database
- storing the last registered user's name in the database
- echoing the previous user's name to STDOUT
- incrementing the total registered user count
- storing above counter in the database
Constructor logic
While some programming languages do not have explicit support for constructors you are free to implement your own logic for contract initialization after it gets deployed.
Your binary will be invoked with a single “construct” argument.
C smart contract sample
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
static int envAtoi(const char* env) {
const char* val = getenv(env);
if (val == NULL) {
return 0;
}
return atoi(val);
}
int maxUser = 100;
static void construct() {
const char* val = getenv("DB_QVM_INITIALIZED");
if (val && strcmp(val, "true") == 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "contract is already initialized\n");
exit(1);
}
printf("DBW=QVM_INIT_MAXUSER=%d\n", maxUser);
}
static void initialize() {
const char* val = getenv("DB_QVM_INITIALIZED");
if (val == NULL || strcmp(val, "true") != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "contract is not initialized\n");
exit(1);
}
maxUser = envAtoi("DB_QVM_INIT_MAXUSER");
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
if (argc == 2 && strcmp(argv[1], "construct") == 0) {
construct();
exit(0);
}
// THIS SAMPLE ONLY SUPPORTS THE "register" FUNCTION
if (argc == 3 && strcmp(argv[1], "register") == 0) {
initialize();
// GET THE CURRENT USER'S NAME
const char *previousName = getenv("DB_USER_CURRENT");
// OR DEFAULT TO "unknown" IF THIS IS THE FIRST CALL
if (previousName == NULL || strlen(previousName) == 0) {
previousName = "unknown";
}
// GET THE TOTAL USER COUNT
int totalUserCount = envAtoi("DB_TOTALUSERS");
if (totalUserCount+1 > maxUser) {
fprintf(stderr, "exceeded max user\n");
exit(1);
}
// WRITE PREVIOUS USER NAME TO STDOUT
printf("OUT=prevname: %s\n", previousName);
// UPDATE CURRENT USER NAME BY WRITING IT TO DB
printf("DBW=USER_CURRENT=%s\n", argv[2]);
// STORE USER NAME UNDER A STORAGE SLOT FOR PERSISTENCE (CURRENT GETS OVERWRITTEN ON EACH CALL)
printf("DBW=USER_%d=%s\n", totalUserCount, argv[2]);
// INCREMENT THE TOTAL USER COUNT
printf("DBW=TOTALUSERS=%d\n", totalUserCount+1);
return 0;
}
if (argc >= 2) {
fprintf(stderr, "Wrong CMD: %s\n", argv[1]);
exit(1);
}
fprintf(stderr, "Wrong args!\n");
exit(1);
}
Save the contract
Open a text editor and save above sample contract as main.c file.