It can be done – the mechanism was explained in the comp.std.c newsgroup in January 2006. There was another question about this recently on SO 2124339.
I stashed the code away, just in case…
#ifndef JLSS_ID_NARG_H
#define JLSS_ID_NARG_H
/*
** http://groups.google.com/group/comp.std.c/browse_thread/thread/77ee8c8f92e4a3fb/346fc464319b1ee5?pli=1
**
** Newsgroups: comp.std.c
** From: Laurent Deniau <[email protected]>
** Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:43:40 +0100
** Subject: __VA_NARG__
**
** A year ago, I was asking here for an equivalent of __VA_NARG__ which
** would return the number of arguments contained in __VA_ARGS__ before its
** expansion. In fact my problem at that time (detecting for a third
** argument) was solved by the solution of P. Mensonides. But I was still
** thinking that the standard should have provided such a facilities rather
** easy to compute for cpp.
**
** This morning I had to face again the same problem, that is knowing the
** number of arguments contained in __VA_ARGS__ before its expansion (after
** its expansion can always be achieved if you can do it before). I found a
** simple non-iterative solution which may be of interest here as an answer
** to who will ask in the future for a kind of __VA_NARG__ in the standard
** and I post it for archiving. May be some more elegant-efficient solution
** exists?
**
** Returns NARG, the number of arguments contained in __VA_ARGS__ before
** expansion as far as NARG is >0 and <64 (cpp limits):
**
** #define PP_NARG( ...) PP_NARG_(__VA_ARGS__,PP_RSEQ_N())
** #define PP_NARG_(...) PP_ARG_N(__VA_ARGS__)
** #define PP_ARG_N(_1,_2,_3,_4,_5,_6,_7,_8,_9,[..],_61,_62,_63,N,...) N
** #define PP_RSEQ_N() 63,62,61,60,[..],9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0
**
** [..] stands for the continuation of the sequence omitted here for
** lisibility.
**
** PP_NARG(A) -> 1
** PP_NARG(A,B) -> 2
** PP_NARG(A,B,C) -> 3
** PP_NARG(A,B,C,D) -> 4
** PP_NARG(A,B,C,D,E) -> 5
** PP_NARG(A1,A2,[..],A62,A63) -> 63
**
** ======
**
** Newsgroups: comp.std.c
** From: Roland Illig <[email protected]>
** Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:58:41 +0100
** Subject: Re: __VA_NARG__
**
** Laurent Deniau wrote:
** > This morning I had to face again the same problem, that is knowing the
** > number of arguments contained in __VA_ARGS__ before its expansion (after
** > its expansion can always be achieved if you can do it before). I found a
** > simple non-iterative solution which may be of interest here as an answer
** > to who will ask in the future for a kind of __VA_NARG__ in the standard
** > and I post it for archiving. May be some more elegant-efficient solution
** > exists?
**
** Thanks for this idea. I really like it.
**
** For those that only want to copy and paste it, here is the expanded version:
**
** // Some test cases
** PP_NARG(A) -> 1
** PP_NARG(A,B) -> 2
** PP_NARG(A,B,C) -> 3
** PP_NARG(A,B,C,D) -> 4
** PP_NARG(A,B,C,D,E) -> 5
** PP_NARG(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0, // 1..10
** 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0, // 11..20
** 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0, // 21..30
** 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0, // 31..40
** 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0, // 41..50
** 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0, // 51..60
** 1,2,3) -> 63
**
**Note: using PP_NARG() without arguments would violate 6.10.3p4 of ISO C99.
*/
/* The PP_NARG macro returns the number of arguments that have been
** passed to it.
*/
#define PP_NARG(...) \
PP_NARG_(__VA_ARGS__,PP_RSEQ_N())
#define PP_NARG_(...) \
PP_ARG_N(__VA_ARGS__)
#define PP_ARG_N( \
_1, _2, _3, _4, _5, _6, _7, _8, _9,_10, \
_11,_12,_13,_14,_15,_16,_17,_18,_19,_20, \
_21,_22,_23,_24,_25,_26,_27,_28,_29,_30, \
_31,_32,_33,_34,_35,_36,_37,_38,_39,_40, \
_41,_42,_43,_44,_45,_46,_47,_48,_49,_50, \
_51,_52,_53,_54,_55,_56,_57,_58,_59,_60, \
_61,_62,_63, N, ...) N
#define PP_RSEQ_N() \
63,62,61,60, \
59,58,57,56,55,54,53,52,51,50, \
49,48,47,46,45,44,43,42,41,40, \
39,38,37,36,35,34,33,32,31,30, \
29,28,27,26,25,24,23,22,21,20, \
19,18,17,16,15,14,13,12,11,10, \
9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0
#endif /* JLSS_ID_NARG_H */
It works fine as long as there are no more than 64 arguments. Here’s the test code I used:
#include "narg.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#define PRINT(pp_narg) printf("%2d = %s\n", pp_narg, # pp_narg)
#ifndef lint
/* Prevent over-aggressive optimizers from eliminating ID string */
extern const char jlss_id_narg_c[];
const char jlss_id_narg_c[] = "@(#)$Id: narg.c,v 1.2 2010/01/24 18:12:05 jleffler Exp $";
#endif /* lint */
int
main(void)
{
PRINT(PP_NARG(A));
PRINT(PP_NARG(A, B));
PRINT(PP_NARG(A, B, C));
PRINT(PP_NARG(A, B, C, D));
PRINT(PP_NARG(A, B, C, D, E));
PRINT(PP_NARG(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 1..10
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 11..20
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 21..30
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 31..40
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 41..50
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 51..60
1, 2, 3));
/**
** If the number of arguments to PP_NARG() is greater than 63, the
** 64th argument is returned. This is well-defined behaviour, but
** not exactly what was intended.
*/
PRINT(PP_NARG(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 1..10
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 11..20
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 21..30
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 31..40
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 41..50
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 51..60
1, 2, 3, -123456789));
PRINT(PP_NARG(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 1..10
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 11..20
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 21..30
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 31..40
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 41..50
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, // 51..60
1, 2, 3, -123456789, -987654321));
return(0);
}