OpenSCAD compat

C and Perl compatible functions

OpenSCAD compat © 2025 Alexander Hajnal

License: CC BY-NC-SA Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

A set of functions for OpenSCAD that closely follow ones found in the C standard library and Perl.

The semantics are usually similar but not identical to their C and Perl equivalents so cf. the syntax descriptions.

Supported functions

Functions are split across several files:

• c_constants.scad — Constant definitions

  Documentation is in c_constants.md. Tests/examples are in c_constants-test.scad.

  A set of useful constants for OpenSCAD that closely follow those in the C standard library and Perl. These currently include:

  • ASCII special characters → A set of variables are defined that represent most of the unprintable 7-bit ASCII characters as well as the set of valid whitespace characters,

• c_string.scad — String-related functions

  Documentation is in c_string.md. Tests/examples are in c_string-test.scad.

  Requires c_constants.scad.

  • Generic:

    • printf → Ouput formatted string to console
    • sprintf → Format string

  • C-like:

    • strchr → Find character in string
    • strcspn → Get prefix of string not containing a set of characters
    • strlen → Determine length of string (same as OpenSCAD's len)
    • strpbrk → Find one of a set of characters in string
    • strrchr → Find character in string (starting from end)
    • strspn → Get prefix of string containing only a set of characters
    • strstr → Find string in a second string
    • strtok → Split string into tokens

  • Perl-like:

    • index → Find string in second string
    • rindex → Find string in second string (starting from end)
    • substr → Extract substring from string

• c_numeric.scad — Number-related functions

  Documentation in c_numeric.md. Tests/examples are in c_numeric-test.scad.

  Requires c_constants.scad and c_string.scad.

  • Miscellaneous numeric utility functions (non-C, non-Perl)

    None currently

  • C-like numeric utility functions

    None currently

  • C-like conversion functions (by datatype)

    • Returning 32-bit integers:

      • strtol(string, base=0)

  • Perl-like numeric functions

    None currently

Usage

Depending on the libraries used different include statements are required. The appropriate include/use code should be placed near the top of your script and each file mentioned should be placed in the same directory as your OpenSCAD script.

c_constants

include <c_constants.scad>;

c_numeric

use <c_numeric.scad>;

In addition c_constants.scad and c_string.scad must also be present in your scripts directory.

c_string

include <c_constants.scad>;
use <c_string.scad>;

Bugs/Feature requests

Please submit any bug reports or feature requests via GitHub.

Version history

Date	c_constants	c_string	c_numeric	Notes
2025-11-24	1.0.0	1.0.0	1.0.0	Initial public release