Why do we need saparate data section

Question

2.00/5 (2 votes)

See more:

I have been observed separate data sections in code of various c projects.
I have never created data section in my code.

I am curious to know in what circumstances we should think about creating separate data section for the data?

What advantages can be achieved by creating separate data sections?

Thanks in advance for your reply

Posted 21-Sep-11 3:46am

vikasvds

Add a Solution

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 21-Sep-11 10:31am

Do you mean this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/50bewfwa%28v=vs.80%29.aspx?
--SA

Legor 21-Sep-11 10:43am

What do you mean by "data section". Can you show an example of what you mean?

wizardzz 21-Sep-11 15:20pm

Eh, sounds like HW.

2 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

enhzflep · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-21T20:34:00

More robust programs.
By separating the data and code sections, the OS can mark the code section as read-only, while still letting you modify data in the data section.

With this system in place, an attempt to write to the code section merely results in an exception, often causing your program to be chewed up and spat out.

If you have full write-access to the code section as well, any mistake you make (writing to it) can lead to all sorts of nasty behaviour.

It also helps prevent the execution of self-modifying code - a common feature of polymorphic computer virii (at the expense of greatly increasing the complexity of some super-optimized code that would also modify itself to cut down on execution time) Though to be clear, even a read-only code section can be turned into read/write at run-time.

It also allows for data to be located in physical memory at a place that's deemed appropriate, based on current operating conditions.

CPallini · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-21T21:17:00

Solution 2

In addition to enhzflep answer, some systems feature (e.g. the PIC microcontrollers) Harvard architecture[^] where code and data are physically separated.

Posted 21-Sep-11 21:17pm

CPallini

Comments

enhzflep 22-Sep-11 3:58am

Good point. I'd forgotten about that.
Simon