multithreading - How to "multithread" C code

Question

I have a number crunching application written in C. It is kind of a main loop that for each value calls, for increasing values of "i", a function that performs some calculations. I read about multithreading, and I am considering learning a bit about it, in C. I wonder if somehow general code like mine could be automatically multithreaded and how.

Thanks

P.D. To get an idea about my code, let's say that it is something like this:

main(...)
for(i=0;i<=ntimes;i++)get_result(x[i],y[i],result[i]);

...

void get_result(float x,float y,float result){
  result=sqrt(log (x) + log (y) + cos (exp (x + y));
(and some more similar mathematical operations)
}

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3908031/how-to-multithread-c-code

Answer 1

One alternative to multithread your code would be using pthreads ( provides more precise control than OpenMP ).

Assuming x, y & result are global variable arrays,

#include <pthread.h>

...

void *get_result(void *param)  // param is a dummy pointer
{
...
}

int main()
{
...
pthread_t *tid = malloc( ntimes * sizeof(pthread_t) );

for( i=0; i<ntimes; i++ ) 
    pthread_create( &tid[i], NULL, get_result, NULL );

... // do some tasks unrelated to result    

for( i=0; i<ntimes; i++ ) 
    pthread_join( tid[i], NULL );
...
}

(Compile your code with gcc prog.c -lpthread)