[Numpy-discussion] Using np.frombuffer and cffi.buffer on array of C structs (problem with struct member padding)

[Joe]

Hello,

how I could dynamically handle the dtype of a structured array when 
reading
an array of C structs with np.frombuffer (regarding the member padding 
in the struct).

So far I manually adjusted the dtype of the structured array and added a 
field for the padding,
this works on a small scale.
The structs are not defined within my code, but within a third party and
basically I am looking for no-worry hassle free way to handle this, 
because there are a lot of structs

Is there some smart way to do this in Numpy?

So far the best approach seems to parse the struct with the cffi 
functions
ffi.sizeof(), ffi.offsetof() and maybe ffi.alignof() to find out where 
the padding
happens and add it dynamically to the dtype. But maybe someone has a
smarter idea how to solve this.

You can find a more detailed description and a working example here:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48423725/how-to-handle-member-padding-in-struct-when-reading-cffi-buffer-with-numpy-fromb

Kind regards,
Joe