diff --git a/include/sxt/rdb.h b/include/sxt/rdb.h
index 0c15912..5671c38 100644
--- a/include/sxt/rdb.h
+++ b/include/sxt/rdb.h
@@ -41,6 +41,30 @@ typedef struct __sxtrawdatabuffer_type {
   int flags;
 } sxtrdb_t;
 
+/* variadic macro workaround */
+#define VA_APPLY_VARIADIC_MACRO(macro, tuple) macro tuple
+
+#define __VA_NARG__(...) \
+        (__VA_NARG_(_0, ## __VA_ARGS__, __RSEQ_N()) - 1)
+#define __VA_NARG_(...) \
+        VA_APPLY_VARIADIC_MACRO(__VA_ARG_N, (__VA_ARGS__))
+#define __VA_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 __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
+
 /* allocation, freeing */
 /* allocate raw buffer with defaults preallocation */
 sxtrdb_t *sxtrdb_new(void);