INFO: Using a Structure with an Empty Array Member

• The Microsoft C/C++ Compiler (CL.EXE) included with: - Microsoft C/C++ for MS-DOS, version 7.0 - Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, versions 1.0, 1.5, 1.51, 1.52 - Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Edition, versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, 4.0,

       4.1, 5.0
  

SUMMARY

The information below is derived from the Microsoft C/C++ version 7.0 online help file. To view the topic that corresponds to this article, search for the word "struct" and choose the "Unsized Arrays in Structures" topic.

In the C language, an application can define structure that contains an unsized array as one of its fields. However, an application cannot define an array of structures when the structure contains an unsized array because the structure declaration does not allocate any memory for the unsized array.

MORE INFORMATION

Background

The following structure declaration includes an unsized array field:

   struct test
   {
      int x, y, z;
      char empty[];
   }

Declaring Structures with Unsized Array Fields

An application can declare an instance of a structure type that includes an unsized array field, but the behavior of the compiler is unpredictable.

   struct test x;

An attempt to create an array of structures (for example, with a struct text x[10] declaration) fails and the compiler generates the following messages:

   warning C4001: nonstandard extension
       'zero sized array in struct/union' was used
   error C2087: 'x' : missing subscript

   struct test x={1, 2, 3, "Test String");

An application can declare a pointer to a structure that contains an unsized array field. The application must allocate memory for to store the contents of the array. Given the structure declaration above, the following code declares a pointer to structure and allocates memory to store an instance of the structure:

   struct test *right;
   right = malloc(sizeof(struct test) + stringlength + 1);

Using this technique, an application can use malloc() to declare an array of structures that contain unsized array fields; however, the application must correctly calculate the proper amount of memory to allocate to store the structures and the strings and it must correctly implement pointers to access elements of the array. Because the size of the structure does not include the storage required by the unsized array element, the value (ptr+1) points to the sixth (or twelfth) byte of the allocated array which is not necessarily the first field of the second element.

An attempt to allocate an array of structures produces the C4001 warning described above. The C2087 error does not occur because the size of the array is not specified.

Sample Code

   /*
    * Compile options needed: /W4
    */

   #include <stdio.h>

   struct test
   {
      int x, y, z;
      char str[];
   };

   struct test trythis;

   void main(void)
   {
      printf("the size of test is %d bytes\n",sizeof(struct test));
   }

   /* Output */

   /* 16-bit compiler output */

   the size of test is 6 bytes

   /* 32-bit compiler output */

   the size of test is 12 bytes