Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ficc!kunkee
From: kunkee@ficc.uu.net (randy kunkee XNX MGR)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: C question -- pointer to array of characters
Message-ID: <6569@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 17 Oct 89 22:37:59 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Unix/Xenix Support Group
Lines: 31

Forget that you probably wouldn't want to do the following and
consider the declaration:

	char (*foo)[];

This declares "foo" to be a pointer to an array of characters.
My question is, how can you get an assignment to "foo" without
the C compiler complaining about different levels of indirection
(ie. make "foo" point to real storage) without using a typecast?

For example:

main()
{
	char (*foo)[];
	char bar[20];

	foo = bar;
}

Does not work (well, it works, but the compiler complains).
Is my C compiler broken?

To put it another way, is there a declaration of "bar" that will
make the above assignment compile silently, and which allocates
storage for characters?
-- 
Randy Kunkee
Ferranti International Controls Corporation
12808 W. Airport Blvd.  Sugar Land, TX 77478
UUCP: uunet!ficc!kunkee       ph: (713) 274-5132