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From: engel@irisa.irisa.fr (Jean Christophe Engel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: C question
Message-ID: <1776@irisa.irisa.fr>
Date: 5 Dec 89 10:51:36 GMT
References: <8912050802.AA12717@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: news@irisa.irisa.fr
Lines: 29

From article <8912050802.AA12717@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, by S61304@PRIME-A.POLY-SOUTH-WEST.AC.UK (Rat):
> Question.
> 
> Why wont Sozobon, Lattice or any other C compiler I've tried compile the
> following, from K&R?
> 
> main()
>      $
>      char fred[] = "Some string constant";
>      <rest of routine>
>
If you want to initialize an array (and a string IS an array of char) WITHIN
the body of a function (whether "main" or not), you should declare it as 
"static" like in:

static char fred[] = "Some string constant";      

Thus, the array will be static, i.e. memory will be allocated once at 
compilation-time and initialization can be performed AT COMPILATION-time.
Otherwise, i.e. if not declared static, memory will be allocated each time
the function is called, and de-allocated each time the function ends, thus
discarding any value the array had previously.

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