Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mailrus!wuarchive!decwrl!bacchus.pa.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!tkou02.enet.dec.com!diamond
From: diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com (diamond@tkovoa)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Is this bad programming?
Keywords: #define array definition
Message-ID: <1910@tkou02.enet.dec.com>
Date: 9 Aug 90 08:27:03 GMT
References: <1990Aug8.100614.1223@resam.dk>
Reply-To: diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com (diamond@tkovoa)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Japan , Tokyo
Lines: 47

In article <1990Aug8.100614.1223@resam.dk> andrew@resam.dk (Leif Andrew Rump) writes:

>char	errortext[][40] = {
>	"234567890123456789012345678901234567890",
>#define	FILE_FOOTER_ERROR		1
>	"File footer error",
>#define	DRAW_FOOTER_ERROR		2
>	"Draw footer error",
>#define	GRAP_FOOTER_ERROR		3
>	"Grap footer error",
>#define	BASE_FRAME_CREATE_ERROR		4
>	"Base_frame creation error",
>	}

Yes, it is perfectly legal, but as you suggested (and I deleted) it
might not be considered aesthetic.

>I am a pascal-programmer (aha, that is why  :-)  ) in my
>real life and I could also use union/enumerated types.

If you want enumeration types, C almost learned them about 11 years ago.
Under ANSI, they've been almost learned in a standardized way.  However,
you might have problems with pre-ANSI compilers (where a single compiler
would often be inconsistent with itself).

typedef enum error_t {
	Filler_to_match_Digit_String,  /* I would delete this and the string */
	FILE_FOOTER_ERROR,
	DRAW_FOOTER_ERROR,
	GRAP_FOOTER_ERROR,
	BASE_FRAME_CREATE_ERROR,
	Number_of_Error_Codes          /* Put new insertions BEFORE this!    */
	} error_t;        /* If you use Posix, then you can't end it with _t */
char	errortext[][40] = {
	"234567890123456789012345678901234567890",  /* I'd make it a comment */
	"File footer error",
	"Draw footer error",
	"Grap footer error",
	"Base_frame creation error",
	}
int	junk = 1 /
	(sizeof errortext[0] * Number_of_Error_Codes == sizeof errortext);
	/* A compile-time error here means mismatched quantities */

-- 
Norman Diamond, Nihon DEC     diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com
This is me speaking.  If you want to hear the company speak, you need DECtalk.