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From: jbickers@templar.actrix.co.nz (John Bickers)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Initializing arrays of char
Message-ID: <6568.tnews@templar.actrix.co.nz>
Date: 5 Oct 90 18:55:00 GMT
Followup-To: comp.lang.c
Organization: TAP, NZAmigaUG.
Lines: 22

Quoted from - poser@csli.Stanford.EDU (Bill Poser):
> 	...the number of characters in the string, NOT COUNTING
> 	THE TERMINATING NULL CHARACTER, must not exceed the
> 	size of the array. [emphasis mine]

> an error. Not counting the terminating null here is inconsistent.
> Can anyone explain this decision?

    Sounds like this is intended to allow a nice way to initialize
    character arrays that aren't necessarily strings.

    Like, say, a 4 character ID in a structure, that is meant to be
    compared and writ with things like mem... or strn...

    Consider that a character array is not necessarily going to be used as
    a "string", and since C doesn't distinguish between the two with any
    sort of type keyword, it's better to provide for the more general case.

    Does lint warn about this sort of thing?
--
*** John Bickers, TAP, NZAmigaUG.         jbickers@templar.actrix.co.nz ***
***          "All I can do now is wait for the noise." - Numan          ***