Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!medar!jseymour
From: jseymour@medar.com (James Seymour)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: ANOTHER SAS C BUG
Message-ID: <98@hdwr1.medar.com>
Date: 1 Apr 91 17:38:18 GMT
References: <1991Mar31.035009.13183@csis.dit.csiro.au> <1991Apr1.050544.13878@cs.cornell.edu>
Organization: Medar, Inc.     Farmington Hills, MI
Lines: 34

In article <1991Apr1.050544.13878@cs.cornell.edu> johnhlee@cs.cornell.edu (John H. Lee) writes:
>
> [stuff deleted]
>By the way, your first statement should read:
>
>	char str[]="hello\n";
>                                                  ... (but the amount of
>memory allocated is the same.)

John, you are correct in that what the original poster was complaining about
is, indeed, a portability "bug".  You are incorrect regarding your comment
on how the string should be declared however (does this belong in the C
newsgroup?).

char *str = "hello";		/* declare a pointer to a char array,
				   initialize pointer to a string */

char str[] = "hello";		/* declare a character array, initialized
				   in length and contents */

BIG difference.  Especially if a function in another function is told
that str *contains* a pointer to char, when in reality it *is* the start
of the character array itself. [I've bitten myself with that one more times
than I'd care to count :-)].  Lastly, the amount of memory consumed is
not the same for each.  The first declaration takes up <pointer_sized> more
memory than the second (although generally this is an insignificant
point).  Which way it should be declared depends on what the program[mer]
needs.

-- 
Jim Seymour				| Medar, Inc.
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