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From: harry@matilda.uk.sun.com (Harry Protoolis - Sun EHQ)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Variable structure size -- ANSI ?
Message-ID: <6246@male.EBay.Sun.COM>
Date: 12 Apr 91 19:29:55 GMT
References: <8334@umd5.umd.edu> <3111@kluge.fiu.edu> <4204@rwthinf.UUCP>
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Reply-To: harry.protoolis@uk.1.com
Organization: Sun Microsystems Europe Inc
Lines: 31

|> Michael N Johnston writes:
|> ]>struct foo {
|> ]>unsigned short recsize;
|> ]>unsigned short num;
|> ]>char info [24];
|> ]>byte flags;
|> ]>char filename[1]
|> ]>};
|> ]>Where, foo.filename is a placeholder for a variable length string.
|> 

A question really, does the standard *guarantee* the physical order of structure
elements ? I looked in K&R 2 and couldn't find anything.

Like, my smart compiler couldn't decide to 'shuffle' them around for reasons
best known to itself could it ?, ... or could it ?

IMHO the technique used above is inferior to using char *filename and mallocing
the space separately simply for reasons of clarity, and if a compiler might 
shuffle structure elements around it could one day lead to some rather curious 
bugs ...

Harry
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