Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!eniac.seas.upenn.edu!carey
From: carey@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Robert Carey)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Array initialization question
Message-ID: <43075@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 14 May 91 15:28:41 GMT
Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
Reply-To: carey@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Robert Carey)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 42
Nntp-Posting-Host: eniac.seas.upenn.edu


The SunOS C compiler seems to be doing me an unwanted favor.  If in
defining a multidimensional array of char I initialize a row using a
string which is one character longer than the row (admittedly a bad
thing to be doing - it was an accident), it inserts all the values up
to and not including the NUL byte, and does not issue a warning. (More
likely the second initializer actually clobbers the NUL byte from the
first one.)  If I try to use a string that is even one character longer
than that it prints a message and truncates the initialization string
to one less than the length of the row and inserts a NUL in the last
byte of the row.  I would have expected the compiler to give me a
warning in both cases.  Is it supposed to work this way?

Example initializing a 5 character row from a 6 character string:

  $ cat foo.c
  main()
  {
      static char foo[2][5]={"12345", "67890"};

      printf("[%s][%s]\n", foo[0], foo[1]);
  }
  $ cc -o foo foo.c
  $ foo
  [1234567890][67890]
  $

Example initializing a 5 character row from a 7 character string:

  $ cat foo.c
  main()
  {
      static char foo[2][5]={"123456", "678901"};

      printf("[%s][%s]\n", foo[0], foo[1]);
  }
  $ cc -o foo foo.c
  "foo.c", line 3: warning: string initializer too long
  "foo.c", line 3: warning: string initializer too long
  $ foo
  [1234][6789]
  $