Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!tekecs!frip!andrew
From: andrew@frip.gwd.tek.com (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Null-terminated C strings
Message-ID: <9565@tekecs.TEK.COM>
Date: 24 Dec 87 18:51:08 GMT
References: <174@quick.COM> <14116@think.UUCP> <2447@hall.cray.com> <3087@phri.UUCP>
Sender: nobody@tekecs.TEK.COM
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville, Oregon
Lines: 23

[]

	"Should a \000 in a string constant be flagged as a warning by
	the compiler? ... I can't think of any valid reason offhand you
	would *want* to do such a thing."

Character arrays have uses other than printable strings.  The fact that
\000 and eight-bit characters like \377 can be spelled in C leads to
some useful coding shortcuts.  As a (stupid) example:

	int isPrime(number) int number; {
		if (number<0 || number>10) {
			fprintf(stderr,"isPrime(%d): out of range\n",number);
			abort();
			}
		return "\0\1\1\1\0\1\0\1\0\0\0"[number];
		}

(I have made non-stupid use of this feature, but in programs too long to
use as examples here.)

  -=- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew)       [UUCP]
                        (andrew%tekecs.tek.com@relay.cs.net)   [ARPA]