C declarations

[Angus Greiswald the fourth]

> 	int ptr[];	declares one pointer
> but
> 	int ptr[] = { 1, 2, 3 };	declares a three element int array.
>
>   Is this a desirable characteristic of C?  Could someone please comment on
> the precise meaning of [] in declarations.

Well, I look at it this way: foo[] is an array whose location and/or size is
variable and thus needs to be declared as a pointer, and biff[4] is a fixed
size array whose location is constant, and thus biff can be declared as
a constant.  When there is an initializer, you can explicitly declare the
size of an array, leave the compiler to count for itself, or specify
it to be non-fixed in size and position with an initial value.

    int foobung[3] = {13, 42, 93}, Ack[] = {7, 6}, ichabod[] = foobung;

Of course, int *foo is a different matter.  Hope I covered what you
were interested in.

--
Jeff Lewis                                         vvvvvvvvvvvv
{decvax|ucbvax|allegra|seismo|harpo|teklabs|ihnp4}!pur-ee!lewie
                                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^