Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In computer programming, a variable-length array (VLA), also called variable-sized or runtime-sized, is an array data structure whose length is determined at runtime, instead of at compile time. [1] In the language C , the VLA is said to have a variably modified data type that depends on a value (see Dependent type ).
For every type T, except void and function types, there exist the types "array of N elements of type T". An array is a collection of values, all of the same type, stored contiguously in memory. An array of size N is indexed by integers from 0 up to and including N−1. Here is a brief example:
Since C99, the programmer can specify that a function takes an array of a certain size by using the keyword static. In void setArray(int array[static 4], int index, int value) the first parameter must be a pointer to the first element of an array of length at
However, C and C++ will use a linear indexing formula for multi-dimensional arrays that are declared with compile time constant size, e.g. by int A [10][20] or int A [m][n], instead of the traditional int ** A. [8] The C99 standard introduced Variable Length Array types that let define array types with dimensions computed in run time.
C99 also allows variable length arrays that have the length specified at runtime, [2] although the feature is considered an optional implementation in later versions of the C standard. In such cases, the sizeof operator is evaluated in part at runtime to determine the storage occupied by the array.
Array types in C are traditionally of a fixed, static size specified at compile time. The more recent C99 standard also allows a form of variable-length arrays. However, it is also possible to allocate a block of memory (of arbitrary size) at run-time, using the standard library's malloc function, and treat it as an array.
C has the ability to initialize arrays of arbitrary length. The sizeof operator can be used to obtain the size of a statically initialized array in C code. For instance, in the following code, the terminating index for the loop automatically adjusts should the list of strings be changed.
For a multidimensional array, the element with indices i,j would have address B + c · i + d · j, where the coefficients c and d are the row and column address increments, respectively. More generally, in a k-dimensional array, the address of an element with indices i 1, i 2, ..., i k is B + c 1 · i 1 + c 2 · i 2 + … + c k · i k. For ...