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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 ).
Cover of the C99 standards document. C99 (previously C9X, formally ISO/IEC 9899:1999) is a past version of the C programming language open standard. [1] It extends the previous version with new features for the language and the standard library, and helps implementations make better use of available computer hardware, such as IEEE 754-1985 floating-point arithmetic, and compiler technology. [2]
The last member of a C99 structure type with more than one member may be a flexible array member, which takes the syntactic form of an array with unspecified length. This serves a purpose similar to variable-length arrays, but VLAs cannot appear in type definitions, and unlike VLAs, flexible array members have no defined size.
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.
The C language provides basic arithmetic types, such as integer and real number types, and syntax to build array and compound types. Headers for the C standard library , to be used via include directives , contain definitions of support types, that have additional properties, such as providing storage with an exact size, independent of the ...
^a In most expressions (except the sizeof and & operators), values of array types in C are automatically converted to a pointer of its first argument. See C syntax#Arrays for further details of syntax and pointer operations. ^b The C-like type x[] works in Java, however type[] x is the preferred form of array declaration.
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Even Microsoft, a main proponent of this interface, does not conform to the definition. [21] In addition, Annex K does not include the more useful TR24731-2 (dynamic allocation functions), such as vasprintf and open_memstream. [22] The few open-source implementations include Open Watcom C/C++'s "Safer C" library [23] and safeclib. [24]