Re: Static initialization of an array of Structs (each of which has an array member)

From:

Paavo Helde <myfirstname@osa.pri.ee>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.c++

Date:

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:48:28 -0600

Message-ID:

<Xns9CCE83E34D7Cpaavo256@216.196.109.131>

"mike.arsenault" <mike.arsenault@ivara.com> wrote in news:c7e45c84-6220-
4e97-96af-48af576fc13c@m13g2000vbf.googlegroups.com:

I'm not sure how to explain this problem other that posting the code
that I'm attempting to compile, so here it is:

struct innerStruct
{
   int m_RelOID;
   int m_ParentClassOID;
   int m_InverseRelOID;
   int m_InverseParentClassOID;
};

struct outerStruct
{
   int m_HashIndex;
   struct innerStruct m_InnerArray[];
}

C++ wants to have a fixed sizeof for each type. Here, the sizeof
(outerStruct) is fixed after parsing its definition. You cannot enlarge
it later, and you cannot put data in the struct which does not fit there,
neither can you have a type with varying size, and neither can you have
an array with elements having different sizes. So it's not just
initialization what does not work here. You have to use either
std::vector or dynamic memory.

hth
Paavo

s_OuterStruct[] =
{
   0, {
      {1, 2, 3, 4},
      {5, 6, 7, 8}
      },
   1, {
      {11, 12, 13, 14},
      {15, 16, 17, 18},
      {25, 26, 27, 28},
      }
};

's_OuterStruct' is an array of structs - I'm trying to initialize an
array with 2 elements in it.
    The first element has a '0' with an 'inner' array of 2 elements
(of type 'innerStruct').
    The second element has a '1' with an 'inner' array of 3 elements
(of type 'innerStruct').

I'm having a hard time coming up with the proper syntax to initialize
this 'array of structs, each of which is composed of a number and
another array of structs'.

Keep in mind that the inner 'array of structs' won't have the same
number of elements, as in the above example.

Is what I'm trying to do even possible with static initialization??

Thanks
Mike