Possible Duplicate:
How to find the sizeof(a pointer pointing to an array)
I have the following code
int myfunc(char *arr)
{
const int sizearr = sizeof( arr ) / sizeof(char);
}
This yields the size of the pointer, not the size of the char array[17] I passed to the function.
I know that I may use strlen and solve the problem, but is there any way to convert the char*arr pointer back to the char array[17] I passed to the function in order to use the sizeof(char array[17]) ?
If you want to pass an array of 17 chars, you need to pass it by reference (C++ only):
int myfunc(char (&arr)[17])
{
unsigned int const sizearr = sizeof arr;
// ...
}
Or make a template to deduce the size:
template <unsigned int sizearr>
int myfunc(char (&arr)[sizearr])
{
// ...
}
In C, you cannot pass arrays as arguments at all, so it is your responsibility to communicate the array size separately.
Update: As @David suggests, you can fix the array type in C by passing a pointer to the array:
int myfunc(char (*arr)[17])
{
unsigned int const sizearr = sizeof *arr;
// ...
}
int main()
{
char s[17];
return myfunc(&s);
}
No, there is no such way. But in C++ you can make function template parametrized by array size and pass array by reference:
template <size_t size> void myfunc(char (&arr)[size])
{
for(size_t i = 0; i < size; ++i) std::cout << arr[i];
}
// Usage
char array[] = "My char array";
myfunc(array);
No.
There is no such way. The type char * does not contain any information about the "source", i.e. the array. This is why it's said that the array "decays" into a pointer; the pointer has less information than the array.
Also, sizeof (char) is 1.
Not really, because once the array has decayed to a pointer all information regarding its "original" form has been lost. You can always cast the pointer to a char[17] but that's bad practice.
If you really need to have an array, change the function signature to accept an array.
