C - Array is out of Range

Question

Considering the following:

#define SIZE 5

/* ... */

int oxen[SIZE] = {5,3,2,8};
int yaks[SIZE];
yaks[SIZE] = oxen [SIZE];   /* -->Out of range */

Can someone explain why its out of range?

Yes. For an array of size 5, the valid subscripts (indexes) are 0-4, so there is no `yaks[5]` or `oxen[5]`. — Ken White, Nov 28 '14 at 00:02
Because you have not read page one of the "arrays" section in any C book or tutorial. — John3136, Nov 28 '14 at 00:02
@John3136 or any other page either; I'm guessing that he is trying to assign all elements — M.M, Nov 28 '14 at 00:51

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 28 '14 at 00:02

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Arrays indices in C start at 0, so your oxen and yaks arrays range from 0 to SIZE-1. You're outside the allowed boundaries, as the compiler rightly warns you about.

answered Nov 28 '14 at 00:02

xbug

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

1

Because C is zero-indexed, oxen[SIZE] is really trying to deference a sixth element that does not exist. Use the index [SIZE-1], instead.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

Community

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answered Nov 28 '14 at 00:01

Alex Reynolds

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 28 '14 at 00:13

because c Language can access the elements of array by their indexes thus index start from 0 to n-1 where n is a number of elements in your array so in your case u can access elements from 0 to 4 indexes if u deal with array of characters maybe this works because of null terminator '\0' also u may not get an errors and get random results because its compiler dependent :)

C - Array is out of Range

3 Answers3