gcc array of "strings" declaration failing

Question

I am trying to write a simple c program, but I am having trouble declaring "string" arrays. The following code compiles without error:

#define HAND_SIZE 10;
int main()
{
    char * cards[13] = { "A", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10", "J", "Q", "K"};

    int player[HAND_SIZE];
}

but I cannot make player into an array of "strings" instead of ints. If I do any of the following:

char * player[HAND_SIZE];

char player [HAND_SIZE][];

char player [HAND_SIZE][5];

//repeat the above with '= {}' and '= {""}' initializations

I get the error:

 error: expected ‘]’ before ‘;’ token

Why is this happening and how can I declare an empty array of "strings" in c?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 26 '18 at 19:07

1

preprocessor directives should not end with a semicolon.

Semicolon after the end of #define line was giving you the error, This will work:

#define HAND_SIZE 10
int main()
{
    char * cards[13] = { "A", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10", "J", "Q", "K"};

    int player[HAND_SIZE];
}

edited May 26 '18 at 19:07

Jean-François Fabre

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answered May 26 '18 at 18:22

Abhijith S

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that fixed it, thanks – Kevin Zinn May 26 '18 at 18:37
1

macros _can_ end with a semicolon. It's just that you shouldn't do that _ever_. – Jean-François Fabre May 26 '18 at 18:50
@Jean-FrançoisFabre you are right. I have updated the answer. Only _statements_ end with a **;** in c/c++, `#define` is a pre-processor directive and not a statement. Thanks by the way. – Abhijith S May 26 '18 at 19:03
Preprocessor directives can end with a semicolon - you just have to know what you are doing. – Artur May 26 '18 at 19:07
but this is really bad practice. Because afterwards, macro users can omit the semicolon and it can confuse readers & IDEs... – Jean-François Fabre May 26 '18 at 19:08

gcc array of "strings" declaration failing

1 Answers1