testing array

[chico1st]

is there any way to test to see if an element of an array exists in c?

I am passing an array into a function in c and i want to make sure that I am writing to an existing element.

[matsp]

There is no such way - you need to pass the size of the array to the function so your function knows how large the array is.

--
Mats

[chico1st]

ooo i can just use
if (array[i] != NULL)

EDIT: oh .. nvm

[tabstop]

No.

(When passed into a function, an array is turned into just a pointer to the first element; if you want to know the size, you must pass that in to the function separately.)

[matsp]

ooo i can just use
if (array[i] != NULL)

EDIT: oh .. nvm

Well, you CAN if you can guarantee that the last element in the array is always NULL and nothing else in the array is. It is perfectly valid to not pass in the array size if you have a "sentinel" or "end-marker" to indicate the end of the array.

However, you have to be careful that you do not prevent valid values from being used in the array. An array of unsigned integers that could hold any value would not be possible to do this with, since ALL values would potentially be used.

--
Mats

[chico1st]

would this work to find the end of an array... assuming there are no '\0' in the array

uInt8 *image = NULL;


FunctionICantSeeInsideOf((void *) &image);

for(i=0; i<(10000000); i++){
		if(image[i] == '\0')
		{
			lengtharray = i;
			goto over;
		}
	}
over:
return lengtharray

[matsp]

would this work to find the end of an array... assuming there are no '\0' in the array

uInt8 *image = NULL;


FunctionICantSeeInsideOf((void *) &image);

for(i=0; i<(10000000); i++){
		if(image[i] == '\0')
		{
			lengtharray = i;
			goto over;
		}
	}
over:
return lengtharray

Yes, the use of a "marker" to indicate the end is one way to indicate how long a sequence of data is. However, unless "FunctionICantSeeInsideOf" is putting a the correct marker at the end of the array, you can't use this sort of mechanism.

And your use of "goto" is completely avoidable and "useless", since "break" is shorter to type and more acceptable. Alternatively, just use "image[i]" as part of the end condition of the for-loop, and set lengtharray after the loop.

--
Mats