what is this suppose to be?

Code:

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BYTE (*main_data)[1000];

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I thought that it might be an array of pointers, but then I saw this line

Code:

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main_data = malloc(1000);

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But this line contradicts that theory. It would have to allocate 4 kb (not 1) if that was the case.

I never thought I'd be asking a question like this, but, what does this initilizer really do?

It's a pointer to an array. You can make it point to an array:

Code:

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BYTE ar[1000];
BYTE (*main_data)[1000] = &ar;

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But I'm not sure if this works under VC++, because traditionally, due to compatibility with stupid code, VC++ interprets &ar as &ar[0] (or just ar).