Thread: Two dimensional array of struct.

I define

Code:

typedef struct
{
    uint32_t menu_id;
    char *menu_text;
}MENU_ITEM;

typedef struct
{
    uint32_t menu_id;
    uint8_t * menu_text;
    MENU_ITEM *submenu;
}MENU;

And initialization

Code:

MENU_ITEM sub_menu_maint[] = { {0, "NULL"}, {1, "IBITS"}, {2, "SW VER"}, {3, "CONFIG"}, {4, "UPLOAD"} };
MENU_ITEM sub_menu_fails[] = { {0, "NULL"}, {0, "MF"}, { 1, "HF"}, { 2, "FAILED"}, { 3, "BACK"} };


MENU menu[] =
{
    { 0,  "     "    ,  NULL                    },  //DEFAULT
    { 1, "FAILS "  , sub_menu_fails     },
    { 2, "MAINT"  , sub_menu_maint  },
};

Now I need two dimensional array

Code:

typedef struct
{
    uint32_t menu_id;
    uint8_t * menu_text;
    MENU_ITEM **submenu;
}MENU;

static MENU_ITEM sub_menu_fails[2][] =
{
    { {0, "MF"}, { 1, "HF"}, { 2, "FAILED"}, { 3, "BACK"} },
    { {0, "MF"}, { 1, "HF"}, { 2, "FAILED"}  }
};

I get an error
array type has incomplete element type

But I can not to define it like sub_menu_fails[2][4] because the second dimention varies.
What should I do?

> But I can not to define it like sub_menu_fails[2][4] because the second dimention varies.
But you have no choice.
Arrays by their nature have the same size in all the minor dimensions.

> What should I do?
Something similar to your first approach, where you have pointers to each variable-length sub-menu array.

Originally Posted by john7

Isn't it the same approach?
In both cases I'm setting the size while initializing the struct.

No, in the former you're saying that you have a number of MENU_ITEM objects with which you intend to initialise the array, and you're leaving the compiler to figure out that number. In the latter, you're saying that you have a number of arrays of an unknown number of arrays of MENU_ITEM objects... but in C the compiler isn't required to try and figure out what is that unknown number of inner arrays, especially since the syntax allows for the inner braces to be omitted, e.g., this is permitted:

Code:

int xs[][2] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6};

and would be equivalent to:

Code:

int xs[][2] = {{1, 2}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}};

As such, the same approach would be:

Code:

static MENU_ITEM sub_menu_fails[][4] =
{
    { {0, "MF"}, { 1, "HF"}, { 2, "FAILED"}, { 3, "BACK"} },
    { {0, "MF"}, { 1, "HF"}, { 2, "FAILED"}  }
};

That is, you're saying that you have a number of arrays of 4 arrays of MENU_ITEM objects, and you're leaving the compiler to figure out that number from the initialisation.

Whilst [] decays to *, [][] does NOT decay to **.

What you need at the moment is something like this
MENU_ITEM (*submenu)[4];

But I'm guessing that's not what you're really after.

You would otherwise need an intermediate array of pointers like so.

Code:

static MENU_ITEM *sub_menu_fails_ptrs[] = {
    sub_menu_fails[0],
    sub_menu_fails[1],
};

MENU menu[] =
{
    { 0,  "     "    ,  NULL                    },  //DEFAULT
    { 1, "FAILS "  , sub_menu_fails_ptrs     },
};