Thread: initializer element is not constant

I'm trying to define a char* global variable (is this bad practice?) but keep getting an error message "initializer element is not constant"

the code is as follows:

Code:

char* inputfile = malloc( sizeof(char) );

and is in the header file with other global variables.

what does the error mean, and why does it only occur when using global variables (i've used the exact same line in a function and it works fine).
Thanks

Code:

char* inputfile = malloc( sizeof(char) );

Global data must be initialzed with a constant value so that that constant value can be stored in the executable somewhere.
What exacly do you want to do here? If you just want a char pointer then all you need is

Code:

char *inputfile=NULL;

Thanks thats all I wanted to do, then I just malloced inside the function. Haven't used global variables much, didn't think about trying to store a non-constant value

You do know that you are mallocing only one charactor and then storing a pointer to it? seams a waste just for one charactor...

yeah, it was all wrong, I need it to be a FILE* anyway...