Thread: Initalizing global variables to constants

First of all, you shouldn't cast the return value of malloc().

Secondly, it's not the value you're passing to malloc() that it's saying isn't constant; it's the return value of malloc() that it's complaining about. You can't use malloc() to initialize a global variable.

Why are you using malloc() there anyway? Why not just char fileText[100];?

Variables with function scope don't need constant initializers. Global variables do.

Don't you always need to cast the return value of malloc since it returns a void*?

Nope. That's a C++ idiom, but not C. As long as you're not compiling your program as C++ and you #include <stdlib.h> then you shouldn't get any warnings/errors if you omit the cast.

> char* fileText = (char*)malloc(100);
You're probably trying to do this outside the scope of any function.
Unlike C++, all C executable code has to be inside a function.

So

Code:

char* fileText;
int main ( ) {
    fileText = malloc(100);
    // rest of code
}

Originally Posted by Salem

> char* fileText = (char*)malloc(100);
You're probably trying to do this outside the scope of any function.
Unlike C++, all C executable code has to be inside a function.

So

Code:

char* fileText;
int main ( ) {
    fileText = malloc(100);
    // rest of code
}

Isn't that pretty much what I said?

> Isn't that pretty much what I said?
Yes