what is size_t?

Hi,

I was looking at this old forum thread:

http://cboard.cprogramming.com/archi...p/t-63079.html

and was a bit confused as to what size_t (size_t serialize) is - is it a standard typedef in C (as I have seen it mentioned elsewhere here, or a placeholder for me to place my own type in?

edit

just found it - its a replacement for int in string and memory copy functions

Just trying to understand this code, would someone be able to clarify some lines I don't understand please..

Code:

---

struct dumb by[sizeof member] =

---

defining a struct of type dumb with name by - what does the sizeof member do, dynamically size the array?

Code:

---

memcpy(&dst[i], &object->broiled, sizeof object->broiled);
  i += sizeof object->broiled;

---

I'm a bit confused as to what the function of i is here - I can see that the memcpy transfers the contents of each member to consecutive array indexes

Code:

---

void showbytes(const void *object, size_t size)
{
  const unsigned char *byte;
  for ( byte = object; size--; ++byte )

---

whats the purpose of size here, and why is it decremented?

--dave

size_t

thanks for the link, it was very descriptive, that was a site I hadn't come accross before.

--dave

Code:

---

struct dumb by[sizeof member]

---

sizeof returns the actual size of a variable or type. For example,

Code:

---

struct dumb by[sizeof(int)]

---

Would define as many structs of type dumb, as the number of bytes an int takes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by droseman

Just trying to understand this code, would someone be able to clarify some lines I don't understand please...

Code:

---

memcpy(&dst[i], &object->broiled, sizeof object->broiled);
  i += sizeof object->broiled;

---

I'm a bit confused as to what the function of i is here - I can see that the memcpy transfers the contents of each member to consecutive array indexes

---

Hard to say w/o looking at the declaration of the struct object and array dst[] as i is being incremented by sizeof broiled which is an element of the struct object.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by droseman

Code:

---

void showbytes(const void *object, size_t size)
{
  const unsigned char *byte;
  for ( byte = object; size--; ++byte )

---

whats the purpose of size here, and why is it decremented?

--dave

---

Again hard to say without its proper context. Looks like it is displaying bytes stored in variable object though decrementing size at each step until it becomes zero for a terminal condition may not be a good idea. Perhaps byte <= size maybe a better choice for the terminal condition but then again it is probably best reviewed in context.