Page History

...

Note that this recommendation does not apply to character arrays initialized with string literals, see STR36-C. Do not specify the dimension of a character array initialized with a string literal for more information.

Non-Compliant Code Example (Incorrect Size)

This non-compliant code example initializes an array of integers using an initialization with too many elements for the array.

...

The size of the array a is three, although the size of the initialization is four. The last element of the initialization (4) is ignored. Most compilers will diagnose this error.

Implementation Details

This non-compliant code example generates a warning in gcc. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 generates a fatal diagnostic: error C2078: too many initializers.

Non-Compliant Code Example (Implicit Size)

This non-compliant code example initializes an array of integers using an initialization with too many elements for the array.

...

In this example, the compiler allocates an array of 4 integer elements. However, if the initializer changes, the array dimension may also change, causing unexpected results.

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution explicitly specifies the array dimension.

int a[4] = {1, 2, 3, 4};

Specifying both the array d

This is the preferred approach, because a programmer who changes the initializer size will be warned by the compiler that the array index should also change to accommodate the initializer.

Risk Assessment

Related Vulnerabilities

Search for vulnerabilities resulting from the violation of this rule on the CERT website.

References

\[[ISO/IEC 9899:1999|AA. C References#ISO/IEC 9899-1999]\]

...