SEI CERT C Coding Standard

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Traditionally C arrays are declared with an index that is either a fixed constant, or empty. An array with a fixed constant index indicates to the compiler how much space to reserve for the array. An array declaration with an empty index is considered an incomplete type, and indicates that the variable indicates a pointer to an array of indeterminite size.

The C standard, since 1999 has permitted array declarations to use extended syntax. The most well-known extension is for variable-length arrays (VLAs). In this case, the array index is a variable, and the size of the array is determined at run-time, rather than compile-time.

Section 6.7.6.1, paragraph 1, summarizes the array index syntax extensions:

In addition to optional type qualifiers and the keyword static, the [ and ] may delimit
an expression or *. If they delimit an expression (which specifies the size of an array), the
expression shall have an integer type. If the expression is a constant expression, it shall
have a value greater than zero. The element type shall not be an incomplete or function
type. The optional type qualifiers and the keyword static shall appear only in a
declaration of a function parameter with an array type, and then only in the outermost
array type derivation.

Consequently, an array declaration that serves as a function argument may have an index that is a variable or an expression. This does not indicate that the argument indicates a VLA, as the array argument is demoted to a pointer. But it can be used by developers to indicate the expected bounds of the array. This information may be used by compilers, or it may be ignored. But such declarations are useful to other developers as they serve to document relationships between array sizes and other relevant variables. Furthermore, the information can also be used by static analysis tools.

int f(size_t n, int a[n]);  // documents a relationship between n and a

Standard Examples

Section 6.7.6.3 of C11 has several examples of conformant array parameters. Example 4 illustrates a variably modified parameter:

void addscalar(int n, int m,
               double a[n][n*m+300], double x);

int main()
{
  double b[4][308];
  addscalar(4, 2, b, 2.17);
  return 0;
}

void addscalar(int n, int m,
               double a[n][n*m+300], double x)
{
  for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
  for (int j = 0, k = n*m+300; j < k; j++)
    // a is a pointer to a VLA with n*m+300 elements
    a[i][j] += x;
}

Example 5 illustrates a set of compatible function prototype declarators

double maximum(int n, int m, double a[n][m]);
double maximum(int n, int m, double a[*][*]);
double maximum(int n, int m, double a[ ][*]);
double maximum(int n, int m, double a[ ][m]);

These prototype declarators are also compatible:

void f(double (* restrict) a)[5]);
void f(double a[restrict][5]);
void f(double a[restrict 3][5]);
void f(double a[restrict static 3][5]);

C11 concludes with the following note regarding example 5:

Note that the last declaration also specifies that the argument corresponding to a in any call to f must be a
non-null pointer to the first of at least three arrays of 5 doubles, which the others do not.

Noncompliant Code Example

This code example provides a function that wraps a call to the standard memset() function, and has a similar set of arguments. However, while this function clearly intends that p point to an array of at least n chars, this invariant is not explicitly documented.

void my_memset(char* p, size_t n, char v) {
  memset( p, v, n);
}

Noncompliant Code Example

This noncompliant code example attempts to document the relationship between the pointer and the size using conformant array parameters. However, the variable n is used as the index of the array declaration before n is itself declared. Consequently this code example is not standards-compliant, and will usually fail to compile.

void my_memset(char p[n], size_t n, char v) {
  memset( p, v, n);
}

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution declares the size variable before using it in the subsequent array declaration. Consequently this code complies with the standard and successfully documents the relationship between the array parameter and the size parameter.

void my_memset(size_t n, char p[n], char v) {
  memset( p, v, n);
}

Bibliography

C99, section 6.7.6.3 (see example 4)

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