Dynamically allocated array of structures in C

Question

I just wanted to know if the following works. I have a struct called foo that is defined as the following:

struct foo {
    char name[255];
    int amount;
};

During runtime, I need to create an array of the above structures whose size is dependent on a value I receive from a file's input. Let's say this size is k. Will the following code appropriately allocate a dynamically-sized array of structures?

struct foo *fooarray;
fooarray = malloc(k * sizeof(struct foo));

EDIT: If I want to access members of the structures within these arrays, will I use the format fooarray[someindex].member?

Answer 1

That will work (and your accessing is correct). Also, you can guard against size errors by using the idiom:

fooarray = malloc(k * sizeof *fooarray);

Consider using calloc if it would be nice for your items to start out with zero amounts and blank strings, instead of garbage.

However, this is not a VLA. It's a dynamically-allocated array. A VLA would be:

struct foo fooarray[k];