C initialize array within structure

Question

I want to have an variable-length array contained within a structure, but am having trouble initializing it correctly.

struct Grid {
  int rows;
  int cols;
  int grid[];
}

int main() {
  struct Grid testgrid = {1, 3, {4, 5, 6}};
}

Everything I try gives me an 'error: non-static initialization of a flexible array member' error.

Answer 1

Here is my version:

#include <stdio.h> 

struct matrix {
  int rows;
  int cols;
  int **val;
} a = {        .rows=3,  .cols=1,
        .val = (int*[3]){ (int[1]){1},
                          (int[1]){2},
                          (int[1]){3} } },

  b = {        .rows=3,  .cols=4,
        .val = (int*[3]){ (int[4]){1, 2, 3, 4},
                          (int[4]){5, 6, 7, 8},
                          (int[4]){9,10,11,12} } };

void print_matrix( char *name, struct matrix *m ){
  for( int row=0;row<m->rows;row++ )
    for( int col=0;col<m->cols;col++ )
      printf( "%s[%i][%i]: %i\n", name, row, col, m->val[row][col] );
  puts("");
}

int main(){
  print_matrix( "a", &a );
  print_matrix( "b", &b );
}

Answer 2

You can make that work in gcc by making the struct either static or global, but it turns out that initializing flexible array members is non-conforming and so it is likely to not work except with gcc. Here is a way to do it that just uses C99-conforming features...

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdarg.h>

typedef struct Grid {
  int rows;
  int cols;
  int grid[];
} *Grid;

Grid newGrid(int, int, ...);

Grid newGrid(int rows, int cols, ...)
{
Grid g;
va_list ap;
int i, n = rows * cols;

  if((g = malloc(sizeof(struct Grid) + rows * cols * sizeof(int))) == NULL)
    return NULL;
  g->rows = rows;
  g->cols = cols;
  va_start(ap, cols);
  for(i = 0; i < n; ++i)
    g->grid[i] = va_arg(ap, int);
  va_end(ap);
  return g;
}
.
.
.
Grid g1, g2, g3;
g1 = newGrid(1, 1, 123);
g2 = newGrid(2, 3, 1, 1, 1,
                   2, 2, 2);
g3 = newGrid(4, 5, 1,  2,  3,  4,  5,
                   6,  7,  8,  9, 10,
                  11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
                  16, 17, 18, 19, 20);