Why Does a Zero-Length Array in C Cause Error 2233, and How Can I Fix It?

Dealing with "Array of Zero Length" in C

In C , the "array of zero length" situation can be encountered in legacy code. This involves structs containing arrays with a length of zero. While the warnings are suppressed by pragma, creating new structures containing such arrays may cause error 2233. Why is this occurring, and what can be done to resolve it?

The reason for using zero-length arrays is a historical C hack that allows dynamic allocation of arrays. Instead of using an array of length 1 or a pointer, developers would create a struct with a zero-length array. This would allow them to calculate the size of the array dynamically using the nData member of the struct.

To rectify this issue, a C-Hack can be employed. The function mallocSomeData can be created to dynamically allocate an array of a specified length:

struct someData* mallocSomeData(int size)
{
    struct someData*  result = (struct someData*)malloc(sizeof(struct someData) + size * sizeof(BYTE));
    if (result)
    {    result->nData = size;
    }
    return result;
}

By using this function, you can create an object of someData with an array of the desired length, effectively addressing the "array of zero length" issue.

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