On 20050507T203246+0200, Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk wrote:
In C and C++, the declaration int n[50]; introduces an array variable with size 50 having the type "array of int". The size is *not* part of the type.
No, it introduces a variable of type "array of 50 ints", which can be converted to "pointer to int".
ISO 9899:1999 (C99) section 6.7.5.2:3 says that its type is "array of int", not "array of 50 ints": If, in the declaration ``T D1'', D1 has one of the forms: D[ type-qualifier-listopt assignment-expressionopt ] D[ static type-qualifier-listopt assignment-expression ] D[ type-qualifier-list static assignment-expression ] D[ type-qualifier-listopt * ] and the type specified for ident in the declaration ``T D'' is `` derived-declarator-type-list T '', then the type specified for ident is ``derived-declarator-type-list array of T ''.121) (See 6.7.5.3 for the meaning of the optional type qualifiers and the keyword static.) 121) When several ``array of'' specifications are adjacent, a multidimensional array is declared.
It matters when you make a pointer of such arrays, an array of such arrays, or sizeof such array. In C++ the size can be matched by template parameter, and you can have separate overloadings for separate array sizes.
For C, in all those cases, the array size is a property of the variable, not of the type. -- Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho http://antti-juhani.kaijanaho.info/ Blogi - http://kaijanaho.info/antti-juhani/blog/ Toys - http://www.cc.jyu.fi/yhd/toys/