Question

I know, that C allow I do it.


char *array[] = {"String1", "String2",...};


but I wanna do it.


char **array or char *array[3];
array = {"String1", "String2"...};


Because I think that using a loop to fullfill a array is very bad instead initializing like a showed.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Short answer: no, you can’t.

When initialising a non-static array like this, the compiler has to generate code to copy the initial state of the array out of storage and into the new array. (Because it’s a new array every time you call the function.) It’s not actually much slower to write code to do this yourself.

Long answer: if you’re willing to be evil, you can sort of do it, in C99, by wrapping the array in a struct and using structure assignment…

struct arrayWrapper
{
  char* array[4];
};

{
  struct arrayWrapper d;
  ...
  d = (struct arrayWrapper){{1, 2, 3, 4}};
}

(syntax may not be quite right.)

But that’s evil, and only works in C99, so don’t do it, mmm’kay?