malloc an array of struct pointers

Question

I have the following struct:

typedef struct _chess {
   int **array;
   int size;
   struct _chess *parent;
} chess;

and I have:

typedef struct _chess *Chess;

Now, I want to create an array of dynamic length to store pointers to the chess struct so I do the following:

Chess array [] = malloc(size * sizeof(Chess));

This gives me an error: invalid initializer.

And if I drop the [] and do this:

Chess array = malloc(size * sizeof(Chess));

it compiles without error but when I try to set an element of this array to NULL by doing:

array[i]=NULL;

I get an error: incompatible types when assigning to type ‘struct _chess’ from type ‘void *’

Any idea what am I doing wrong? Thanks.

@user82238 So you don't have to type struct when using the type. — Tyilo
– Tyilo, Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 16:27
Stop using pointer typedefs, you are just confusing yourself. chess *array = malloc(size * sizeof *array);. — M.M
– M.M, Commented Mar 14, 2014 at 0:42
Also, NULL cannot be assigned to a chess. The only thing you can assign to a struct is another struct of the same type. Maybe you meant something like : chess blank = { 0 }; array[i] = blank; — M.M
– M.M, Commented Mar 14, 2014 at 0:44

Mack · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-13 23:50:08Z

49

array is a slightly misleading name. For a dynamically allocated array of pointers, malloc will return a pointer to a block of memory. You need to use Chess* and not Chess[] to hold the pointer to your array.

Chess *array = malloc(size * sizeof(Chess));
array[i] = NULL;

and perhaps later:

/* create new struct chess */
array[i] = malloc(sizeof(struct chess));

/* set up its members */
array[i]->size = 0;
/* etc. */

edited Mar 13, 2014 at 23:50

Mack

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answered May 30, 2012 at 7:07

Lara Bailey

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2 Comments

InsightClip Over a year ago

Thank you! This fixed it for me! Would you please explain why doesn't Chess[] work? I'm confused now I though [] and * are the same thing.

glglgl Over a year ago

@MinaHany [] is an array, holding the actual contents. * is a pointer to the contents. Access and usage is the same, but the memory representation is completely different.

unwind · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-30 07:48:16Z

23

There's a lot of typedef going on here. Personally I'm against "hiding the asterisk", i.e. typedef:ing pointer types into something that doesn't look like a pointer. In C, pointers are quite important and really affect the code, there's a lot of difference between foo and foo *.

Many of the answers are also confused about this, I think.

Your allocation of an array of Chess values, which are pointers to values of type chess (again, a very confusing nomenclature that I really can't recommend) should be like this:

Chess *array = malloc(n * sizeof *array);

Then, you need to initialize the actual instances, by looping:

for(i = 0; i < n; ++i)
  array[i] = NULL;

This assumes you don't want to allocate any memory for the instances, you just want an array of pointers with all pointers initially pointing at nothing.

If you wanted to allocate space, the simplest form would be:

for(i = 0; i < n; ++i)
  array[i] = malloc(sizeof *array[i]);

See how the sizeof usage is 100% consistent, and never starts to mention explicit types. Use the type information inherent in your variables, and let the compiler worry about which type is which. Don't repeat yourself.

Of course, the above does a needlessly large amount of calls to malloc(); depending on usage patterns it might be possible to do all of the above with just one call to malloc(), after computing the total size needed. Then you'd still need to go through and initialize the array[i] pointers to point into the large block, of course.

edited May 30, 2012 at 7:48

answered May 30, 2012 at 7:20

unwind

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2 Comments

InsightClip Over a year ago

hmm.. I did Chess *array = malloc(size * sizeof(Chess)); and then for (i=0; i<size; i++) { array[i] = NULL; } and later in the code array[i]=Chess1; and it does work fine without doing a second malloc in a loop. Why would I need another loop to malloc if my array only holds pointers? I would need it if the array was actually holding structs so malloc the array first and then malloc the structs in all array[i] or so I think. I'm pretty confused right now.

unwind Over a year ago

Yeah, that's fine, if all you want is an array of pointers that you later set to some instances that you have lying around. I modified to add NULL-init as the default case.

maverik · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-30 07:09:19Z

1

IMHO, this looks better:

Chess *array = malloc(size * sizeof(Chess)); // array of pointers of size `size`

for ( int i =0; i < SOME_VALUE; ++i )
{
    array[i] = (Chess) malloc(sizeof(Chess));
}

answered May 30, 2012 at 7:09

maverik

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2 Comments

InsightClip Over a year ago

I think I would use this if I want the array to hold actual structs not just pointers to them. Is that right?

maverik Over a year ago

In this code array holds pointers, not the objects. To make an array of structs use struct _chess a[10]; //Array of ten structs _chess

netskink · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-14 16:03:14Z

I agree with @maverik above, I prefer not to hide the details with a typedef. Especially when you are trying to understand what is going on. I also prefer to see everything instead of a partial code snippet. With that said, here is a malloc and free of a complex structure.

The code uses the ms visual studio leak detector so you can experiment with the potential leaks.

#include "stdafx.h"

#include <string.h>
#include "msc-lzw.h"

#define _CRTDBG_MAP_ALLOC
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <crtdbg.h> 



// 32-bit version
int hash_fun(unsigned int key, int try_num, int max) {
    return (key + try_num) % max;  // the hash fun returns a number bounded by the number of slots.
}


// this hash table has
// key is int
// value is char buffer
struct key_value_pair {
    int key; // use this field as the key
    char *pValue;  // use this field to store a variable length string
};


struct hash_table {
    int max;
    int number_of_elements;
    struct key_value_pair **elements;  // This is an array of pointers to mystruct objects
};


int hash_insert(struct key_value_pair *data, struct hash_table *hash_table) {

    int try_num, hash;
    int max_number_of_retries = hash_table->max;


    if (hash_table->number_of_elements >= hash_table->max) {
        return 0; // FULL
    }

    for (try_num = 0; try_num < max_number_of_retries; try_num++) {

        hash = hash_fun(data->key, try_num, hash_table->max);

        if (NULL == hash_table->elements[hash]) { // an unallocated slot
            hash_table->elements[hash] = data;
            hash_table->number_of_elements++;
            return RC_OK;
        }
    }
    return RC_ERROR;
}


// returns the corresponding key value pair struct
// If a value is not found, it returns null
//
// 32-bit version
struct key_value_pair *hash_retrieve(unsigned int key, struct hash_table *hash_table) {

    unsigned int try_num, hash;
    unsigned int max_number_of_retries = hash_table->max;

    for (try_num = 0; try_num < max_number_of_retries; try_num++) {

        hash = hash_fun(key, try_num, hash_table->max);

        if (hash_table->elements[hash] == 0) {
            return NULL; // Nothing found
        }

        if (hash_table->elements[hash]->key == key) {
            return hash_table->elements[hash];
        }
    }
    return NULL;
}


// Returns the number of keys in the dictionary
// The list of keys in the dictionary is returned as a parameter.  It will need to be freed afterwards
int keys(struct hash_table *pHashTable, int **ppKeys) {

    int num_keys = 0;

    *ppKeys = (int *) malloc( pHashTable->number_of_elements * sizeof(int) );

    for (int i = 0; i < pHashTable->max; i++) {
        if (NULL != pHashTable->elements[i]) {
            (*ppKeys)[num_keys] = pHashTable->elements[i]->key;
            num_keys++;
        }
    }
    return num_keys;
}

// The dictionary will need to be freed afterwards
int allocate_the_dictionary(struct hash_table *pHashTable) {


    // Allocate the hash table slots
    pHashTable->elements = (struct key_value_pair **) malloc(pHashTable->max * sizeof(struct key_value_pair));  // allocate max number of key_value_pair entries
    for (int i = 0; i < pHashTable->max; i++) {
        pHashTable->elements[i] = NULL;
    }



    // alloc all the slots
    //struct key_value_pair *pa_slot;
    //for (int i = 0; i < pHashTable->max; i++) {
    //  // all that he could see was babylon
    //  pa_slot = (struct key_value_pair *)  malloc(sizeof(struct key_value_pair));
    //  if (NULL == pa_slot) {
    //      printf("alloc of slot failed\n");
    //      while (1);
    //  }
    //  pHashTable->elements[i] = pa_slot;
    //  pHashTable->elements[i]->key = 0;
    //}

    return RC_OK;
}


// This will make a dictionary entry where
//   o  key is an int
//   o  value is a character buffer
//
// The buffer in the key_value_pair will need to be freed afterwards
int make_dict_entry(int a_key, char * buffer, struct key_value_pair *pMyStruct) {

    // determine the len of the buffer assuming it is a string
    int len = strlen(buffer);

    // alloc the buffer to hold the string
    pMyStruct->pValue = (char *) malloc(len + 1); // add one for the null terminator byte
    if (NULL == pMyStruct->pValue) {
        printf("Failed to allocate the buffer for the dictionary string value.");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    strcpy(pMyStruct->pValue, buffer);
    pMyStruct->key = a_key;

    return RC_OK;
}


// Assumes the hash table has already been allocated.
int add_key_val_pair_to_dict(struct hash_table *pHashTable, int key, char *pBuff) {

    int rc;
    struct key_value_pair *pKeyValuePair;

    if (NULL == pHashTable) {
        printf("Hash table is null.\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }

    // Allocate the dictionary key value pair struct
    pKeyValuePair = (struct key_value_pair *) malloc(sizeof(struct key_value_pair));
    if (NULL == pKeyValuePair) {
        printf("Failed to allocate key value pair struct.\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }


    rc = make_dict_entry(key, pBuff, pKeyValuePair);  // a_hash_table[1221] = "abba"
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("Failed to add buff to key value pair struct.\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }


    rc = hash_insert(pKeyValuePair, pHashTable);
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }

    return RC_OK;
}


void dump_hash_table(struct hash_table *pHashTable) {

    // Iterate the dictionary by keys
    char * pValue;
    struct key_value_pair *pMyStruct;
    int *pKeyList;
    int num_keys;

    printf("i\tKey\tValue\n");
    printf("-----------------------------\n");
    num_keys = keys(pHashTable, &pKeyList);
    for (int i = 0; i < num_keys; i++) {
        pMyStruct = hash_retrieve(pKeyList[i], pHashTable);
        pValue = pMyStruct->pValue;
        printf("%d\t%d\t%s\n", i, pKeyList[i], pValue);
    }

    // Free the key list
    free(pKeyList);

}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

    int rc;
    int i;


    struct hash_table a_hash_table;
    a_hash_table.max = 20;   // The dictionary can hold at most 20 entries.
    a_hash_table.number_of_elements = 0;  // The intial dictionary has 0 entries.
    allocate_the_dictionary(&a_hash_table);

    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 1221, "abba");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 2211, "bbaa");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 1122, "aabb");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 2112, "baab");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 1212, "abab");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 2121, "baba");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }



    // Iterate the dictionary by keys
    dump_hash_table(&a_hash_table);

    // Free the individual slots
    for (i = 0; i < a_hash_table.max; i++) {
        // all that he could see was babylon
        if (NULL != a_hash_table.elements[i]) {
            free(a_hash_table.elements[i]->pValue);  // free the buffer in the struct
            free(a_hash_table.elements[i]);  // free the key_value_pair entry
            a_hash_table.elements[i] = NULL;
        }
    }


    // Free the overall dictionary
    free(a_hash_table.elements);


    _CrtDumpMemoryLeaks();
    return 0;
}

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