Dynamically size array?

Question

Super quick question, my initial thought was this is not going to work, but then I thought why not give it a go. Now I am thinking it won't work as the resultant array does not seem to be properly formed? My question, should this work?

NSUInteger numPoints = [[[self dataModel] locationFake] count];
CLLocationCoordinate2D points[numPoints];

I did try it and could not get it to work, I then spotted it in some other code online and that started me thinking. I was pretty sure it would not work, and half expected to get a compile error. But like I say the example online got me thinking ... — fuzzygoat
– fuzzygoat, Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 17:57

Eric Petroelje · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-20 17:54:52Z

4

No, it wouldn't work as the points[] array needs to be sized statically. That is, the compiler needs to know the size of that array, but can't possibly know it until runtime.

If you change it to:

CLLocationCoordinate2D *points = malloc(numPoints * sizeof(CLLocationCoordinate2D));

That should work. Just don't forget to free() it later when you are done.

answered Jan 20, 2011 at 17:54

Eric Petroelje

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fuzzygoat Over a year ago

Thank you, that was the way I was going, but just wanted to check. Much appreciated.

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