What is the point of creating an array of size 1?
I've seen some C code that creates a structure and there are several arrays inside the structure. Some of these arrays are one size. So why bother creating an array? Why not just one int?
I'm talking about something like this:
struct Foo
{
uint8_t Bar[1];
uint32_t BigBar[4];
};
Why not make it simple
struct Foo
{
uint8_t Bar;
uint32_t BigBar[4];
};
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The answer is that it's a good programming habit to do this for two reasons:
-
In case the programmer decides to change the panel into an array at some point, no code changes are made. All one has to do is change the constant from 1 to ARRAY_SIZE (even better to have the constant defined as actually)
-
Using fields that are constructed the same way is less error prone than fields that are different. The mindset of programmers is those who make mistakes :)
Greetings
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My guess is for an easier pointer return:
it will be easier to return a pointer to a variable: Bar
if you want to use it as a pointer you can pass Bar instead &Bar
if it was an int
if I had an instance of a certain structure: struct Foo aaa;
you could define:
int *pInt = aaaa.Bar;
instead:
int *pInt = &(aaaa.Bar);
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