Element count of an array in C++

Let’s say I have an array arr. When
would the following not give the
number of elements of the array:
sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0])?

One thing I’ve often seen new programmers doing this:

void f(Sample *arr)
{
   int count = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]); //what would be count? 10?
}

Sample arr[10];
f(arr);

So new programmers think the value of count will be 10. But that’s wrong.

Even this is wrong:

void g(Sample arr[]) //even more deceptive form!
{
   int count = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]); //count would not be 10  
}

It’s all because once you pass an array to any of these functions, it becomes pointer type, and so sizeof(arr) would give the size of pointer, not array!


EDIT:

The following is an elegant way you can pass an array to a function, without letting it to decay into pointer type:

template<size_t N>
void h(Sample (&arr)[N])
{
    size_t count = N; //N is 10, so would be count!
    //you can even do this now:
    //size_t count = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]);  it'll return 10!
}
Sample arr[10];
h(arr); //pass : same as before!

Leave a Comment

Hata!: SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'divattrend_liink'@'localhost' (using password: YES)