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How do I determine the size of my array in C?

Asked 2008-09-01T06:49:22.723
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How do I determine the size of my array in C?

That is, the number of elements the array can hold?

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1 Answer

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The sizeof way is the right way iff you are dealing with arrays not received as parameters. An array sent as a parameter to a function is treated as a pointer, so sizeof will return the pointer's size, instead of the array's.

Thus, inside functions this method does not work. Instead, always pass an additional parameter size_t size indicating the number of elements in the array.

Test:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void printSizeOf(int intArray[]);
void printLength(int intArray[]);

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    int array[] = { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 };

    printf("sizeof of array: %d\n", (int) sizeof(array));
    printSizeOf(array);

    printf("Length of array: %d\n", (int)( sizeof(array) / sizeof(array[0]) ));
    printLength(array);
}

void printSizeOf(int intArray[])
{
    printf("sizeof of parameter: %d\n", (int) sizeof(intArray));
}

void printLength(int intArray[])
{
    printf("Length of parameter: %d\n", (int)( sizeof(intArray) / sizeof(intArray[0]) ));
}

Output (in a 64-bit Linux OS):

sizeof of array: 28
sizeof of parameter: 8
Length of array: 7
Length of parameter: 2

Output (in a 32-bit windows OS):

sizeof of array: 28
sizeof of parameter: 4
Length of array: 7
Length of parameter: 1
answered 2012-04-27T11:14:24.000

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