Incomplete type

[prashna]

Hi friends,
What is an incomplete type in C?

 

[Russell Hanneken]

What is an incomplete type in C?

To paraphrase the C standard, an incomplete type is a type that describes an
object but lacks information needed to determine its size. Examples include

/* forward-declared struct */
struct foo;

/* my_array is an array of ints, but we don't know how big */
extern int my_array[];

void is another incomplete type. Unlike other incomplete types, void cannot
be completed.

Regards,

Russell Hanneken
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Mark McIntyre]

On 27 Jun 2003 03:14:05 -0700, in comp.lang.c ,

Hi friends,
What is an incomplete type in C?

its a type which is, er, incomplete. Such as
struct foobar;
foobar is incomplete because you've not defined its members.

 

[Thomas Stegen]

On 27 Jun 2003 03:14:05 -0700, in comp.lang.c ,



its a type which is, er, incomplete. Such as
struct foobar;
foobar is incomplete because you've not defined its members.

Well, hmm, I think it is more correct to say that it is
incomplete because you cannot determine the size of an object
of type struct foobar. (which is of course a side effect of
the compiler not knowing the members of the struct, but this
view is to simplistic I think).