The ANSI C standard does not allow selective initialization of array elements (39310)

Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0

Microsoft Visual C++ 1.5

Microsoft Visual C++ 1.51

Microsoft Visual C++ 1.52

Microsoft Visual C++ 2.0

Microsoft Visual C++ 2.1

Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0

Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Enterprise Edition 5.0

Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Enterprise Edition 6.0

Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Professional Edition 5.0

Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Professional Edition 6.0

Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Learning Edition 6.0

This article was previously published under Q39310

SUMMARY

The ANSI C standard does not allow selective initialization of array elements with the following syntax:

   char MyArray[10] = {'a','b',,'d',,'f','g',,'i','j'};

This attempt at selective initialization is not correct and will generate a "Syntax Error" at compile time as follows.

error C2059: syntax error : ','

The following two declarations will compile and are valid declarations for Microsoft C version 5.1 and later:

The initialization of all the elements of the array is as follows:

      char MyArray[10] = {'a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j'};

The initialization of the first characters in the array is as follows:
```
      char MyArray[10] = {'a','b','c','d','e'};
```

Modification Type:

Major

Last Reviewed:

9/30/2005

Keywords:

kbhowto kbinfo kbLangC KB39310 kbAudDeveloper