Re: ECPG: Automatic Storage allocation for NULL-pointing

Christof Petig wrote:

> > > > exec sql type str is varchar[8];
> > > > str *var=NULL;
> > >
> > > Shudder. There should be a decent syntax to specify this. If anyone ever
> > > needs this functionality!!!

I found the actual way to get this :

- it is possible to create a pointer to a varchar, simply use the
braindead (to me) syntax:

varchar type[][maxlen]=0;
or
varchar type[0][maxlen]=0;

- ecpg and the C compiler do not agree on the meaning of

char *foo[80];

for the compiler it is an array of 80 char*s
for ecpg it's obviously equivalent to char foo[80][0]; (simply try it)
which is pretty useless for an output variable but might be ok for an input
variable if the offset (sizeof char) would be right (sizeof char*).

- the interesting syntax

char (*foo)[80]; (pointer to an array of char[80])

is not possible in ecpg, but seems to be the one supported by the lib.

To sum it up: variable declaration and variable initialization are some of the
weakest points in ecpg.

Christof (implementing char **)

PS: casts do not work when initializing variables ( e.g. int VAR = (int) 1.5; ->
syntax error)