sizeof abuse : get the size of a const table

Posted by shodanex on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by shodanex
Published on 2010-03-26T14:41:08Z Indexed on 2010/03/26 14:43 UTC
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When declaring a const table, it is possible to get the size of the table using sizeof. However, once you stop using the symbol name, it does not work anymore. is there a way to have the following program output the correct size for table A, instead of 0 ?

#include <stdio.h>

struct mystruct {
    int a;
    short b;
};

const struct mystruct tableA[] ={
    { 
        .a = 1,
        .b = 2,
    },
    { 
        .a = 2,
        .b = 2,
    },
    { 
        .a = 3,
        .b = 2,
    },
};

const struct mystruct tableB[] ={
    { 
        .a = 1,
        .b = 2,
    },
    { 
        .a = 2,
        .b = 2,
    },
};


int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
    int tbl_sz;
    const struct mystruct * table;

    table = tableA;
    tbl_sz = sizeof(table)/sizeof(struct mystruct);
    printf("size of table A : %d\n", tbl_sz);

    table = tableB;
    tbl_sz = sizeof(tableB)/sizeof(struct mystruct);
    printf("size of table B : %d\n", tbl_sz);

    return 0;
}

Output is :

size of table A : 0
size of table B : 2

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