I'm writing some C code to parse IEEE 802.11 frames, but I'm stuck trying to create a new variable whose length depends on the size of the frame itself.

Here's the code I currently have:

int frame_body_len = pkt_hdr->len - radio_hdr->len - wifi_hdr_len - 4;
u_char *frame_body = (u_char *) (packet + radio_hdr->len + wifi_hdr_len);

Basically, the frame consists of a header, a body, and a checksum at the end. I can calculate the length of the frame body by taking the length of the packet and subtracting the length of the two headers that appear before it (radio_hdr->len and wifi_hdr_len respectively), plus 4 bytes at the end for the checksum.

However, how can I create the frame_body variable without the trailing checksum? Right now, I'm initializing it with the contents of the packet starting at the position after the two headers, but is there some way to start at that position and end 4 bytes before the end of packet? packet is a pointer to a u_char, if it helps.

I'm a new C programmer, so any and all advice about my code you can give me would be much appreciated. Thanks!