api-allocation-growing.txt   [plain text]

allocation growing API
======================

Dynamically growing an array using realloc() is error prone and boring.

Define your array with:

* a pointer (`ary`) that points at the array, initialized to `NULL`;

* an integer variable (`alloc`) that keeps track of how big the current
  allocation is, initialized to `0`;

* another integer variable (`nr`) to keep track of how many elements the
  array currently has, initialized to `0`.

Then before adding `n`th element to the array, call `ALLOC_GROW(ary, n,
alloc)`.  This ensures that the array can hold at least `n` elements by
calling `realloc(3)` and adjusting `alloc` variable.

------------
sometype *ary;
size_t nr;
size_t alloc

for (i = 0; i < nr; i++)
	if (we like ary[i] already)
		return;

/* we did not like any existing one, so add one */
ALLOC_GROW(ary, nr + 1, alloc);
ary[nr++] = value you like;
------------

You are responsible for updating the `nr` variable.