Arrays of Length Zero

Arrays of Length Zero

https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero-Length

Declaring zero-length arrays is allowed in GNU C as an extension. A zero-length array can be useful as the last element of a structure that is really a header for a variable-length object:

struct line {
  int length;
  char contents[0];
};

struct line *thisline = (struct line *)
  malloc (sizeof (struct line) + this_length);
thisline->length = this_length;

Although the size of a zero-length array is zero, an array member of this kind may increase the size of the enclosing type as a result of tail padding. The offset of a zero-length array member from the beginning of the enclosing structure is the same as the offset of an array with one or more elements of the same type. The alignment of a zero-length array is the same as the alignment of its elements.

Declaring zero-length arrays in other contexts, including as interior members of structure objects or as non-member objects, is discouraged. Accessing elements of zero-length arrays declared in such contexts is undefined and may be diagnosed.

In the absence of the zero-length array extension, in ISO C90 the contents array in the example above would typically be declared to have a single element. Unlike a zero-length array which only contributes to the size of the enclosing structure for the purposes of alignment, a one-element array always occupies at least as much space as a single object of the type. Although using one-element arrays this way is discouraged, GCC handles accesses to trailing one-element array members analogously to zero-length arrays.