[c] malloc an array of struct pointers

I have the following struct:

typedef struct _chess {
   int **array;
   int size;
   struct _chess *parent;
} chess;

and I have:

typedef struct _chess *Chess;

Now, I want to create an array of dynamic length to store pointers to the chess struct so I do the following:

Chess array [] = malloc(size * sizeof(Chess));

This gives me an error: invalid initializer.

And if I drop the [] and do this:

Chess array = malloc(size * sizeof(Chess));

it compiles without error but when I try to set an element of this array to NULL by doing:

array[i]=NULL;

I get an error: incompatible types when assigning to type ‘struct _chess’ from type ‘void *’

Any idea what am I doing wrong? Thanks.

There's a lot of typedef going on here. Personally I'm against "hiding the asterisk", i.e. typedef:ing pointer types into something that doesn't look like a pointer. In C, pointers are quite important and really affect the code, there's a lot of difference between foo and foo *.

Many of the answers are also confused about this, I think.

Your allocation of an array of Chess values, which are pointers to values of type chess (again, a very confusing nomenclature that I really can't recommend) should be like this:

Chess *array = malloc(n * sizeof *array);

Then, you need to initialize the actual instances, by looping:

for(i = 0; i < n; ++i)
  array[i] = NULL;

This assumes you don't want to allocate any memory for the instances, you just want an array of pointers with all pointers initially pointing at nothing.

If you wanted to allocate space, the simplest form would be:

for(i = 0; i < n; ++i)
  array[i] = malloc(sizeof *array[i]);

See how the sizeof usage is 100% consistent, and never starts to mention explicit types. Use the type information inherent in your variables, and let the compiler worry about which type is which. Don't repeat yourself.

Of course, the above does a needlessly large amount of calls to malloc(); depending on usage patterns it might be possible to do all of the above with just one call to malloc(), after computing the total size needed. Then you'd still need to go through and initialize the array[i] pointers to point into the large block, of course.

I agree with @maverik above, I prefer not to hide the details with a typedef. Especially when you are trying to understand what is going on. I also prefer to see everything instead of a partial code snippet. With that said, here is a malloc and free of a complex structure.

The code uses the ms visual studio leak detector so you can experiment with the potential leaks.

#include "stdafx.h"

#include <string.h>
#include "msc-lzw.h"

#define _CRTDBG_MAP_ALLOC
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <crtdbg.h> 



// 32-bit version
int hash_fun(unsigned int key, int try_num, int max) {
    return (key + try_num) % max;  // the hash fun returns a number bounded by the number of slots.
}


// this hash table has
// key is int
// value is char buffer
struct key_value_pair {
    int key; // use this field as the key
    char *pValue;  // use this field to store a variable length string
};


struct hash_table {
    int max;
    int number_of_elements;
    struct key_value_pair **elements;  // This is an array of pointers to mystruct objects
};


int hash_insert(struct key_value_pair *data, struct hash_table *hash_table) {

    int try_num, hash;
    int max_number_of_retries = hash_table->max;


    if (hash_table->number_of_elements >= hash_table->max) {
        return 0; // FULL
    }

    for (try_num = 0; try_num < max_number_of_retries; try_num++) {

        hash = hash_fun(data->key, try_num, hash_table->max);

        if (NULL == hash_table->elements[hash]) { // an unallocated slot
            hash_table->elements[hash] = data;
            hash_table->number_of_elements++;
            return RC_OK;
        }
    }
    return RC_ERROR;
}


// returns the corresponding key value pair struct
// If a value is not found, it returns null
//
// 32-bit version
struct key_value_pair *hash_retrieve(unsigned int key, struct hash_table *hash_table) {

    unsigned int try_num, hash;
    unsigned int max_number_of_retries = hash_table->max;

    for (try_num = 0; try_num < max_number_of_retries; try_num++) {

        hash = hash_fun(key, try_num, hash_table->max);

        if (hash_table->elements[hash] == 0) {
            return NULL; // Nothing found
        }

        if (hash_table->elements[hash]->key == key) {
            return hash_table->elements[hash];
        }
    }
    return NULL;
}


// Returns the number of keys in the dictionary
// The list of keys in the dictionary is returned as a parameter.  It will need to be freed afterwards
int keys(struct hash_table *pHashTable, int **ppKeys) {

    int num_keys = 0;

    *ppKeys = (int *) malloc( pHashTable->number_of_elements * sizeof(int) );

    for (int i = 0; i < pHashTable->max; i++) {
        if (NULL != pHashTable->elements[i]) {
            (*ppKeys)[num_keys] = pHashTable->elements[i]->key;
            num_keys++;
        }
    }
    return num_keys;
}

// The dictionary will need to be freed afterwards
int allocate_the_dictionary(struct hash_table *pHashTable) {


    // Allocate the hash table slots
    pHashTable->elements = (struct key_value_pair **) malloc(pHashTable->max * sizeof(struct key_value_pair));  // allocate max number of key_value_pair entries
    for (int i = 0; i < pHashTable->max; i++) {
        pHashTable->elements[i] = NULL;
    }



    // alloc all the slots
    //struct key_value_pair *pa_slot;
    //for (int i = 0; i < pHashTable->max; i++) {
    //  // all that he could see was babylon
    //  pa_slot = (struct key_value_pair *)  malloc(sizeof(struct key_value_pair));
    //  if (NULL == pa_slot) {
    //      printf("alloc of slot failed\n");
    //      while (1);
    //  }
    //  pHashTable->elements[i] = pa_slot;
    //  pHashTable->elements[i]->key = 0;
    //}

    return RC_OK;
}


// This will make a dictionary entry where
//   o  key is an int
//   o  value is a character buffer
//
// The buffer in the key_value_pair will need to be freed afterwards
int make_dict_entry(int a_key, char * buffer, struct key_value_pair *pMyStruct) {

    // determine the len of the buffer assuming it is a string
    int len = strlen(buffer);

    // alloc the buffer to hold the string
    pMyStruct->pValue = (char *) malloc(len + 1); // add one for the null terminator byte
    if (NULL == pMyStruct->pValue) {
        printf("Failed to allocate the buffer for the dictionary string value.");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    strcpy(pMyStruct->pValue, buffer);
    pMyStruct->key = a_key;

    return RC_OK;
}


// Assumes the hash table has already been allocated.
int add_key_val_pair_to_dict(struct hash_table *pHashTable, int key, char *pBuff) {

    int rc;
    struct key_value_pair *pKeyValuePair;

    if (NULL == pHashTable) {
        printf("Hash table is null.\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }

    // Allocate the dictionary key value pair struct
    pKeyValuePair = (struct key_value_pair *) malloc(sizeof(struct key_value_pair));
    if (NULL == pKeyValuePair) {
        printf("Failed to allocate key value pair struct.\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }


    rc = make_dict_entry(key, pBuff, pKeyValuePair);  // a_hash_table[1221] = "abba"
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("Failed to add buff to key value pair struct.\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }


    rc = hash_insert(pKeyValuePair, pHashTable);
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }

    return RC_OK;
}


void dump_hash_table(struct hash_table *pHashTable) {

    // Iterate the dictionary by keys
    char * pValue;
    struct key_value_pair *pMyStruct;
    int *pKeyList;
    int num_keys;

    printf("i\tKey\tValue\n");
    printf("-----------------------------\n");
    num_keys = keys(pHashTable, &pKeyList);
    for (int i = 0; i < num_keys; i++) {
        pMyStruct = hash_retrieve(pKeyList[i], pHashTable);
        pValue = pMyStruct->pValue;
        printf("%d\t%d\t%s\n", i, pKeyList[i], pValue);
    }

    // Free the key list
    free(pKeyList);

}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

    int rc;
    int i;


    struct hash_table a_hash_table;
    a_hash_table.max = 20;   // The dictionary can hold at most 20 entries.
    a_hash_table.number_of_elements = 0;  // The intial dictionary has 0 entries.
    allocate_the_dictionary(&a_hash_table);

    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 1221, "abba");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 2211, "bbaa");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 1122, "aabb");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 2112, "baab");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 1212, "abab");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }
    rc = add_key_val_pair_to_dict(&a_hash_table, 2121, "baba");
    if (RC_ERROR == rc) {
        printf("insert has failed!\n");
        return RC_ERROR;
    }



    // Iterate the dictionary by keys
    dump_hash_table(&a_hash_table);

    // Free the individual slots
    for (i = 0; i < a_hash_table.max; i++) {
        // all that he could see was babylon
        if (NULL != a_hash_table.elements[i]) {
            free(a_hash_table.elements[i]->pValue);  // free the buffer in the struct
            free(a_hash_table.elements[i]);  // free the key_value_pair entry
            a_hash_table.elements[i] = NULL;
        }
    }


    // Free the overall dictionary
    free(a_hash_table.elements);


    _CrtDumpMemoryLeaks();
    return 0;
}

IMHO, this looks better:

Chess *array = malloc(size * sizeof(Chess)); // array of pointers of size `size`

for ( int i =0; i < SOME_VALUE; ++i )
{
    array[i] = (Chess) malloc(sizeof(Chess));
}