How to initialize array to 0 in C

Question

I need a big null array in C as a global  Is there any way to do this besides typing out  char ZEROARRAY 1024     0  0  0         1021 more times

User · Accepted Answer

Global variables and static variables are automatically initialized to zero. If you have simply

char ZEROARRAY[1024];

at global scope it will be all zeros at runtime. But actually there is a shorthand syntax if you had a local array. If an array is partially initialized, elements that are not initialized receive the value 0 of the appropriate type. You could write:

char ZEROARRAY[1024] = {0};

The compiler would fill the unwritten entries with zeros. Alternatively you could use memset to initialize the array at program startup:

memset(ZEROARRAY, 0, 1024);

That would be useful if you had changed it and wanted to reset it back to all zeros.

User · Answer

If you d like to initialize the array to values other than 0  with gcc you can do   int array 1024        0     1023     -1      This is a GNU extension of C99 Designated Initializers  In older GCC  you may need to use -std gnu99 to compile your code

[c] How to initialize array to 0 in C?

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