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Groups > comp.lang.c > #9271

Re: Hash table implementation.

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On 08/12/2011 01:17 PM, tom st denis wrote:
> On Aug 12, 11:38 am, Keith Thompson <ks...@mib.org> wrote:
>> tom st denis <t...@iahu.ca> writes:
...
>>> Generally, if you're allocating memory for a struct that has pointers
>>> calloc() is your buddy since it'll also NULL the pointers [ya ya
>>> rabble rabble, it's portable, let it go].  If you have char arrays
>>> they're now NUL terminated, etc and so on...
...
> While I appreciate the indepth analysis I did put that aside in there
> BECAUSE I knew it wasn't 100% portable.

Saying "it'll also NULL the pointers" and "it's portable" is not a good
way of communicating the fact that you knew that it will sometimes fail
to create null pointers, and that it's not always portable. You should
be careful about saying things like that; it could give people the
impression that you are unaware of the fact that there are real
implementations where such code won't work.

> But basically for most developers we have two alternatives
> 
> 1.  calloc the struct and zero all pointers/etc thereby assuring that
> you have more coverage and NULL pointers that weren't initialized will
> be detected tout-suite
> 
> or
> 
> 2.  malloc the struct, try and cover all pointers/etc and run the risk
> of missing some that may just randomly behave [or worse, appear to]
> and thereby introduce security holes and uptime hazards...

You've left out option 3, which is the one I use most often:

3. malloc() the struct, and then fill in it's members only when I have
actual values to fill them in with that I intend to use. Sometimes those
will be the same values that would result from either
zero-initialization, but often they will not be.

Another technique I often use is as follows:

    static const struct my_struct empty;
    struct my_struct *p = malloc(*p);
    if(p)
    {
         *p = empty;
    }
    else
    {
         // error handling.
    }

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Hash table implementation. lolzy@live.nl - 2011-08-11 10:43 -0700
  Re: Hash table implementation. China Blue Tip Wrench <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2011-08-11 11:25 -0700
  Re: Hash table implementation. Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-08-11 11:49 -0700
    Re: Hash table implementation. Ralf Damaschke <rwspam@gmx.de> - 2011-08-11 20:02 +0000
  Re: Hash table implementation. Ike Naar <ike@sverige.freeshell.org> - 2011-08-11 22:02 +0000
  Re: Hash table implementation. "Scott Fluhrer" <sfluhrer@ix.netcom.com> - 2011-08-11 18:14 -0400
    Re: Hash table implementation. lolzy@live.nl - 2011-08-11 23:55 -0700
      Re: Hash table implementation. lolzy@live.nl - 2011-08-12 01:38 -0700
      Re: Hash table implementation. Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2011-08-12 09:47 +0100
        Re: Hash table implementation. tom st denis <tom@iahu.ca> - 2011-08-12 06:15 -0700
          Re: Hash table implementation. James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2011-08-12 11:34 -0400
            Re: Hash table implementation. Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-08-12 08:50 -0700
              Re: Hash table implementation. James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2011-08-12 12:24 -0400
          Re: Hash table implementation. Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-08-12 08:38 -0700
            Re: Hash table implementation. tom st denis <tom@iahu.ca> - 2011-08-12 10:17 -0700
              Re: Hash table implementation. James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2011-08-12 13:54 -0400
                Re: Hash table implementation. tom st denis <tom@iahu.ca> - 2011-08-12 11:30 -0700
                Re: Hash table implementation. Seebs <usenet-nospam@seebs.net> - 2011-08-12 20:39 +0000
                Re: Hash table implementation. Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-08-12 14:08 -0700
            Re: Hash table implementation. gordonb.4sxmx@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) - 2011-08-12 20:04 -0500
              Re: Hash table implementation. Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-08-12 18:40 -0700
                Re: Hash table implementation. Harald van Dijk <truedfx@gmail.com> - 2011-08-13 12:59 -0700
              Re: Hash table implementation. Seebs <usenet-nospam@seebs.net> - 2011-08-13 02:34 +0000
      Re: Hash table implementation. Ike Naar <ike@iceland.freeshell.org> - 2011-08-12 11:13 +0000
      Re: Hash table implementation. Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-08-12 07:24 -0400
      Re: Hash table implementation. Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2011-08-12 09:27 -0600
      Re: Hash table implementation. Seebs <usenet-nospam@seebs.net> - 2011-08-12 18:37 +0000
      Re: Hash table implementation. Jens Gustedt <Jens.Gustedt@loria.fr> - 2011-08-13 00:08 +0200
        Re: Hash table implementation. Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-08-12 15:26 -0700
          Re: Hash table implementation. Jens Gustedt <Jens.Gustedt@loria.fr> - 2011-08-13 15:11 +0200
            Re: Hash table implementation. Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-08-13 11:38 -0700
              Re: Hash table implementation. Jens Gustedt <Jens.Gustedt@loria.fr> - 2011-08-13 21:03 +0200
        Re: Hash table implementation. "Herbert Rosenau" <os2guy@pc-rosenau.de> - 2011-08-19 08:17 +0000
          Re: Hash table implementation. Jens Gustedt <jens.gustedt@loria.fr> - 2011-08-19 13:29 +0200
          Re: Hash table implementation. Phil Carmody <thefatphil_demunged@yahoo.co.uk> - 2011-08-19 14:35 +0300
  Re: Hash table implementation. Michael Angelo Ravera <maravera@prodigy.net> - 2011-08-12 02:54 -0700
  Re: Hash table implementation. Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2011-08-13 23:11 +0100
    Re: Hash table implementation. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-08-14 00:56 +0100
      Re: Hash table implementation. lolzy@live.nl - 2011-08-14 00:11 -0700
        Re: Hash table implementation. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-08-14 11:57 +0100

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