Is creating dynamic length parm. in c/cpp possible?

[tebloraf]

Hello, I'm trying to create a lua au3 lib (e.g for automated tools-install) and encountered a problem:

Some dll functions return the needed info via referenced parameter, so I need to create a buffer first (char[]) in order to get the info. However, this is of static length and some registry/ini values I need to process are quite large (~16M).

I could just create a huge buffer but that would be somewhat stupid when ~99% of the times I'm just retrieving ~10 chars.

So here's the question: Is it possible to dynamically set the buffer length (possibly, is there a function that tells me how long the char[] needs to be in order to get all info stored?)

If the problem is somehow solvable in C or C++, I can use the solution, as the lua binding is created in cpp w/ some extern "C" {...} - parts.

Any help appreciated

Thanks in advance

tebloraf

PS: One of the programs I want to auto. is exceptionally clever: it stores all its info. in a single .ini file, most of it in a single hex value. Lately its size was almost 512M! So I'd need to get the whole string just to change a single byte and then write back the string. But that could be solved by directly parsing the file, the RegRead is the problem...

[Richard Robertson]

In C++, char[] and char* are synonomous. [] is actualy an arithmetic operator for pointers. When char* c is 5, and you call c[0], c[0] is 5. If you call c[1], c[1] is 6.

By using char* as the parameter type, you will receive the same value, but you should be able to read it as a NULL terminated string. IE: a string with a length of 5 will have a NULL at c[5].

[tebloraf]

In C++, char[] and char* are synonomous. ...

That's what I already know. But in the AutoItX example it is written like this:

char szText[1000];

AU3_StatusbarGetText("Untitled -", "", 2, szText, 1000);

MessageBox(NULL, szText, "Text:", MB_OK);

A Buffer of fixed size. The Problem is that I'd need to write something like 'char szText[16777216];' or even larger - and allocating 16M of mem (or even more) every time I want to get some Info is a bit slow and memory-consuming... And this doesn't even get the whole string if it is still longer!

I need to know if there is a function that gives me the size of whatever I want to get, so perhaps something like 'char szText[Au3_StatusbarGetTextLength("Untitled -", "", 2)];' would be possible.

Or an other solution...

tebloraf

[Richard Robertson]

Eh, I'm not sure how to help then. I'd say that you would have to work with a large allocation and hope it is big enough. If you want to make sure you get it all, you could try 'char szText[0xFFFFFFFF]'.

Edit: Forgot to mention that you will just about eat all the RAM you have, but it would get it all.

Edited August 5, 2006 by Icekirby1