Re^2: How is perl able to handle the null byte?


Don't ask to ask, just ask
	PerlMonks

Re^2: How is perl able to handle the null byte?

by Joost (Canon)

on Jun 15, 2006 at 21:07 UTC ( [id://555627]=note: print w/replies, xml )

Need Help??

in reply to Re: How is perl able to handle the null byte?
in thread How is perl able to handle the null byte?

Quite true. Strictly speaking, C doesn't have a string type: what's conventionally used instead is a pointer to a (single) character which is equivalent to an array of characters because of the way C arrays work 1]. The "string type" in C is literally "char *".

1] C arrays do not really have a length either, defining an array with a certain length only reserves that amount of memory, the length isn't stored anywhere.

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

Comment on Re^2: How is perl able to handle the null byte?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^3: How is perl able to handle the null byte?
by ChemBoy (Priest) on Jun 15, 2006 at 21:50 UTC

Reminding me of a classic exchange from a CS class I took once (OK, the CS class I took...):

Student (slightly paraphrased): you mentioned that the address after the last member of the array is guaranteed to be a legal address, though you don't technically have it allocated to you. Don't a lot of people use that fact to just pretend their array indexes are 1-based instead of 0-based?

Professor: Lot's of people J-walk, too! Some of them get killed!

Ah, those were the days... ;-)

If God had meant us to fly, he would *never* have given us the railroads.
--Michael Flanders

[reply]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom