Issue 0092: Are the remaining elements in a partially initalized string guaranteed to be zero?

This issue has been automatically converted from the original issue lists and some formatting may not have been preserved.

Authors: Clive Feather, WG14
Date: 1993-12-03
Submitted against: C90
Status: Closed
Cross-references: 0060
Converted from: dr.htm, dr_092.html

Item 29 - partial initialization of strings

Consider the following program:

#include <stdio.h>

 int main (void)
        {
        char s [10] = "Hello";

        printf ("s [9] is %d\n", s [9]);
        return 0;
        }

Is this program strictly conforming? If so, is the value of s[9] guaranteed to be zero? Subclause 6.5.7 states:

If there are fewer initializers in a brace-enclosed list than there are members of an aggregate, the remainder of the aggregate shall be initialized the same as objects that have static storage duration.

However, the initializer is not brace-enclosed, so this clause does not apply.

Comment from WG14 on 1997-09-23:

Response

See the response to Defect Report #060.