Static const int not good enough for array size?

Question

Hello! I’d like to do this:

static const int size = 5;
@interface Foo { char bar[size]; }

But the compiler complains that “instance variables must have constant size”. Do I really have to #define the size, or is there a way to get it work with a regular constant? (I’d like the memory to be allocated statically, no malloc.)

Answer 1

It is likely that your Objective-C compiler uses a C compiler as a backend. C (up to C98) only permits constant expressions as array sizes. This is what your compiler is complaining about. So you don't get to use an identifier as an array size. (In short, if the preprocessor can't compute the number, it's not going to work.) So, yes, you're going to get to use a #define.