Variable Sized Struct C++

Question

Is this the best way to make a variable sized struct in C++? I don't want to use vector because the length doesn't change after initialization.

struct Packet
{
    unsigned int bytelength;
    unsigned int data[];
};

Packet* CreatePacket(unsigned int length)
{
    Packet *output = (Packet*) malloc((length+1)*sizeof(unsigned int));
    output->bytelength = length;
    return output;
}

Edit: renamed variable names and changed code to be more correct.

Answer 1

Some thoughts on what you're doing:

• Using the C-style variable length struct idiom allows you to perform one free store allocation per packet, which is half as many as would be required if struct Packet contained a std::vector. If you are allocating a very large number of packets, then performing half as many free store allocations/deallocations may very well be significant. If you are also doing network accesses, then the time spent waiting for the network will probably be more significant.

• This structure represents a packet. Are you planning to read/write from a socket directly into a struct Packet? If so, you probably need to consider byte order. Are you going to have to convert from host to network byte order when sending packets, and vice versa when receiving packets? If so, then you could byte-swap the data in place in your variable length struct. If you converted this to use a vector, it would make sense to write methods for serializing / deserializing the packet. These methods would transfer it to/from a contiguous buffer, taking byte order into account.

• Likewise, you may need to take alignment and packing into account.

• You can never subclass Packet. If you did, then the subclass's member variables would overlap with the array.

• Instead of malloc and free, you could use Packet* p = ::operator new(size) and ::operator delete(p), since struct Packet is a POD type and does not currently benefit from having its default constructor and its destructor called. The (potential) benefit of doing so is that the global operator new handles errors using the global new-handler and/or exceptions, if that matters to you.

• It is possible to make the variable length struct idiom work with the new and delete operators, but not well. You could create a custom operator new that takes an array length by implementing static void* operator new(size_t size, unsigned int bitlength), but you would still have to set the bitlength member variable. If you did this with a constructor, you could use the slightly redundant expression Packet* p = new(len) Packet(len) to allocate a packet. The only benefit I see compared to using global operator new and operator delete would be that clients of your code could just call delete p instead of ::operator delete(p). Wrapping the allocation/deallocation in separate functions (instead of calling delete p directly) is fine as long as they get called correctly.