CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cstructtypedefextern
Diaph
Diaph

Reputation: 136

extern struct array error: array type has incomplete element type

I have 3 files: main.c, def.c, def.h. Both .c files include def.h. All the files are in the same directory. My compiler is gcc version 4.9.2.

In def.h:

struct _info {
    int a;
};

In def.c:

#include "def.h"
struct _info info[] = {};

And in main.c:

#include "def.h"
extern struct _info info[];

When I build def.c as an object file and then build with main.c like:

gcc -c def.c
gcc main.c def.o

And I got an error message: array type has incomplete element type

If I use typedef to define struct _info as INFO like:

typedef struct _info INFO;

And replace struct _info with INFO in .c files. Compile ok then.

But why and what does typedef do?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1692

Answers (1)

Diaph
Diaph

Reputation: 136

Thanks for everybody's help. This question end up with a misspelling in main.c. Something like:

extern struct _infoo info[];

When typedef replace them, all work fine definitely.

Upvotes: 1

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