&array[0] vs array

[Tobin C. Harding]

On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 04:05:51PM +0000, Nicholas Mc Guire wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 09:04:35AM -0400, Ruben Safir wrote:
> > On 03/29/2017 08:30 PM, Tobin C. Harding wrote:
> > > Does the kernel community have a preference when using the address of
> > > the first element of an an array?
> > > 
> > > 1. addr = &array[0]
> > > 2. addr = array;
> > > 
> > > $ grep '\&.*\[0\]' | wc -l
> > > 10077
> > > 
> > > style (1) is clearly used, I was not able to grep for instances where
> > > style (2) is used.
> > 
> > maybe there is a another reason why 2 is not used.
> >
> the second form is used - just not quite as often  
> with the below quick (and probably incomplete) coccinelle script you 
> can find a few hundred occurences of the second form in linux-next 
> 
> <snip>
> virtual report
> 
> @v2@
> identifier array,addr;
> type T;
> position p;
> @@
> 
> (
> * T array[];
> |
> * T array[] = ...;
> )
>  ...
> * addr = array at p
>  
> @script:python@
> p << v2.p;
> @@
> print "%s:%s" % (p[0].file,p[0].line)
> <snip>
> 
> If its really obvious that its an array that you are manipulating
> maybe the second version is fine - if its not so obvious the
> first version makes it clear - and as readability is a key issue
> for any complex code I suspect that readability explains the preference.

Got it, readability over brevity.

thanks,
Tobin.