31. In C and C++ arrays are not passed by value

The fragment is taken from the game 'Wolf'. The code contains an error that PVS-Studio analyzer diagnoses in the following way: V511 The sizeof() operator returns size of the pointer, and not of the array, in 'sizeof (src)' expression.

ID_INLINE mat3_t::mat3_t( float src[ 3 ][ 3 ] ) {
  memcpy( mat, src, sizeof( src ) );
}

Explanation

Sometimes programmers forget that in C/C++ you cannot pass an array to a function by value. This is because a pointer to an array is passed as an argument. Numbers in square brackets mean nothing, they only serve as a kind of hint to the programmer, which array size is supposed to be passed. In fact, you can pass an array of a completely different size. For example, the following code will be successfully compiled:

void F(int p[10]) { }
void G()
{
  int p[3];
  F(p);
}

Correspondingly, the sizeof(src) operator evaluates not the array size, but the size of the pointer. As a result, memcpy() will only copy part of the array. Namely, 4 or 8 bytes, depending on the size of the pointer (exotic architectures don't count).

Correct code

The simplest variant of such code can be like this:

ID_INLINE mat3_t::mat3_t( float src[ 3 ][ 3 ] ) {
  memcpy(mat, src, sizeof(float) * 3 * 3);
}

Recommendation

There are several ways of making your code more secure.

The array size is known. You can make the function take the reference to an array. But not everyone knows that you can do this, and even fewer people are aware of how to write it. So I hope that this example will be interesting and useful:

ID_INLINE mat3_t::mat3_t( float (&src)[3][3] )
{
  memcpy( mat, src, sizeof( src ) );
}

Now, it will be possible to pass to the function an array only of the right size. And most importantly, the sizeof() operator will evaluate the size of the array, not a pointer.

Yet another way of solving this problem is to start using std::array class.

The array size is not known. Some authors of books on programming advise to use std::vector class, and other similar classes, but in practice it's not always convenient.

Sometimes you want to work with a simple pointer. In this case you should pass two arguments to the function: a pointer, and the number of elements. However, in general this is bad practice, and it can lead to a lot of bugs.

In such cases, some thoughts given in "C++ Core Guidelines" can be useful to read. I suggest reading "Do not pass an array as a single pointer". All in all it would be a good thing to read the "C++ Core Guidelines" whenever you have free time. It contains a lot of useful ideas.