c++ - How to determine the end of an integer array when manipulating with integer pointer?

Question

Here is the code:

int myInt[] ={ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
int *myIntPtr = &myInt[0];
while( *myIntPtr != NULL )
{
    cout<<*myIntPtr<<endl;
    myIntPtr++;
}

Output: 12345....<junks>..........

For Character array: (Since we have a NULL character at the end, no problem while iterating)

char myChar[] ={ 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', '' };
char *myCharPtr = &myChar[0];
while( *myCharPtr != NULL )
{
    cout<<*myCharPtr<<endl;
    myCharPtr++;
}

Output: ABCDE

My question is since we say to add NULL character as end of the strings, we rule out such issues! If in case, it is rule to add 0 to the end of integer array, we could have avoided this problem. What say?

Answer 1

C-strings convention is that a char* finish by a '' char. For array or any other C++ container there are other idioms that can be applied. Next follows my preferences

The best way to iterate on sequences is to use the Range-based for-loop included on C++0x

int my_array[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
for(int& x : my_array)
{
  cout<<x<<endl;
}

If your compiler don't provide this yet, use iterators

for(int* it = std::begin(array); it!=std::end(array); ++it)
{
  cout<<*it<<endl;
}

And if you can not use neither std::begin/end

for(int* it = &array[0]; it!=&array[sizeof(array)]; ++it)
{
  cout<<*it<<endl;
}

P.S Boost.Foreach emulates the Range-based for-loop on C++98 compilers