technical/api-allocation-growing.txt

allocation growing API
======================

Dynamically growing an array using realloc() is error prone and boring.

Define your array with:

* a pointer (`item`) that points at the array, initialized to `NULL`
 (although please name the variable based on its contents, not on its
 type);

* an integer variable (`alloc`) that keeps track of how big the current
 allocation is, initialized to `0`;

* another integer variable (`nr`) to keep track of how many elements the
 array currently has, initialized to `0`.

Then before adding `n`th element to the item, call `ALLOC_GROW(item, n,
alloc)`. This ensures that the array can hold at least `n` elements by
calling `realloc(3)` and adjusting `alloc` variable.

------------
sometype *item;
size_t nr;
size_t alloc

for (i = 0; i < nr; i++)
if (we like item[i] already)
return;

/* we did not like any existing one, so add one */
ALLOC_GROW(item, nr + 1, alloc);
item[nr++] = value you like;
------------

You are responsible for updating the `nr` variable.

If you need to specify the number of elements to allocate explicitly
then use the macro `REALLOC_ARRAY(item, alloc)` instead of `ALLOC_GROW`.