XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: johnl@taugh.com   
      
   According to rbowman  :   
   >On Fri, 2 Jan 2026 20:32:53 -0000 (UTC), John Levine wrote:   
   >   
   >> C doesn't have variant records, but you can fake them with structures   
   >> with common initial fields.  The different structures can be different   
   >> sizes so the usual approach is to malloc() them one at a time and use a   
   >> pointer to it.   
   >   
   >Another approach is to have a struct containing union of structs with a   
   >flag in the top level struct indicating which child struct to use in the   
   >union. The structs in the union can also have unions so you can build a   
   >real octopus.   
      
   That works but the union is the size of the largest struct so it can waste   
   a lot of space compared to allocating each struct's actual size.  I realize   
   this doesn't work for arrays of structs or unions, but it works fine for   
   arrays of pointers to them.   
      
   --   
   Regards,   
   John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for   
   Dummies",   
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