Knowledge Base

FIX: Initializer for Empty Struct Causes C2059 or C1001

Article ID: 167306

Article Last Modified on 7/5/2005

Microsoft Visual C++ 4.2 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 4.2 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q167306

SYMPTOMS

Specifying an empty initializer for an empty structure may cause the following error:

Text1.cpp(5) : error C2059: syntax error : '}'

Specifying a value in place of the empty initializer generates the following error:

fatal error C1001: INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR
(compiler file 'E:\utc\src\\P2\p2symtab.c', line 2387) Please choose the Technical Support command on the Visual C++ Help menu, or open the Technical Support help file for more information

RESOLUTION

Do not specify an initializer for the structure. Initialize them from a function instead.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

This problem was corrected in Microsoft Visual C++ .NET.

MORE INFORMATION

/* Compile Options needed: None */ 

 struct S {};
 struct A {
S s;
int i;
 } a = { {/*0*/},  3 }; // Uncomment the 0 to generate the C1001 error

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kbnoupdate KB167306