Joe Kelch wrote in a message to Donnie Benners:

 JK> Everyone seems to suggest something like this, but I fail to
 JK> see how this is any different in effect from simply
 JK> declaring char StrName[10] to begin with, which is what I
 JK> trying NOT to do.  I want a VARIABLE length string, which
 JK> apparently C just doesn't let you do!

C does have the ability to read one character at a time and build a memory
buffer as needed.  This is pretty inefficient for reasons external to the
language, but it can be done.  This is untested code, written off the top
of my head.  It shows the basic idea.

   char *buildstring(FILE *fp) {

      char *base, *newbase, *p;

      p = base = NULL;

      while(NULL != (newbase = realloc(base, p - base + 1))) {

         base = newbase;

         if(EOF == (*p++ = getc(fp)))
            break;
      }

      *(--p) = '\0';

      return(base);
   }

 
-- Mike


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