How to initialize all members of an array to the same value?

Question

I have a large array in C (not C++ if that makes a difference). I want to initialize all members of the same value.

I could swear I

Answer 1

I saw some code that used this syntax:

char* array[] = 
{
    [0] = "Hello",
    [1] = "World"
};   

Where it becomes particularly useful is if you're making an array that uses enums as the index:

enum
{
    ERR_OK,
    ERR_FAIL,
    ERR_MEMORY
};

#define _ITEM(x) [x] = #x

char* array[] = 
{
    _ITEM(ERR_OK),
    _ITEM(ERR_FAIL),
    _ITEM(ERR_MEMORY)
};   

This keeps things in order, even if you happen to write some of the enum-values out of order.

More about this technique can be found here and here.