Is there a better way to size a buffer for printing integers?

Question

I want to create a buffer for sprintfing a integer (in this case an unsigned int). A simple and misguided approach would be:

char b         


        

Answer 1

If you're OK with dynamically allocated memory, you can use asprintf instead. This function will allocate the proper amount of memory to hold the string.

char *buf;
int result = asprintf(&buf, "%u", x);
if (result == -1) {
    perror("asprintf failed");
} else {
    ...
    free(buf);
}