What is the correct XDR syntax for a variable-length array of strings?

Question

I am reading the RFC 4506 to understand the XDR data definition language.

It mentions that variable-length arrays are declared as follows.

 type-name identifier<m>;

It also mentions that variable-length strings are declared as follows.

 string object<m>;

Unfortunately, the only way it shows to have a variable length array of strings is a linked list, which seems very manual.

struct *stringlist {
    string item<>;
    stringlist next;
};

Is there a more simple or more correct way to declare a variable-length array of strings?

Answer 1

You can use the typedef keyword.

typedef does not declare any data either, but serves to define new identifiers for declaring data. The syntax is:

    typedef declaration;

The new type name is actually the variable name in the declaration part of the typedef. For example, the following defines a new type called "eggbox" using an existing type called "egg":

    typedef egg eggbox[DOZEN];    

We can define a variableLengthString type with

typedef string variableLengthString<>;

and then declare a variableLengthString array with

variableLengthString object<>;