> But then I can't use sizeof() if I pass that buffer into a function via a pointer. Obviously, this isn't necessarily an improvement, but in theory you could

> But then I can't use sizeof() if I pass that buffer into a function via a pointer. Obviously, this isn't necessarily an improvement, but in theory you could do this: size_t getlength( int m, char (*p) [m] ) { return sizeof *p; } where you'd be calling it like this: char mystring[] = "Hello"; getlength( sizeof mystring, &mystring ) But then you're back in "having to pass the length as a separate parameter" territory, I guess. (but at least it's the length of the array here, not just the zero-terminated component, which is what you wanted).