Error A2181: initializer must be a string or single item

[jj2007]

This struct gives me A2181: initializer must be a string or single item:

Code Select Expand

MyStruct STRUCT
;MyDummy DWORD ?
MyRect RECT <?,?,?,?>
MyCenterX dd ?
MyCenterY dd ?
MyStart dd ?
MyStruct ENDS


I have tried {} as suggested by MSDN but no success. Strangely enough, it works fine with MyDummy activated.

Any ideas?
:eek

[redskull]

Perhaps it's a bug in your versin of ml; in version 9, is assembles fine either way.

-r

[dgkimpton]

Assembles fine here... possibly the error is actually somewhere else in your code and this is where it is being reported?

Try putting it in a simple program on it's own...

try this

Code Select Expand


.586
.model flat, stdcall   
option casemap :none   

include \masm32\include\windows.inc
include \masm32\include\kernel32.inc
includelib \masm32\lib\kernel32.lib

include \masm32\include\user32.inc
includelib \masm32\lib\user32.lib

.data

MyStruct STRUCT
MyRect RECT <?,?,?,?>
MyCenterX dd ?
MyCenterY dd ?
MyStart dd ?
MyStruct ENDS

SomeString db "Hello", 0

.code

main:
invoke MessageBox, NULL, ADDR SomeString , ADDR SomeString , MB_OK

invoke ExitProcess, 0
end main

If this works then it is something else in your code...

[dedndave]

what you have seems like it ought to work
have you tried...

Code Select Expand

MyStruct STRUCT
MyRect RECT <>
MyCenterX dd ?
MyCenterY dd ?
MyStart dd ?
MyStruct ENDS

[jj2007]

I have tried loads of variants. The standalone proggie by dgkimpton did not have the bold part...

.data
MyStruct STRUCT
; MyDummy   dd ?  ; DISABLE and see the error message.
MyRect RECT <?>
MyCenterX dd ?
MyCenterY dd ?
MyStart dd ?
MyStruct ENDS

MyS   MyStruct <?>

[dgkimpton]

To be fair nor did the OP.

I'm not sure you can do that... if you can it's new to me...

You can certainly use it in a procedure to declare local storage:

Code Select Expand


test proc
LOCAL MyS:MyStruct

         ; Do stuff with MyS

        ret
test endp

[dgkimpton]

Well hell, learn't something new :)

You can almost do what you want but it seems the syntax you wanted was:

Code Select Expand


MyStruct STRUCT
MyRect RECT <?>
MyCenterX dd ?
MyCenterY dd ?
MyStart dd ?
MyStruct ENDS

MyS  MyStruct <>


Then it works fine...

{edit}
I'll go out on a limb and suggest this is because you have marked every single field of your structure as uninitialised, so there is no need to mark the instance that way again.. after all what are you marking as uninitialised when ever member is already marked that way?

Thanks for making me look into this... it's bound to be very handy going forward :) A serious case of the blind man leading the blind ;)

{edit 2}
Some nice explanation here: http://www.hep.wisc.edu/~pinghc/asm5.html

[MichaelW]

Assuming the goal is to initialize the members, this works for me:

Code Select Expand


MyStruct STRUCT
    MyDummy  DWORD ?
    MyRect  RECT <>
    MyCenterX dd ?
    MyCenterY dd ?
    MyStart dd ?
MyStruct ENDS
    .data
        mys MyStruct <1,{2,3,4,5},6,7,8>
    .code


[jj2007]

To be fair nor did the OP.

The OP posted only a structure, not a snippet claiming to be complete :bg

Well hell, learn't something new :)
MyS  MyStruct <>
...
I'll go out on a limb and suggest this is because you have marked every single field of your structure as uninitialised, so there is no need to mark the instance that way again..

You are the man, thanks :U