I was trying to run this section of the code from the project outline.

This is the code I was trying to run:

char plain_text[] = "HELLOWORLD";
char cipher_text[sizeof(plain_text)] = {0};
caesar_encrypt('A', 'Z', 3, plain_text, cipher_text);

I compiled the program using this command.

cc -std=c11 -Wall -Werror -o e_cits3007_project cits3007_project.c

But I was getting these warnings:

cits3007_project.c: In function ‘main’:
cits3007_project.c:29:5: error: variable-sized object may not be initialized
   29 |     char cipher_text[strlen(plain_text)] = {0};
      |     ^~~~
cits3007_project.c:29:45: error: excess elements in array initializer [-Werror]
   29 |     char cipher_text[strlen(plain_text)] = {0};
      |                                             ^
cits3007_project.c:29:45: note: (near initialization for ‘cipher_text’)

From my reading online about these warnings, I read that "You cannot initialize a variable length array in C" (I got that from this link: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14186879/c-error-variable-sized-object-may-not-be-initialized). I know that I can get around this warning by allocating the memory or something like that, but the fact that this is from the project outline has me worrying!

I am not that confident with my C coding so I am a little paranoid about the warnings as the code is straight from the project outline.

Is this wrong? Am I wrong (probably)? If I am wrong, why so?

Hope you guys can help! :D