Additional notes (January 2025)

The resolution above does not allow this example:

  S s = {"abc"};

This recurses back from 9.4.2 [dcl.init.aggr] bullet 4.3 to 9.4.1 [dcl.init.general].

Possible resolution:

Change in 9.4.1 [dcl.init.general] bullet 16.3 as follows:

• ...
• If the destination type is an array of characters, an array of char8_t, an array of char16_t, an array of char32_t, or an array of wchar_t, and the initializer initialization is from a an unparenthesized string-literal, see 9.4.3 [dcl.init.string].
• ...

(From submission #661.)

Subclause 9.4.1 [dcl.init.general] bullet 16.3 specifies:

• ...
• If the destination type is an array of characters, an array of char8_t, an array of char16_t, an array of char32_t, or an array of wchar_t, and the initializer is a string-literal, see 9.4.3 [dcl.init.string].
• ...

However, the initializer will be of the form = string-literal or (string-literal), neither of which is a string-literal, obviously.

On a slightly related note, implementations other than gcc in strict modes support parenthesized string literals, e.g.

  const char s1[] = ("foo");
  const char s2[] = {("foo")};

The latter is clearly not covered by 9.4.5 [dcl.init.list] bullet 3.3:

• ...
• Otherwise, if T is a character array and the initializer list has a single element that is an appropriately-typed string-literal (9.4.3 [dcl.init.string]), initialization is performed as described in that subclause.
• ...

Possible resolution [SUPERSEDED]:

Change in 9.4.1 [dcl.init.general] bullet 16.3 as follows:

• ...
• If the destination type is an array of characters, an array of char8_t, an array of char16_t, an array of char32_t, or an array of wchar_t, and the initializer initializer is a string-literal of the form = string-literal or of the form ( string-literal ), see 9.4.3 [dcl.init.string].
• ...