String initialization with and without explicit trailing terminator

Question

What is the difference between

char str1[32] = \"\\0\";

and

char str2[32] = \"\";

Answer 1

As others have pointed out, "" implies one terminating '\0' character, so "\0" actually initializes the array with two null characters.

Some other answerers have implied that this is "the same", but that isn't quite right. There may be no practical difference -- as long the only way the array is used is to reference it as a C string beginning with the first character. But note that they do indeed result in two different memory initalizations, in particular they differ in whether Str[1] is definitely zero, or is uninitialized (and could be anything, depending on compiler, OS, and other random factors). There are some uses of the array (perhaps not useful, but still) that would have different behaviors.