Is there an easy way to remove specific chars from a char*? - c

char * deleteChars = "\"\'.“”‘’?:;-,—*($%)! \t\n\x0A\r"
I have this and i'm trying to remove any of these from a given char*. I'm not sure how I would go about comparing a char* to it.
For example if the char* is equal to "hello," how would I go about removing that comma with my deleteChars?
So far I have
void removeChar(char*p, char*delim){
char*holder = p;
while(*p){
if(!(*p==*delim++)){
*holder++=*p;
p++;
}
}
*holder = '\0';

A simple one-by-one approach:
You can use strchr to decide if the character is present in the deletion set. You then assign back into the buffer at the next unassigned position, only if not a filtered character.
It might be easier to understand this using two indices, instead of using pointer arithmetic.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
void remove_characters(char *from, const char *set)
{
size_t i = 0, j = 0;
while (from[i]) {
if (!strchr(set, from[i]))
from[j++] = from[i];
i++;
}
from[j] = 0;
}
int main(void) {
const char *del = "\"\'.“”‘’?:;-,—*($%)! \t\n\x0A\r";
char buf[] = "hello, world!";
remove_characters(buf, del);
puts(buf);
}
stdout:
hello world

If you've several delimiters/characters to ignore, it's better to use a look-up table.
void remove_chars (char* str, const char* delims)
{
if (!str || !delims) return;
char* ans = str;
int dlt[256] = {0};
while (*delims)
dlt[(unsigned char)*delims++] = 1;
while (*str) {
if (dlt[(unsigned char)*str])
++str; // skip it
else //if (str != ans)
*ans++ = *str++;
}
*ans = '\0';
}

You could do a double loop, but depending on what you want to treat, it might not be ideal. And since you are FOR SURE shrinking the string you don't need to malloc (provided it was already malloced). I'd initialize a table like this.
#include <string.h>
...
char del[256];
memset(del, 0, 256 * sizeof(char));
for (int i = 0; deleteChars[i]; i++) del[deleteChars[i]] = 1;
Then in a function:
void delChars(char *del, char *string) {
int i, offset;
for (i = 0, offset = 0; string[i]; i++) {
string[i - offset] = string[i];
if (del[string[i]]) offset++;
}
string[i - offset] = 0;
}
This will not work on string literals (that you initialize with char* x = "") though because you'd end up writing in program memory, and probably segfault. I'm sure you can tweak it if that's your need. (Just do something like char *newString = malloc(strlen(string) + 1); newString[i - offset] = string[i])

Apply strchr(delim, p[i]) to each element in p[].
Let us take advantage that strchr(delim, 0) always returns a non-NULL pointer to eliminate the the null character test for every interrelation.
void removeChar(char *p, char *delim) {
size_t out = 0;
for (size_t in; /* empty */; in++) {
// p[in] in the delim set?
if (strchr(delim, p[in])) {
if (p[in] == '\0') {
break;
}
} else {
p[out++] = p[in];
}
}
p[out] = '\0';
}
Variation on #Oka good answer.

it is better way - return the string without needless characters
#include <string.h>
char * remove_chars(char * str, const char * delim) {
for ( char * p = strpbrk(str, delim); p; p = strpbrk(p, delim) )
memmove(p, p + 1, strlen(p));
return str;
}

Related

What's wrong with my function? I have function that finds all common chars and concatenates them into one string

I have function that finds all common chars and concatenates into one string.
char* commonString(char* p1,char* p2)
{
char* res = "";
for (int k=0;k<strlen(p1);k++)
{
for (int h=0;h<strlen(p2);h++)
{
if (p1[k] == p2[h])
{
strcat(res,&p1[k]);
}
}
}
return res;
}
What's wrong with it? Can you review and help to fix it?
Example of I/O:
Example 00
Input: "padinton" && "paqefwtdjetyiytjneytjoeyjnejeyj"
Output:
Return Value: "padinto"
P.S. I also have function that removes all duplicated chars except the first ocurrence of it from strings.
This function works after removing them
The two main problems in your code are that you are not allocating space for the resulting string and you are using the strcat function inappropriately. Below is a brief implementation of what you are trying to achieve.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
char *commonString(char* p1,char* p2)
{
const size_t lenp1 = strlen(p1);
char *res = malloc(lenp1 + 1);
size_t j = 0;
for (size_t i = 0; i < lenp1; ++i)
if (strchr(p2, p1[i]))
res[j++] = p1[i];
res[j] = 0;
return res;
}
Important Note: The pointer returned by the malloc function must be checked against NULL before being dereferenced. It is omitted here for brevity.
There are so many issues in your code.
Not allocating memory,
Modifying string literals
returning local variables
etc etc.
Your function is also inefficient. You call strlen on every iteration, call strcat (which is very expensive) just to add 1 char.
This function does what you want with or without the duplicates.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
char *mystrnchr(const char *str, const char ch, size_t size)
{
char *result = NULL;
while(size--)
{
if(*str == ch)
{
result = (char *)str;
break;
}
str++;
}
return result;
}
char *mystrchr(const char *str, const char ch)
{
char *result = NULL;
while(*str)
{
if(*str == ch)
{
result = (char *)str;
break;
}
str++;
}
return result;
}
char* commonString(char *buff, const char* p1, const char* p2, int duplicates)
{
size_t size = 0;
char p1c;
while((p1c = *p1++))
{
if(!duplicates)
{
if(mystrnchr(buff, p1c, size))
{
continue;
}
}
if(mystrchr(p2, p1c))
{
buff[size++] = p1c;
}
}
buff[size] = 0;
return buff;
}
int main()
{
char result[23];
char *str1 = "paaaadiiiiinton";
char *str2 = "paqefwtdjetyiytjneytjoeyjnejeyj";
printf("%s\n", commonString(result, str1, str2, 0));
printf("%s\n", commonString(result, str1, str2, 1));
}
You can experiment with it yourself here: https://godbolt.org/z/qMnsfa
Here's a solution along those lines:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define MAX_LENGTH 512
void removeDup(char *result, char *string)
{
for (int i = 0; i < strlen(string); i++)
{
char C[2] = { string[i], '\0' };
if (strstr(result, C) == NULL)
strcat(result, C);
}
}
char *commonString(char *p1, char *p2)
{
char r[MAX_LENGTH] = { };
for (int i = 0; i < strlen(p1); i++)
for (int j = 0; j < strlen(p2); j++)
if (p1[i] == p2[j])
strcat(r, &p1[i]);
static char res[MAX_LENGTH] = { };
removeDup(res, r);
return res;
}
int main()
{
printf("%s\n", commonString("padinton", "paqefwtdjetyiytjneytjoeyjnejeyj"));
return 0;
}
$ cc string.c -o string && ./string
padinto

string replace using dynamically allocated memory

I am using the below function to replace a sub-string in a given string
void ReplaceSubStr(char **inputString, const char *from, const char *to)
{
char *result = NULL;
int i, cnt = 0;
int tolen = strlen(to);
int fromlen = strlen(from);
if (*inputString == NULL)
return;
// Counting the number of times old word
// occur in the string
for (i = 0; (*inputString)[i] != '\0'; i++)
{
if (strstr((&(*inputString)[i]), from) == &(*inputString)[i])
{
cnt++;
// Jumping to index after the old word.
i += fromlen - 1;
}
}
// Making new string of enough length
result = (char *)malloc(i + cnt * (tolen - fromlen) + 1);
if (result == NULL)
return;
memset(result, 0, i + cnt * (tolen - fromlen) + 1);
i = 0;
while (&(*inputString))
{
// compare the substring with the result
if (strstr(*inputString, from) == *inputString)
{
strncpy(&result[i], to, strlen(to));
i += tolen;
*inputString += fromlen;
}
else
{
result[i++] = (*inputString)[0];
if ((*inputString)[1] == '\0')
break;
*inputString += 1;
}
}
result[i] = '\0';
*inputString = result;
return;
}
The problem with the above function is memory leak. Whatever memory is allocated for inputString will be lost after this line.
*inputString = result;
since I am using strstr and moving pointer of inputString *inputString += fromlen; inputString is pointing to NULL before the above line. So how to handle memory leak here.
Note: I dont want to return the new memory allocated inside the function. I need to alter the inputString memory based on new length.
You should use a local variable to iterate over the input string and avoid modifying *inputString before the final step where you free the previous string and replace it with the newly allocated pointer.
With the current API, ReplaceSubStr must be called with the address of a pointer to a block allocated with malloc() or similar. Passing a pointer to local storage or a string literal will have undefined behavior.
Here are a few ideas for improvement:
you could return the new string and leave it to the caller to free the previous one. In this case, you would take the input string by value instead of by address:
char *ReplaceSubStr(const char *inputString, const char *from, const char *to);
If the from string is empty, you should either insert the to string between each character of the input string or do nothing. As posted, your code has undefined behavior for this border case.
To check if the from string is present at offset i, use memcmp instead of strstr.
If cnt is 0, there is nothing to do.
You should return an error status for the caller to determine if memory could be allocated or not.
There is no need to initialize the result array.
avoid using strncpy(). This function has counter-intuitive semantics and is very often misused. Read this: https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/stop-using-strncpy-already/
Here is an improved version:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
int ReplaceSubStr(char **inputString, const char *from, const char *to) {
char *input = *inputString;
char *p, *q, *result;
size_t cnt;
size_t tolen = strlen(to);
size_t fromlen = strlen(from);
if (input == NULL || fromlen == 0)
return 0;
// Counting the number of times old word occurs in the string
for (cnt = 0, p = input; (p = strstr(p, from)) != NULL; cnt++) {
p += fromlen;
}
if (cnt == 0) // no occurrence, nothing to do.
return 0;
// Making new string of enough length
result = (char *)malloc(strlen(input) + cnt * (tolen - fromlen) + 1);
if (result == NULL)
return -1;
for (p = input, q = result;;) {
char *p0 = p;
p = strstr(p, from);
if (p == NULL) {
strcpy(q, p0);
break;
}
memcpy(q, p0, p - p0);
q += p - p0;
memcpy(q, to, tolen);
q += tolen;
p += fromlen;
}
free(*inputString);
*inputString = result;
return 0;
}
int main() {
char *p = strdup("Hello world!");
ReplaceSubStr(&p, "l", "");
printf("%s\n", p); // prints Heo word!
free(p);
return 0;
}
You cannot obviously free the input as it can be a literal, some memory you don't control. That would cripple your function even more than now.
You could return the old value of inputString so you'd be able to free it if needed.
char *ReplaceSubStr(char **inputString, const char *from, const char *to)
{
char *old_string = *inputString;
...
return old_string;
}
The caller is responsible to free the contents of old_string if needed.
If not needed (we have to workaround the char ** input by assigning a valid writable array to a pointer to be able to pass this pointer:
char input[]="hello world";
char *ptr = input;
ReplaceSubStr(&ptr, "hello", "hi");
// input is now "hi world" in a different location
free(ptr); // when replaced string isn't needed
if needed:
char *input = strdup("hello world");
char *old_input = ReplaceSubStr(&input, "hello", "hi");
free(old_input);
or just
free(ReplaceSubStr(&input, "hello", "hi"));
then always (when replaced string isn't needed):
free(input);
The only constraint is that you cannot use a constant string literal as input (const char *input = "hello world") because of the prototype & the possible return of a char * to pass to free.

How to use malloc in this situation?

I'm a bit of a newbie at C, so please bear with me...
I have a function to count char in a string called char strLength, but I have to create a function that uses this function to count the number of characters in a passed string, mallocates a new string with space for a NULL terminator, copies the string and then returns the copy.
Here's what I have:
character counter
int strLength(char* toCount)
{
int count = 0;
while(*toCount != '\0')
{
count++;
toCount++;
}
return count;
}
and here's the beginning of the sought-after function
char* strCopy(char *s)
{
int length = strLength(s);
}
Since you are struggling with malloc, here is how the next line should look:
char* strCopy(char *s)
{
int length = strLength(s);
char *res = malloc(length+1);
// Copy s into res; stop when you reach '\0'
...
return res;
}
You want strdup. However, since I suspect this is a learning exercise:
char *strCopy(const char *src)
{
size_t l = strlen(src) + 1;
char *r = malloc(l);
if (r)
memcpy(r, src, l);
return r;
}
If you are curious how to copy strings yourself, you could replace the memcpy with something like:
char *dst = r;
while (*src)
*dst++ = *src++;
*dst = 0;
However I would suggest using library functions: if not strdup, then malloc + memcpy.
You can use strdup() clib call.
You can write something like:
char* strCopy(char *s) {
int length = strLength(s);
char *rc = (char *)malloc(length + 1);
return rc? strcpy(rc, s) : NULL;
}

C replace char in char array

Folks, need to search through a character array and replace any occurrence of '+','/',or'=' with '%2B','%2F', and '%2F' respectively
base64output variable looks like
FtCPpza+Z0FASDFvfgtoCZg5zRI=
code
char *signature = replace_char(base64output, "+", "%2B");
signature = replace_char(signature, "/", "%2F");
signature = replace_char(signature, "=", "%3B");
char replace_char (char *s, char find, char replace) {
while (*s != 0) {
if (*s == find)
*s = replace;
s++;
}
return s;
}
(Errors out with)
s.c:266: warning: initialization makes pointer from integer without a cast
What am i doing wrong? Thanks!
If the issue is that you have garbage in your signature variable:
void replace_char(...) is incompatible with signature = replace_char(...)
Edit:
Oh I didn't see... This is not going to work since you're trying to replace a char by an array of chars with no memory allocation whatsoever.
You need to allocate a new memory chunk (malloc) big enough to hold the new string, then copy the source 's' to the destination, replacing 'c' by 'replace' when needed.
The prototype should be:
char *replace_char(char *s, char c, char *replace);
1.
for char use '' single quotes
for char* use "" double quotes
2.
The function does include the return keyword, therefore it does not return what you'd expect
3.
These webpages have examples on string replacement
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstring/strstr/
What is the function to replace string in C?
You could go for some length discussing various ways to do this.
Replacing a single char is simple - loop through, if match, replace old with new, etc.
The problem here is that the length of the "new" part is longer than the length of the old one.
One way would be to determine the length of the new string (by counting chars), and either (1) try to do it in place, or (2) allocate a new string.
Here's an idea for #1:
int replace(char *buffer, size_t size, char old, const char *newstring)
{
size_t newlen = strlen(newstring);
char *p, *q;
size_t targetlen = 0;
// First get the final length
//
p = buffer;
while (*p)
{
if (*p == old)
targetlen += newlen;
else
targetlen++;
++p;
}
// Account for null terminator
//
targetlen++;
// Make sure there's enough space
//
if (targetlen > size)
return -1;
// Now we copy characters. We'll start at the end and
// work our way backwards.
//
p = buffer + strlen(buffer);
q = buffer + targetlen;
while (targetlen)
{
if (*p == old)
{
q -= newlen;
memcpy(q, newstring, newlen);
targetlen -= newlen;
--p;
}
else
{
*--q = *p--;
--targetlen;
}
}
return 0;
}
Then you could use it this way (here's a quick test I did):
char buf[4096] = "hello world";
if (replace(buf, sizeof(buf), 'o', "oooo"))
{
fprintf(stderr, "Not enough space\n");
}
else
{
puts(buf);
}
your replace_char signature returns void
void replace_char (char *s, char find, char replace)
But, when the linker tries to resolve the following
signature = replace_char(signature, "=", '%3B');
It doesn't find any function that's called replace_char and returns int (int is the default if there's no prototype).
Change the replace_char function prototype to match the statement.
EDIT:
The warning states that your function returns char, but you use it as a char *
also, your function doesn't return anything, do you need to return something ?
It looks like you don't really understand the code that you're working with.
Fixing errors and warnings without understanding exactly what you need to do is worthless..
fix like this
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
char *replace_char (char *str, char find, char *replace) {
char *ret=str;
char *wk, *s;
wk = s = strdup(str);
while (*s != 0) {
if (*s == find){
while(*replace)
*str++ = *replace++;
++s;
} else
*str++ = *s++;
}
*str = '\0';
free(wk);
return ret;
}
int main(void){
char base64output[4096] = "FtCPpza+Z0FASDFvfgtoCZg5zRI=";
char *signature = replace_char(base64output, '+', "%2B");
signature = replace_char(signature, '/', "%2F");
signature = replace_char(signature, '=', "%3B");
printf("%s\n", base64output);
return 0;
}
below is a code that ACTUALLY WORKS !!!!
Ammar Hourani
char * replace_char(char * input, char find, char replace)
{
char * output = (char*)malloc(strlen(input));
for (int i = 0; i < strlen(input); i++)
{
if (input[i] == find) output[i] = replace;
else output[i] = input[i];
}
output[strlen(input)] = '\0';
return output;
}

C reference gone after for loop

i got a problem with my C code.
int split(char* source, char*** target, char* splitChar) {
int i;
int currentLength;
int splitCharPosition;
char* currentSubstring = source;
int splitCount = charcount(source, splitChar) + 1;
*target = (char**) malloc(splitCount * sizeof(char**));
for(i=0;i<splitCount;i++) {
splitCharPosition = indexOf(currentSubstring, splitChar);
substring(currentSubstring, target[i], 0, splitCharPosition);
currentLength = strlen(currentSubstring);
substring(currentSubstring, &currentSubstring, splitCharPosition + 1, curr entLength-splitCharPosition);
}
return splitCount;
}
The problem is that if I use the Debugger, the pointer to splitChar is set to 0x0 after the first run of the for loop.
Does anybody know why it is set to 0x0?
EDIT:
int indexOf(char* source, char* template) {
int i;
int j;
int index;
for (i = 0; source[i]; i++) {
index = i;
for (j = 0; template[j]; j++) {
if (source[i + j] != template[j]) {
index = -1;
break;
}
}
if (index != -1) {
return index;
}
}
return -1;
}
EDIT2:
int charcount(char* source, const char* countChar) {
int i;
int count = 0;
for(i=0;source[i];i++) {
if(source[i] == countChar[0]) {
count++;
}
}
return count;
}
EDIT3:
char* substring(char* source, char** target, int start, int length) {
*target = (char*) malloc(length + 1);
strncpy(*target, source + start, length);
target[length] = '\0';
return *target;
}
EDIT4:
I just noticed that if I add
char* sndfpgjps = splitChar;
to my split() code it does not delete the reference. Anyone know why?
This line:-
substring(currentSubstring, &currentSubstring, splitCharPosition + 1, curr entLength-splitCharPosition);
... will cause a memory leak, as well as being incredibly inefficient. The old substring is left dangling. and never freed.
It would be much better to write
currentSubString += splitCharPosition + 1;
I don't think that's the problem, but it's a problem.
Also, as you're using C library functions like strlen(), why aren't you using strtok or better yet, strtok_r?
I have some reservations about the code, but this works cleanly under valgrind (no leaks, no abuse). I've left the sub-functions largely unchanged except that constant strings are marked constant. The code in split() has been simplified. As I noted in a comment, I suggest writing the main split() function so that you have a local char **string_list; which you allocate and fill. Then, when you're about to return, you assign *target = string_list;. This will make it easier for you to understand what's going on. Triple indirection is nasty. You can justify it here (just), but minimize the time you spend working with triple pointers. The revision adopts that strategy.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
extern int split(const char *source, char ***target, const char *splitStr);
static int
indexOf(const char *source, const char *template)
{
int i;
int j;
int index;
for (i = 0; source[i]; i++)
{
index = i;
for (j = 0; template[j]; j++)
{
if (source[i + j] != template[j])
{
index = -1;
break;
}
}
if (index != -1)
return index;
}
return -1;
}
static int
charcount(const char *source, const char *countChar)
{
int count = 0;
for (int i = 0; source[i]; i++)
{
if (source[i] == countChar[0])
count++;
}
return count;
}
static char *
substring(const char *source, int start, int length)
{
char *target = (char *)malloc(length + 1);
if (target != 0)
{
memmove(target, source + start, length);
target[length] = '\0';
}
return target;
}
int
split(const char *source, char ***target, const char *splitStr)
{
int splitCount = charcount(source, splitStr) + 1;
char **result = (char **)malloc(splitCount * sizeof(*result));
if (result == 0)
return -1;
int splitLength = strlen(splitStr);
char **next = result;
const char *currentSubstring = source;
for (int i = 0; i < splitCount; i++)
{
int splitCharPosition = indexOf(currentSubstring, splitStr);
if (splitCharPosition < 0)
break;
*next++ = substring(currentSubstring, 0, splitCharPosition);
currentSubstring += splitCharPosition + splitLength;
}
*next++ = substring(currentSubstring, 0, strlen(currentSubstring));
*target = result;
return (next - result); /* Actual number of strings */
}
static void print_list(int nstrings, char **strings)
{
for (int i = 0; i < nstrings; i++)
{
if (strings[i] != 0)
printf("%d: <<%s>>\n", i, strings[i]);
}
}
static void free_list(int nstrings, char **strings)
{
for (int i = 0; i < nstrings; i++)
free(strings[i]);
free(strings);
}
int main(void)
{
const char source[] = "This is a string; it is really!";
char **strings;
int nstrings;
nstrings = split(source, &strings, " ");
printf("Splitting: <<%s>> on <<%s>>\n", source, " ");
print_list(nstrings, strings);
free_list(nstrings, strings);
nstrings = split(source, &strings, "is");
printf("Splitting: <<%s>> on <<%s>>\n", source, "is");
print_list(nstrings, strings);
free_list(nstrings, strings);
return 0;
}
Note that in the second example, charcount() returns 6 but there are only 4 strings. This caused a late adjustment to the source code. (You could realloc() the result so it is exactly the right size, but it probably isn't worth worrying about unless the discrepancy is really marked — say 'more than 10 entries'.) The error handling is not perfect; it doesn't access invalid memory after failure to allocate, but it doesn't stop trying to allocate, either. Nor does it report failures to allocate individual strings — it does for failure to allocate the array of pointers.
I'd probably avoid the triple pointer by creating a structure:
typedef struct StringList
{
size_t nstrings;
char **strings;
} StringList;
You can then pass a pointer to one of these into split(), and into the utility functions such as free_list() and print_list(). The free_list() function would then modify the structure so that both elements are zeroed after the data pointed at by the structure is freed.
I'd also be tempted to use a different implementation of indexOf():
int indexOf(const char *haystack, const char *needle)
{
const char *pos = strstr(haystack, needle);
if (pos != 0)
return (pos - haystack);
return -1;
}
I do not know what substring does, nor what signature it has, but in the line
substring(currentSubstring, target[i], 0, splitCharPosition);
target[i] is only defined for i==0. I believe you wanted to write
substring(currentSubstring, (*target)[i], 0, splitCharPosition);
See if your debugger also supports data breakpoints, i.e. break if some place in memory is modified. Then place one at the actual address of splitChar, and another at the address it points to. (Since you didn't specify whether the pointer is null or points to nil.) See where it breaks. It may be that it is a completely unrelated place; that would indicate a buffer overflow.
Also, you could make at least splitChar a pointer to const. You don't actually want to modify it, right? Better idea, make it a char, not a pointer, since its name suggests that there is only one character on which you split, not a string.
The first call to substring does not look correct:
substring(currentSubstring, target[i], 0, splitCharPosition);
I suspect it should be something like the following where it indexes the actual memory that was allocated:
substring(currentSubstring, &((*target)[i]), 0, splitCharPosition);
You first need to get the value that target points at (*target) and then index off of that and pass the address of that array location.

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