Problem with storing value in pointer address - c

Question

I managed to put the value in the pointer while in the function, However when i come back to the main i just dont get the values. Where am i wrong? sending parameters wrong? wrong allocation? Here's the code:
bool wc(int* nlines, int* nwords, int* nchars)
{
int lines=5,chars=6,words=7;
nchars = (int *) malloc(chars*sizeof(int));
*nchars = chars;
nlines = (int *) malloc(lines*sizeof(int));
*nlines = lines;
nwords = (int *) malloc(words*sizeof(int));
*nwords = words;
}
int main() {
int* chars; int* words; int* lines;
int res = wc(&lines,&words,&chars);
printf("%d %d %d\n",chars,lines,words);
return 0;
}

Answer 1

If all you want to do is be able to set 3 int values inside a function then this is how I would so it.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
bool wc(int* nlines, int* nwords, int* nchars)
{
int lines=5,chars=6,words=7;
*nchars = chars;
*nlines = lines;
*nwords = words;
return true;
}
int main() {
int lines = 0;
int words = 0;
int chars = 0;
int res = wc(&lines,&words,&chars);
printf("%d %d %d\n",chars,lines,words);
return 0;
}
If for some reason you must use pointers as shown in your example then this will do what you want.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
bool wc(int** nlines, int** nwords, int** nchars)
{
int lines=5,chars=6,words=7;
*nchars = malloc(sizeof(int));
**nchars = chars;
*nlines = malloc(sizeof(int));
**nlines = lines;
*nwords = malloc(sizeof(int));
**nwords = words;
return true;
}
int main() {
int* chars; int* words; int* lines;
int res = wc(&lines,&words,&chars);
printf("%d %d %d\n",*chars,*lines,*words);
free(chars);
free(words);
free(lines);
return 0;
}
As you can see this just means you need to add a bunch more * all over the place.

Answer 2

In C function input variables are passed by value, not reference. So when you assign them locally, the value in the caller scope is unaffected. E.g.
void foo(int a) {
a = 5;
}
int main() {
int b = 3;
foo(b);
// here, b is still 3
}
This is exactly what you are doing in your example, though your variables are not int, but int*.
If your input variable is a pointer though, you can change the memory that the variable points to, and this will obviously reflect in the calling scope. E.g.
void foo(int *a) {
*a = 5;
}
int main() {
int b = 3;
foo(&b);
// here, b is 5
}
In your case, you want to allocate pointers, so you want your function signature to be a pointer to a pointer. E.g.
void foo(int **a) {
*a = malloc(sizeof(int));
}
int main() {
int* b = NULL;
foo(&b);
// here, b is allocated to a valid heap area
free(b);
}