How to store & call multiple letters in arduino? - arrays

Question

Im new to programming, and I'm trying to make a program that adjusts LEDs according to the serial input.
#define Bathroom 13 //LED connected to pin13 named bathroom
#define Livingroom 9 //LED connected to pin9 named livingroom
char *myStrings[] = {"bathdim","bathbright","livingdim","livingbright","beddim","bedbright"};
void setup(){
pinMode(Bathroom, OUTPUT);
pinMode(Livingroom, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
if(Serial.read() == *myStrings[0]){
Serial.println(*myStrings[0]); // prints "bathdim" on the serial monitor
digitalWrite(Bathroom,0); // turns lights off
delay(100);
}
if(Serial.read() == *myStrings[1]){ // prints "bathbright" on the serial monitor
Serial.println(*myStrings[1]); // turns lights on
digitalWrite(Bathroom,1);
delay(100);
}
if(Serial.read() == *myStrings[2]){
Serial.println(*myStrings[2]);
digitalWrite(Livingroom,0);
delay(100);
}
if(Serial.read() == *myStrings[3]){
Serial.println(*myStrings[3]);
digitalWrite(Livingroom,1);
delay(100);
}
}
When running the code, I typed in "bathbright" which should have turned the lights on, but I didn't work, and the Serial.println(*myStrings[1]) only prints letter "b", not "bathbright"
can anyone help?
EDIT
ok, I removed the * and now the code is as follows:
#define Bathroom 13 //LED connected to pin13 named bathroom
#define Livingroom 9 //LED connected to pin9 named livingroom
char *myStrings[] = {"bathdim","bathbright","livingdim","livingbright","beddim","bedbright"};
void setup(){
pinMode(Bathroom, OUTPUT);
pinMode(Livingroom, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
if(Serial.read() == *myStrings[0]){
Serial.println(myStrings[0]);
digitalWrite(Bathroom,0);
delay(100);
}
if(Serial.read() == *myStrings[1]){
Serial.println(myStrings[1]);
digitalWrite(Bathroom,1);
delay(100);
}
if(Serial.read() == *myStrings[2]){
Serial.println(myStrings[2]);
digitalWrite(Livingroom,0);
delay(100);
}
if(Serial.read() == *myStrings[3]){
Serial.println(myStrings[3]);
digitalWrite(Livingroom,1);
delay(100);
}
}
The code works well initially but after a few inputs of bathbright and bathdim, he serial print does not print the correct words and the LEDs does not always respond...
FINAL CODE:
#define Bathroom 13 //LED connected to pin13 named bathroom
#define Livingroom 9 //LED connected to pin9 named livingroom
void setup(){
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(Bathroom, OUTPUT);
pinMode(Livingroom, OUTPUT);
}
void loop(){
String str = Serial.readString();
if(str.indexOf("bathdim") > -1){
Serial.println("dimming bathroom");
digitalWrite(Bathroom,0);
}
if(str.indexOf("bathbright") > -1){
Serial.println("lighting up bathroom");
digitalWrite(Bathroom,1);
}
if(str.indexOf("livingdim") > -1){
Serial.println("dimming Livingroom");
digitalWrite(Livingroom,0);
}
if(str.indexOf("livingbright") > -1){
Serial.println("lighting up Livingroom");
digitalWrite(Livingroom,1);
}
}

Answer 1

Just remove * ! because *string refers to the first case in the string ! so *string[0] refers to the first letter in the first case in the string array !

Answer 2

Serial.read() will only read the first byte. You'll have to read the whole string in a loop (and a large enough buffer) and use a compare function to compare the strings.
As an alternative for testing you could use a single byte code - for example 'a', 'b', 'c' and 'd'.
To print the second string in the aray, you can use Serial.println(myStrings[1]).
Here is an example using single chars:
void loop() {
if (Serial.available()) {
int value = Serial.read();
switch (value) {
case 'a':
digitalWrite(Bathroom, 0);
break;
case 'b':
digitalWrite(Bathroom, 1);
break;
case 'c':
digitalWrite(Livingroom, 0);
break;
case 'd':
digitalWrite(Livingroom, 1);
break;
default :
break;
}
if (value >= 'a') { // avoid delaying on newlines
delay(100);
}
}
}

Answer 3

*(myStrings[0]) will get the first (char *) in the array, which points to starting memory location containing bathdim, then you dereference that, using the * which prints the first character, so you get letter b.
Just remove the dereferencing, remove that *
Edit- saw your updated question, the star is not gone, but anyway try using Serial.readString() to read in a string, you are reading in 1 byte at a time