Compress string using bit field - c

I have to encode an array of strings such that: 1. The encoded output is a single string with minimum possible length 2. You should be able to decode the string later.
String is made up of only lower case characters. I am not very good in using bit fields.
. Do i just right shift by 3 when I am assign the letter to enc_string. Or I can use the structure I created? Also how can I make sure that I actually saved space. I cant use sizeof as it returns in bytes?
How do I do the bit packing.
#include <stdio.h>
typedef struct{
int val:5;
}input;
char* encode_string(char **str_arr,int len, int *ret_len){
int i = 0;
int j = 0;
int k = 0;
char *enc_string = (char*)malloc(10*len*sizeof(char));
for(i=0;i<len;i++){
for(j=0;j<strlen(str_arr[i]); j++){
enc_string[k] = str_arr[i][j]; // str_arr[i][j]>>3
k++;
}
enc_string[k++] = '*';
}
if(k>0){
enc_string[k]='\0';
*ret_len = k;
}
return enc_string;
}
int main()
{
char* str[] = {"abcd","fghi","jkl"};
char *enc_string;
int enc_len = 0;
enc_string = encode_string(str,3,&enc_len);
printf("Encoded string %s size %d \n",enc_string,enc_len);
return 0;
}

Related

GCC Compilation Error on array assignment

I am trying to convert a string into its equivalent matrix form in C. The matrix would have 3 rows and as many columns as required. The following code doesn't compile, and I haven't figured out what's going wrong.
The error that GCC throws is:
app.c:10:25: error: subscripted value is not an array, pointer, or vector
printf("%d\n", arr[i][k]);
~~~^~
1 error generated.
Main file (app.c):
#include <stdio.h>
#include "converter.h"
int main() {
char source[] = "This is the source. "; // placeholder text
int arr = convert(source);
for (int i = 0; i < 21; i++) {
for (int k = 0; k < 3; k++) {
printf("%d\n", arr[i][k]); // error occurs at this line.
}
}
return 0;
}
converter.c file:
// Converts an input string to its respective ASCII matrix.
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include "converter.h"
// Converts the entire string into an multi-dimensional array.
int convert(char text[]){
// copy the input text into a local store.
char store[strlen(text)];
strcpy(store, text);
// make sure the length of the input string is a multiple of 3 or make it so.
int excess = strlen(store)%3;
char excess_spaces[3] = " ";
if (excess != 0) {
strncat(store, excess_spaces, 3-excess);
}
// covert the source into an array
int arr[3][strlen(store)/3];
int steps = strlen(store)/3;
for (int i = 0; i < steps; i++) {
int t[3];
for (int k = 0; k < 3; k++) {
t[k] = (int) store[3*i+k];
arr[k][i] = t[k];
}
}
return arr;
}
converter.h file:
int convert(char text[]);
There are multiple issues in this code.
The allocating storage for string, one must include one byte for a null terminator. Replace:
char store[strlen(text)];
with:
char store[strlen(text) + 1];
Additionally store must be big enough to contain the excess which is up to 3 spaces.
char store[strlen(text) + 3 + 1];
In C you cannot use an array as a value. It is converted to a pointer to it's first element in pretty must every context. Therefore it is not possible to return an array directly. It could be workaround by wrapping an array with a struct but it a topic for another day.
As result return arr will be equivalent to return &arr[0] which is int (*)[XXX] a pointer to int array of size XXX.
Never ever return a pointer to an object with automatic storage. It's Undefined Behaviour. I know that the intention was returning an array not a pointer to it. Create an object with dynamic storage with malloc-like function to safely return a pointer.
Returning Variable Length Array (VLA) by value is not possible because Variably Modified (VM) types cannot be defined at file scope.
It looks that indices are swapped in:
printf("%d\n", arr[i][k]);
I guess it should be arr[k][i].
Now... let's solve it.
Returning VLA is tricky. One solution is to pass a pointer to VLA as an argument. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/14088851/4989451.
The issue with this solution is that the caller must be able to compute the dimensions.
The other way it to wrap the result of the convert() to a struct. Note that the function and the struct can share the name. The result with have the sizes of VLA as n and m members and the pointer to the data as arr. The caller need to cast it to proper VM type.
To cumbersome casts between the non-trivial pointer types, one can cast via void*.
When all work with the array is done, release it memory with free().
// Converts an input string to its respective ASCII matrix.
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
// Converts the entire string into an multi-dimensional array.
struct convert {
int n, m;
int *arr;
} convert(char text[]){
// copy the input text into a local store.
size_t textlen = strlen(text);
char store[textlen + 3 + 1];
strcpy(store, text);
// make sure the length of the input string is a multiple of 3 or make it so.
int excess = textlen % 3;
char excess_spaces[3] = " ";
if (excess != 0) {
strncat(store, excess_spaces, 3-excess);
}
size_t storelen = strlen(store);
// allocate VLA with dynamic storage
int (*arr)[storelen / 3] = malloc(3 * sizeof *arr);
// covert the source into an array
int steps = storelen / 3;
for (int i = 0; i < steps; i++) {
int t[3];
for (int k = 0; k < 3; k++) {
t[k] = (int) store[3*i+k];
arr[k][i] = t[k];
}
}
return (struct convert){ .n = 3, .m = steps, .arr = (int*)arr };
}
int main() {
char source[] = "This is the source. "; // placeholder text
struct convert res = convert(source);
int n = res.n, m = res.m;
int (*arr)[m] = (void*)res.arr;
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++, puts("")) {
for (int k = 0; k < m; k++) {
printf("%d ", arr[i][k]); // error occurs at this line.
}
}
free(arr);
return 0;
}

Hex to ascii in c using visual studio

I'm facing some issues while I use toascii() it converts any int to ascii, but not int < 10, it returens \x1 or \x2 and so but not the ascii symbol which it should represent. so, any help please.
My code be like:
char* PostUnpack()
{
char* InStr = "04214FABF666DCE7";
int Len = strlen(InStr);
int Count, OutCount = 0;
int IntToHex;
char HexToChr[3] = "";
char TempCnv;
char RetStr[20] = "" ;
for(Count = 0; Count < Len; Count++)
{
strncpy(HexToChr,&InStr[Count],2);
IntToHex = (int) strtol(HexToChr, NULL, 16);
TempCnv = IntToHex;
toascii(TempCnv);
RetStr[OutCount] = TempCnv;
strncpy(HexToChr, "", strlen(HexToChr));
Count++;
OutCount++;
}
return RetStr;
actually in debug it be like:
\x4!O«öfÜç
while it should be :
!O«öfÜç
because I don't want to print the out put, but I use the return value to be used by some encryption method, and now when I pass this incorrect return value it make an incorrect encryption.
As already pointed out, one of the issues may be that toascii(), although working as designed, is not be producing it's converted value in the way you expect. You must use the return value of the function to get the converted value. For example, as you have called it:
toascii(TempCnv);//the converted value is returned, and you are not capturing it.
^^^^
use either a direct assignment statement to capture the value like this:
char c = toascii(0x51); //example value should produce ASCII character 3
Or you can use the string function sprintf() to place the converted value into a variable:
char c = 0;
sprintf(c, "%c", toascii(0x51));
Also, the range of printable ASCII characters is 0x20 - 0x7E. There is a paper that discusses the problems that are encountered when attempting to work with non-printable characters here
heres one that works
char * conv(char * str)
{
int l = strlen(str);
char buff[3];
buff[2] = 0;
int oidx = 0;
char *out = malloc(l/2 + 1);
int i;
for( i = 0; i < l; )
{
buff[0]= str[i++];
buff[1] = str[i++];
long x = strtol(buff, 0,16);
out[oidx++] = x;
}
out[oidx] = 0;
return strdup(out);
}
int main(void) {
char* InStr = "04214FABF666DCE7";
char* ans = conv(InStr);
free(ans);
}
does not deal with odd length input. Note the allocation of return buffer and freeing by caller. And no check of malloc
It seems the point of toascii() is to limit a value to using at most 7 bits, i.e. toascii(x) is equivalent to x &= 127. This might not be what you expect.
See the documentation for details.

Unsigned char array concatenation in C

What's the best way to concatenate unsigned char arrays in C? Furthermore, is there a way to concatenate unsigned char arrays with char arrays? 2 of these unsigned char arrays are really just strings, but for simplicity, I'm treating them as unsigned char arrays.
The requirement is complex: there is a function that will take 1 (one) unsigned char array. That one unsigned char array is really 4 variables concatenated to make up that 1 unsigned char array. To add to the complexity, the first unsigned char array is really just a string of variable length, but its max length is 60 (i.e. sometimes it would have length = 15, other times = 60).
someFunctionAssignsFirst(unsigned char *first)
{
//it could be 15 or 60 chars long.
...
}
unsigned char first[60] = //someFunctionAssignsFirst() //This is a string i.e. "variable size string max size 60"
unsigned char second[8] = "always8."; //This is a string i.e. "01234567"
unsigned char third[32] = "always32"; //This is a cryptographic key
unsigned char fourth[32] = "always32"; //This is a cryptographic key
How would I go about getting:
unsigned char allstrings[sizeof(first)+sizeof(second)+sizeof(third)+sizeof(fourth)] = //all strings combined
?
I attempted some for loops, but the variable length first is disrupting the concatenation, and I'm sure there has to be a better way.
Full Disclosure: I'm not an expert, and I don't necessarily love C. Also for the requirement, not allowed C++ or any other language.
This is what I was trying to do, and (for clarification) I don't get a null character at the end so it's not really a string.
unsigned char *first = "this is a sample string, human readable";
unsigned char *second = "12345678" //always a number
//unsigned char third -> I have the value from before and it's a key
//unsigned char fourth -> I have the value from before and it's a key
unsigned char allstrings[sizeof(first) + sizeof(second) + sizeof(third) + sizeof(fourth)];
int counter = 0;
for (int i = 0; i <= sizeof(first); i++)
{
allstrings[counter] = first[i];
counter++;
}
for (int i = 0; i <= sizeof(second); i++)
{
allstrings[counter] = second[i];
counter++;
}
for (int i = 0; i <= sizeof(third); i++)
{
allstrings[counter] = third[i];
counter++;
}
for (int i = 0; i <= sizeof(fourth); i++)
{
allstrings[counter] = fourth[i];
counter++;
}
The allstrings variable, doesn't get anything beyond "readable" in my example above.
You need to use strcpy to copy over the first part, which is a string, then use memcpy to copy over the other 3, which are not strings but char arrays.
Note that the result is not a string but a char array, i.e. it is not null terminated.
unsigned char allstrings[strlen(first)+sizeof(second)+sizeof(third)+sizeof(fourth)];
strcpy(allstrings,first);
memcpy(allstrings+strlen(first),second,sizeof(second));
memcpy(allstrings+strlen(first)+sizeof(second),third,sizeof(third));
memcpy(allstrings+strlen(first)+sizeof(second)+sizeof(third),fourth,sizeof(fourth));
I guess you want to treat the array as buffer.
So it's fine to have the declarations,
but you don't need to define the content for this moment:
unsigned char first[60];
unsigned char second[8];
unsigned char third[32];
unsigned char fourth[32];
#define ALLSTRLEN sizeof(first) + sizeof(second) + sizeof(third) + sizeof(fourth)
unsigned char allstrings[ALLSTRLEN];
The code will keep the fixed size of arrays. and please notice that the arrays should be global or static for safety reasons.
Then you can copy the contents to arrays. I just put your code under main() to concatenate these arrays:
int main()
{
strcpy((char *)first, "this is a sample string, human readable");
// do something for second, third, fourth....
//
int counter = 0;
// first array is a normal string, we have to copy null character for it
for (int i = 0; i <= strlen((char *)first)+1; i++)
{
allstrings[counter] = first[i];
counter++;
}
for (int i = 0; i <= sizeof(second); i++)
{
allstrings[counter] = second[i];
counter++;
}
for (int i = 0; i <= sizeof(third); i++)
{
allstrings[counter] = third[i];
counter++;
}
for (int i = 0; i <= sizeof(fourth); i++)
{
allstrings[counter] = fourth[i];
counter++;
}
// allstrings is finished
}
Please notice this example just works in main() function; if you call a function to concatenate four arrays, the compiler has to pass the arrays as pointers, and the sizeof() will be wrong (equal to the pointer's size).
You can test the size by doing this:
printf("sizeof(second)=%d\n", sizeof(second));

how to make two array strings into one array string in C

How do you make 2 array strings into 1 array string, where I can print out all the 52 playing cards?
my code:
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<time.h>
#include<string.h>
int main() {
char deck[52];
char suits[] = {"Hearts","Diamonds","Clubs","Spades"};
char values[]= {"Ace","Two","Three","Four","Five","Six",\
"Seven","Eight","Nine","Ten","Jack",\
"Queen","King"};
int V, S, d = 0;
char string;
for ( S= 0; S <4; S++) {
for (V =0; V< 13; V++) {
string = strcat( values[V], suits[S]);
deck[d] = string;
printf("%s\n", string);//prints out all the 52 playing cards
d++;
}
}
return 0;
}
When I executed the program, the problem comes up which asks me to debug the program or close the program, where I closed the program in the end, which returns nothing. Can you please give me the answer which works?
Check the below code which fixes the issues in your code:
The problem with your code is you try to modify the actual string before printing and because of this there is a modified string in the next iteration. So just copy the values and suits to array and print it out as shown below.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<time.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
int i=0;
char deck[30] = "";
char suits[][30] = {"Hearts","Diamonds","Clubs","Spades"};
char values[][30]= {"Ace","Two","Three","Four","Five","Six",
"Seven","Eight","Nine","Ten","Jack",
"Queen","King"};
int V, S;
for ( S= 0; S <13; S++)
{
for (V =0; V< 4; V++){
memset(deck,0,sizeof(deck));/* Clear the buffer before writing new value*/
strcpy( deck, values[S]);
strcat(deck,suits[V]);
printf("%s\n", deck);//prints out all the 52 playing cards
i++;
}
}
printf("Number of playing cards: %d\n",i);
return 0;
}
strcat() returns a char *, a pointer to a char, not a char.
You are not even required to even consider the return value of strcat() since the destination pointer (first argument) will now contain the concatenated string, assuming enough memory is already allocated.
So here in your code, you are trying to put the concatenated string to values[V] which could fail when memory already allocated to it becomes insufficient.
The best method would be to allocate some memory (as you did with deck[]) and set it all to zeroes. Then keep strcat()ing there.
strcat(deck, values[V]);
strcat(deck, suits[S]);
An alternative to using strcpy and strcat is to use sprintf.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#define NUM_SUITS 4
#define CARDS_PER_SUIT 13
#define TOTAL_CARDS (NUM_SUITS * CARDS_PER_SUIT)
int main()
{
char deck[TOTAL_CARDS][24];
char* suits[NUM_SUITS] = {"Hearts","Diamonds","Clubs","Spades"};
char* values[CARDS_PER_SUIT]= {"Ace","Two","Three","Four","Five","Six",
"Seven","Eight","Nine","Ten","Jack",
"Queen","King"};
int s, c, i;
for(s = 0; s < NUM_SUITS; s++)
{
for(c = 0; c < CARDS_PER_SUIT; c++)
{
sprintf(deck[(s * CARDS_PER_SUIT) + c], "%s of %s", values[c], suits[s]);
}
}
for(i = 0; i < TOTAL_CARDS; i++)
{
printf("%s\n", deck[i]);
}
return 0;
}

How to pack a hexadecimal value in an unsigned char variable in a C program?

I have a hexadecimal value "F69CF355B6231FDBD91EB1E22B61EA1F" in a string and I am using this value in my program by hardcoding the value in an unsigned char variable like this:
unsigned char a[] = { 0xF6 ,0x9C ,0xF3 ,0x55 ,0xB6 ,0x23 ,0x1F ,0xDB ,0xD9 ,0x1E ,0xB1 ,0xE2 ,0x2B ,0x61 ,0xEA ,0x1F};
Is there any function or any other method by which I can take the value from a string and put it into an unsigned variable in the hexadecimal format by packing it?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
int hctoi(const char h){
if(isdigit(h))
return h - '0';
else
return toupper(h) - 'A' + 10;
}
int main(void){
const char cdata[]="F69CF355B6231FDBD91EB1E22B61EA1F";
unsigned char udata[(sizeof(cdata)-1)/2];
const char *p;
unsigned char *up;
for(p=cdata,up=udata;*p;p+=2,++up){
*up = hctoi(p[0])*16 + hctoi(p[1]);
}
{ //check code
int i;
for(i=0;i<sizeof(udata);++i)
printf("%02X", udata[i]);
}
return 0;
}
You can translate a hexadecimal value in a string into a value using sscanf. If you want an array of values, then you could write a function to split up the input string into two character segments and use sscanf to convert each piece. (I haven't done C for an eternity so I don't know if that's a good way to do it.)
If it's for 32 single hex-values (16 bytes, 128bit) only then you might take look at the methods provided by libuuid.
libuuid is part of the e2fsprogs package. Anyhow some linux distros, Debian for example, ship libuuid as a separate package. To use the Debian package for your developement you also need to look here.
Check this answer for doing this stuff in c++ using sscanf().
For c, it would be something like this:
char *str = "F69CF355B6231FDBD91EB1E22B61EA1F";
char substr[3] = "__";
unsigned char *a = NULL;
len = strlen(str);
a = malloc(sizeof(unsigned char)*(len/2)+1);
for ( i = 0; i < len/2; i++) {
substr[0] = str[i*2];
substr[1] = str[i*2 + 1];
sscanf( substr, "%hx", &a[i] );
}
free(a);
Introduce auxiliary functions data_length and data_get to easily iterate over your data. The following program dumps unpacked unsigned chars on stdout, one per line:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <string.h>
/* htoi(H)
Return the value associated to the hexadecimal digit H. */
int
htoi(char h)
{
int a = -1;
if(isdigit(h))
{
a = h - '0';
}
else
{
a = toupper(h) - 'A' + 10;
}
return a;
}
/* data_length(D)
The length of the data stored at D. */
int
data_length(const char* d)
{
return strlen(d) / 2;
}
/* data_get(D, K)
Return the K-th unsigned char located encoded in d. */
unsigned char
data_get(const char *d, int k)
{
return htoi(d[2*k]) * 0x10 +
htoi((d+1)[2*k]);
}
int
main()
{
const char cdata[]="F69CF355B6231FDBD91EB1E22B61EA1F";
for(int i = 0; i < data_length(cdata); ++i)
{
printf("0x%02hhx\n", data_get(cdata, i));
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

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