Why isn't this function(char*) pass by ref? - c

Question

Here's my code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
void set(char* str){
str = malloc(10);
strcpy(str, "dog");
printf("\nstr = %s", str);
}
int main(){
char* s;
set(s);
printf("\n%s", s);
return 0;
}
Here's what I want to print out:
str = dog
dog
Here's what actuall gets printed out:
str = dog
(null)
Why is this? What I think I'm doing is passing an uninitalized pointer that then gets assigned a block of memory in set(), which then gets "dog" written into. What's actually going on?

Answer 1

There is no pass-by-reference in C. But pointers and indirection gives a facility to mimic that indirectly.
In your case, what is sent from main() to set() is the address in variable 's'. It
will have that value till malloc() statement executes. After that, str will have whatever address is returned by malloc().
When the same thing is expected in main, what should have been passed is the address
of 's' rather than what address it holds (like some of the examples above).

Answer 2

C is a pass-by-value language. There is no way to pass something by reference except explicitly. For your case that means expecting a pointer-to-a-pointer:
void set(char **str)
{
*str = malloc(10);
strcpy(*str, "dog");
printf("str = %s\n", *str);
}
And calling with the address of the pointer you want to 'fill in':
int main(void)
{
char *s;
set(&s);
printf("%s\n", s);
return 0;
}

Answer 3

Why isn't this function(char*) pass by ref?
C doesn’t have pass-by-reference. Everything is pass-by-value – it’s just that some values are also pointers to other values. Your uninitialized variable s is read when you call set(s) (which is undefined behaviour) in order to provide a value for its parameter str, then str = malloc(10) throws that value away to assign a new value to the local str.
You can pass a pointer to the pointer:
void set(char** str){
*str = malloc(10);
strcpy(*str, "dog");
printf("\nstr = %s", *str);
}
int main(){
char* s;
set(&s);
printf("\n%s", s);
return 0;
}
or return a pointer:
char* set(void) {
char* str = malloc(10);
strcpy(str, "dog");
printf("\nstr = %s", str);
return str;
}
int main(){
char* s = set();
printf("\n%s", s);
return 0;
}

Answer 4

You are passing an unasigned pointer to your set function, here a copy of the pointer is made and you use malloc on that copy. The original pointer in main is never updated with the new memory address.
To achieve what you want could be done this way:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
void set(char** str){
*str = malloc(10);
strcpy(*str, "dog");
printf("\nstr = %s", *str);
}
int main(){
char* s;
set(&s);
printf("\n%s", s);
return 0;
}
I used a pointer to a pointer in set, and pass the memory address of the pointer s to it.