garbage output after whitespace removing - c

Question

i've this code:
int i =0;
char * str = "ar bitrary whitespace";
int whitespace=0,index;
for(index = 0;index < strlen(str);index++)
{
if(isspace(str[index]) != 0)
{
whitespace++;
}
}
char * tmp = (char *)calloc(strlen(str)-whitespace +1,sizeof(char));
memset(tmp,'\0',strlen(tmp)+1);
while(i < strlen(str))
{
if(isspace(str[i]) != 0)
{
i++;
continue;
}else if(isspace(str[i]) == 0)
{
strcat(tmp,&str[i]);
i++;
}
}
printf("\nnew string is: %s \n",tmp);
the problem is that the output is a string without the whitespace removed + some garbage character.
I've used memset to null terminate tmp,is there the problem?

Answer 1

The length of the source string could be calculated before this loop
for(index = 0;index < strlen(str);index++)
Otherwise if the code will not be optimized the function strlen will be called for each iteration of the loop. In fact using of the function is redundant for such a task.
This statement
memset(tmp,'\0',strlen(tmp)+1);
does not make sense because the call of calloc already initialized the memory with zeroes.
This statement
strcat(tmp,&str[i]);
also copies blanks from the source string after the position i. So it can write beyond the memory allocated for the array pointed to by the pointer tmp.
You can write a separate function that can look as it is shown in this demonstrative program
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
char * remove_blanks( const char *s )
{
size_t n = 0;
const char *p = s;
do
{
if ( !isspace( ( unsigned char )*p ) ) ++n;
} while ( *p++ );
char *t = malloc( n );
if ( t )
{
char *q = t;
p = s;
do
{
if ( !isspace( ( unsigned char )*p ) ) *q++ = *p;
} while ( *p++ );
}
return t;
}
int main(void)
{
char * str = "ar bitrary whitespace";
printf( "\"%s\"\n", str );
char *t = remove_blanks( str );
printf( "\"%s\"\n", t );
free( t );
}
The program output is
"ar bitrary whitespace"
"arbitrarywhitespace"

Answer 2

this is your problem
memset(tmp,'\0',strlen(tmp)+1);
strlen(tmp) works by looking for '\0' in tmp, you have a chicken and egg situation here.
You should not be doing a memset any way, just tack on a '\0' when you fnish copying
And dont use strcat, instead maintain a pointer to tmp and just do *p = str[i] then increment p

Answer 3

I will not read your question, you overwrite the '\0' terminator for sure.
Now that I read your question, it looks like you need to understand strings and arrays better,
Don't ever write while (i < strlen(str))
Don't use strcat() for adding a single character, you apparently did overwrite the '\0' there. Furthermore, don't ever use strcat() for concatenating more than to pieces of a string.
Also notable,
You memset() after calloc() which already initialized to 0. That means that you are enforcing something that is not necessary, and trying it twice as if it failed the first time which I can guarantee it didn't.
In fact, since you have used calloc() and all bytes pointed to by tmp are 0 then strlen(tmp) will return 0, thus your memset() is equivalent to
tmp[0] = '\0';
and you REALLY don't need initialize tmp except when you finally copy the actual bytes from str.
I always advice against calloc() for strings, because
You don't really need to initialize something twice.
You should be sure your code does take the terminating '\0' into account and not simply assume that it's there because you calloc()ed. That is a bug that you just hide with calloc() but it shows up at some point.
Try this and see if you can understand the reasons for my changes
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
int whitespace;
int length;
char *str = "ar bitrary whitespace";
char *tmp;
whitespace = 0;
for (length = 0; str[length] != '\0'; ++length) {
if (isspace(str[length]) != 0) {
whitespace++;
}
}
tmp = malloc(length - whitespace + 1);
if (tmp == NULL)
return -1;
for (int i = 0, j = 0; str[i] != '\0'; ++i) {
if (isspace(str[i]) != 0)
continue;
tmp[j++] = str[i];
}
tmp[length - whitespace] = '\0';
printf("new string is: %s\n",tmp);
free(tmp);
return 0;
}