Outputting a string from a structure - c

Question

I am trying to create a program that takes input from a file, puts each word into a "words" structure, and then outputs the results with the frequency of each word, but whenever I try to output the string it just prints something like ?k#?? where I would expect the string to be.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
typedef struct s_words {
char *str; //stores the word; no pre-determined size
int count;
struct s_words* next;
} words;
words* create_words(char* word) {
//allocate space for the structure
words* newWord = malloc(strlen(word));
if (NULL != newWord){
//allocate space for storing the new word in "str"
//if str was array of fixed size, storage wud be wasted
newWord->str = (char *)malloc(strlen(word));
strcpy(newWord->str,word); //copy “word” into newWord->str
newWord->str[strlen(word)]='\0';
newWord->count = 1; //initialize count to 1;
newWord->next = NULL; //initialize next;
}
return newWord;
}
//If the word is in the list, add 1 to count.
words* add_word(words* wordList, char* word) {
int found=0;
words *temp=wordList;
// search if word exists in the list; if so, make found=1
while (temp!=NULL) {
// printf("looptest\n");
if (strcmp(word,temp->str) == 0) { //use strcmp command
//printf("looptest0\n");
found=1;
temp->count = temp->count + 1; //increment count;
return wordList;
//printf("looptest1\n");
}
else {
temp = temp -> next; //update temp
// printf("looptest2\n");
}
}
// printf("looptest3\n");
//new word
words* newWord = create_words(word);
// printf("looptest4\n");
if (NULL != newWord) {
// printf("looptest5\n");
newWord->next = wordList;
wordList = newWord;
//Insert new word at the head of the list
}
else{
// printf("looptest6\n");
temp = wordList;
while(temp->next != NULL){
// printf("looptest7\n");
temp = temp->next;
}
temp->next = newWord;
}
return newWord;
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
words *mywords; //head of linked list containing words
mywords=NULL;
FILE *myFile;
myFile = fopen(argv[1],"r"); //first parameter is input file
if (myFile==0) {
printf("file not opened\n");
return 1;
}
else {
printf("file opened\n");
}
//start reading file character by character;
//when word has been detected; call the add_word function
int ch, word = 0, k=0;
char thisword[100];
while ( (ch = fgetc(myFile)) != EOF )
{
// printf("%c",ch);
if (ch==' ' || ch==',' || ch==';' || ch==':' || ch == '.') //detect new word? Check if ch is a delimiter
{
// printf("\ncheck2\n");
if ( word ) //make sure previous character was not delimiter
{
// printf("check\n");
word = 0;
thisword[k] = '\0'; //make the kth character of thisword as \0
// printf("test2\n");
//now call add_word to add thisword into the list
mywords = add_word(mywords,thisword);
// printf("check3\n");
k=0;
}
// printf("test\n");
}
else
{
word = 1;
thisword[k] = ch; //make the kth character of thisword equal to ch
k++;
}
if(ch == EOF){
thisword[k] = '\0';
mywords = add_word(mywords,thisword);
}
}
printf("%s\n",mywords->str);
printf("printing list\n");
//Traverse list and print each word and its count to outputfile
//output file is second parameter being passed
//haven't started to deal with the output file
words* temp = mywords;
while(temp != NULL){
printf("%s\tcount: %i\n",temp->str,temp->count);
temp = temp->next;
}
printf("list complete\n");
return 0;
}
This is all my code, I can't figure out how to error test what the problem is since I can't figure out how to output the strings. I've only started programming in C this year so I assume there's something basic I'm missing.

Answer 1

newWord->str = (char *)malloc(strlen(word));
strcpy(newWord->str,word); //copy “word” into newWord->str
newWord->str[strlen(word)]='\0';
.. writes the null out-of-bounds.
Assuming that strlen() returns the desired value, you should malloc an extra char:
newWord->str = (char *)malloc(1+strlen(word));
Note Olaf comment re. casting in C. Also note that it's unlikely that this is your ONLY bug.