why i have exc_bad_access doing cast? - c

Question

i am programming in C and i have a problem while casting an int into a char.
I am using my mac with Xcode to program c.
The code is:
int main(){
int t = 2;
printf("test %s\n", (char)t); //EXC_BAD_ACCESS
return 0;
}
I tried all I found in many post, I really don't know what is going on... any suggestion?

Answer 1

Please include the goal of your code in your question not in a comment below.
If you want the output
test 2
your have to change %s to %d
printf("test %d\n", t);
I guess you got the wrong idea about the %s. It does not tell the printf that you want to have the int as string, it does tell printf that the parameter is a string! It is obviously not, so you got the exception.
if you use %c you tell the printf function that you want to output your number as character from your current ASCII table. For example 65 is 'A'.
If you have a concatenation situation like
strcpy(str_buscar, "controlID='");
strcat(str_buscar, (char) t);
strcat(str_buscar, "'");
you need itoa instead of the cast:
strcat(str_buscar, (char) t);
you need the follow:
char buffer[32]; // enough space for a "number as string"
itoa(t,buffer,10);
strcat(str_buscar, buffer);
a (IMHO) shortcut is to "print" to a buffer with sprintf
sprintf(str_buscar,"controlID='%d'",t);
instead of printing to a console sprintf prints into the given buffer. Make shure that your buffer str_buscar is big enough.

Answer 2

The %s format specifier represents a string, not an individual character. Printf thinks that the number 2 you're passing it is a string's address. It tries to access the memory address 2 and fails, because that address doesn't exist.
If you want to print a character, you'll want the %c specifier. This tells printf to print the character whose ASCII code is 2. The ASCII character number 2 is, according to the ASCII table, a control character that cannot be printed, which is why you're getting strange output.
If you actually want to print the character '2' (which has a different code, 50), you will want to use something like:
printf("test: %c", (char)('0' + c));
This example leverages the fact that all ASCII characters have consecutive codes, starting with 48 ('0'). This way, if you wanted to print the digit 0, you'd end up printing the '0' character (ASCII code 48 = 48 + 0). If you want to print the digit 2, you'll end up printing the '2' character (50 = 48 + 2).
This way, however, is a bit clunky and fails when encountering numbers larger than 9 (i.e. it only works with digits). The easier way consists of no longer working with characters at all and, instead, using the '%d' specifier (used for printing whole number):
int t = 0;
printf("test: %d", t);