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I am new to C and still trying to figure out pointer.
So here is a task I am stuck in: I would like to assign 10 fruit names to a pointer of array and print them out one by one. Below is my code;
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char *arr_of_ptrs[10];
char buffer[20];
int i;
for (i=0;i<10;i++){
printf("Please type in a fruit name:");
fgets(buffer,20,stdin);
arr_of_ptrs[i]= *buffer;
}
int j;
for (j=0;j<10;j++){
printf("%s",*(arr_of_ptrs+j));
}
}
However after execution this, it only shows me the last result for all 10 responses. I tried to consult similar questions others asked but no luck.
My understanding is that
1) pointer of array has been allocated memory with [10] so malloc() is not needed.
2) buffer stores the pointer to each individual answer therefore I dereference it and assign it to the arr_of_ptrs[i]
I am unsure if arr_of_ptrs[i] gets me a pointer or a value. I thought it is definitely a pointer but I deference it with * the code and assign it to *buffer, program would get stuck.
If someone could point out my problem that would be great.
Thanks in advance
Three erros, 1. You must allocate memory for elements of elements of arr_of_ptrs, now you only allocate the memory for elements of arr_of_ptrs on stack memory. 2. arr_of_ptrs[i]= *buffer; means all of the arr_of_ptrs elements are pointed to same memory address, which is the "buffer" pointer. So all the elements of arr_of_ptrs will be same to the last stdin input string. 3. subsequent fgets() call has potential problem, one of the explaination could be here
A quick fix could be,
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
const int ARR_SIZE = 10, BUFFER_SIZE = 20;
char arr_of_ptrs[ARR_SIZE][BUFFER_SIZE];
char *pos;
int i, c;
for (i = 0; i < ARR_SIZE; ++i) {
printf ("Please type in a fruit name: ");
if (fgets (arr_of_ptrs[i], BUFFER_SIZE, stdin) == NULL) return -1;
if ((pos = strchr(arr_of_ptrs[i], '\n')))
*pos = 0;
else
while ((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF) {}
}
for (i = 0; i < ARR_SIZE; ++i)
printf("%s\n", arr_of_ptrs[i]);
return 0;
}
The misunderstanding is probably that "Dereferencing" an array of characters, unlike dereferencing a pointer to a primitive data type, does not create a copy of that array. Arrays cannot be copied using assignment operator =; There a separate functions for copying arrays (especially for 0-terminated arrays of char aka c-strings, and for allocating memory needed for the copy):
Compare a pointer to a primitive data type like int:
int x = 10;
int *ptr_x = &x;
int copy_of_x = *ptr_x; // dereferences a pointer to x, yielding the integer value 10
However:
char x[20] = "some text"; // array of characters, not a single character!
char *ptr_x = &x[0]; // pointer to the first element of x
char copy_of_first_char_of_x = *ptr_x; // copies the 's', not the entire string
Use:
char x[20] = "some text";
char *ptr_x = &x[0];
char *copy_of_x = malloc(strlen(ptr_x)+1); // allocate memory large enough to store the copy
strcpy(copy_of_x,ptr_x); // copy the string.
printf("%s",copy_of_x);
Output:
some text
I have been looking on internet for this and so far i just found a lot of questions for specific answer and not a general one.
i am kind of rusty on C. And i want to make a function that will return an array of char.
this is what i got and is not working. basically a way to convert a byte array to an array of chars to do atoi later..
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
char *get_char(int my_byte[], int packetsize)
{
char *array_char=(char *) malloc(sizeof(char)*10); //trying this but didnt work
// char array_char[10]; //i had it like this before(was told to do it)
for(int i=0;i<10;i++)
{
array_char[i]=my_byte[i]+0;
}
return array_char;
}
int main()
{
int byte_array[]={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0};
char *temp;
char data;
temp=get_char(byte_array,10);
data=*temp;
printf("String point %s ",data);
}
Two fixes:
As you want to convert to char, then
array_char[i]=my_byte[i]+0; should be array_char[i]=my_byte[i]+'0'; Note '0' is character (that will be converted to int) instead of numeric 0 (which doesn't do anything).
Also you must free temp pointer in main as that memory is dynamically allocated in get_char() function.
Edit: just notice another issue in your get_char()
char *array_char=(char *) malloc(sizeof(char)*10);
should be
char *array_char= malloc(sizeof(char)*(packetsize+1));
After the for loop, ensure the buffer is NUL-terminated:
array_char[packetsize] = '\0';
Notice that your packetsize is never used - you should get some compiler warning about it. It's bad to hard code 10 in your malloc - it's actually the whole idea of parsing the packetsize as a parameter - so use it properly.
You need to watch out for these things:
You need to add a null-terminating character at the end of *array_char, otherwise using this pointer allocated from the heap will cause undefined behaviour.
You can simply allocate *array_char like this:
char *array_char = malloc(packetsize+1);
As sizeof(char) is 1, and +1 for trailing nullbyte.
You also don't need to cast return of malloc().
Instead of passing 10 as packetsize to get_char(), you should pass this size as sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0], which is the calculated size of the array. This can be a size_t variable declared somewhere or even a macro.
malloc() needs to be checked, as it can return NULL if unsuccessful.
You need to free() temp at some point in the program.
array_char[i]=my_byte[i]+0; needs to be array_char[i]=my_byte[i]+'0'; instead, as '0' is the ascii code for a zero character.
char data needs to be char *data, as temp is a pointer.
If you compile with -Wall -Wextra, you will see that this line:
data=*temp;
Is dangerous, and will trigger warnings of making pointers from integers without a cast. It will most likely lead to a segmentation fault. If temp and data are both pointers, then you can simply use:
data=temp;
Which sets data to the address of temp. Sometimes this is written as data = &(*temp);, but this is harder to read. Although their is no need for data, and using temp alone should be fine.
Your code can then look like this:
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#define ARRAYSIZE(arr) (sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]))
char *get_char(int my_byte[], size_t packetsize) {
char *array_char = malloc(packetsize+1);
const char ascii = '0';
size_t i;
if (!array_char) {
printf("Cannot allocate %zu bytes\n", packetsize+1);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
for(i = 0; i < packetsize; i++) {
array_char[i] = my_byte[i] + ascii;
}
array_char[i] = '\0'; /* or array_char[packetsize] = '\0' */
return array_char;
}
int main(void) {
int byte_array[]={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0};
char *temp, *data;
temp = get_char(byte_array, ARRAYSIZE(byte_array));
data = temp;
printf("String point %s\n", data);
printf("String converted into number = %d\n", atoi(data));
free(temp);
temp = NULL;
return 0;
}
You can also look into strtol, which is better than using atoi() in terms of error checking.
It is Not Wise Idea to Return a Array From A Function. So how to return a string then? As most of libc functions use we can use some thing like that (i.e) passing a buffer along with our input and expect function to use output buffer to give us result.
Some issue to take care while coding
write your logic first.
try to use available functions from libc.
while dealing with byte data/binary data be take precaution of buffer overflow.
don't allocate in a function and de-allocate in another function.
Below is Example of your code with modification.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>
int get_char(uint8_t my_byte[], int packetsize, char *buffer, int max_buffer)
{
int byte_itr, buf_itr;
char temp_buf[16]={0x00};
for(byte_itr=0, buf_itr=0; byte_itr<packetsize && max_buffer > buf_itr; byte_itr++)
{
memset(temp_buf, 0x00, sizeof(temp_buf));
char temp_ch = my_byte[byte_itr];
snprintf(temp_buf, sizeof(temp_buf), "%d", temp_ch);
if( buf_itr+strlen(temp_buf) >=max_buffer){
break;
}else{
buf_itr += strlen(temp_buf);
strcat(buffer, temp_buf);
if(byte_itr+1 < packetsize){
strcat(buffer, ",");
buf_itr += 1;
}
}
}
return buf_itr;
}
int main()
{
uint8_t byte_array[]={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0};
char char_array[32]={0x00};
int len = get_char(byte_array, 10, char_array, sizeof(char_array));
printf("String point %s : len %d\n", char_array, len);
}
NOTE:
when length return and size of output buffer same then buffer full condition happened.
I know how to create an array of structs but with a predefined size. However is there a way to create a dynamic array of structs such that the array could get bigger?
For example:
typedef struct
{
char *str;
} words;
main()
{
words x[100]; // I do not want to use this, I want to dynamic increase the size of the array as data comes in.
}
Is this possible?
I've researched this: words* array = (words*)malloc(sizeof(words) * 100);
I want to get rid of the 100 and store the data as it comes in. Thus if 76 fields of data comes in, I want to store 76 and not 100. I'm assuming that I don't know how much data is coming into my program. In the struct I defined above I could create the first "index" as:
words* array = (words*)malloc(sizeof(words));
However I want to dynamically add elements to the array after. I hope I described the problem area clearly enough. The major challenge is to dynamically add a second field, at least that is the challenge for the moment.
I've made a little progress however:
typedef struct {
char *str;
} words;
// Allocate first string.
words x = (words) malloc(sizeof(words));
x[0].str = "john";
// Allocate second string.
x=(words*) realloc(x, sizeof(words));
x[1].FirstName = "bob";
// printf second string.
printf("%s", x[1].str); --> This is working, it's printing out bob.
free(x); // Free up memory.
printf("%s", x[1].str); --> Not working since its still printing out BOB even though I freed up memory. What is wrong?
I did some error checking and this is what I found. If after I free up memory for x I add the following:
x=NULL;
then if I try to print x I get an error which is what I want. So is it that the free function is not working, at least on my compiler? I'm using DevC??
Thanks, I understand now due to:
FirstName is a pointer to an array of char which is not being allocated by the malloc, only the pointer is being allocated and after you call free, it doesn't erase the memory, it just marks it as available on the heap to be over written later. – MattSmith
Update
I'm trying to modularize and put the creation of my array of structs in a function but nothing seems to work. I'm trying something very simple and I don't know what else to do. It's along the same lines as before, just another function, loaddata that is loading the data and outside the method I need to do some printing. How can I make it work? My code is as follows:
# include <stdio.h>
# include <stdlib.h>
# include <string.h>
# include <ctype.h>
typedef struct
{
char *str1;
char *str2;
} words;
void LoadData(words *, int *);
main()
{
words *x;
int num;
LoadData(&x, &num);
printf("%s %s", x[0].str1, x[0].str2);
printf("%s %s", x[1].str1, x[1].str2);
getch();
}//
void LoadData(words *x, int * num)
{
x = (words*) malloc(sizeof(words));
x[0].str1 = "johnnie\0";
x[0].str2 = "krapson\0";
x = (words*) realloc(x, sizeof(words)*2);
x[1].str1 = "bob\0";
x[1].str2 = "marley\0";
*num=*num+1;
}//
This simple test code is crashing and I have no idea why. Where is the bug?
You've tagged this as C++ as well as C.
If you're using C++ things are a lot easier. The standard template library has a template called vector which allows you to dynamically build up a list of objects.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <vector>
typedef std::vector<char*> words;
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
words myWords;
myWords.push_back("Hello");
myWords.push_back("World");
words::iterator iter;
for (iter = myWords.begin(); iter != myWords.end(); ++iter) {
printf("%s ", *iter);
}
return 0;
}
If you're using C things are a lot harder, yes malloc, realloc and free are the tools to help you. You might want to consider using a linked list data structure instead. These are generally easier to grow but don't facilitate random access as easily.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
typedef struct s_words {
char* str;
struct s_words* next;
} words;
words* create_words(char* word) {
words* newWords = malloc(sizeof(words));
if (NULL != newWords){
newWords->str = word;
newWords->next = NULL;
}
return newWords;
}
void delete_words(words* oldWords) {
if (NULL != oldWords->next) {
delete_words(oldWords->next);
}
free(oldWords);
}
words* add_word(words* wordList, char* word) {
words* newWords = create_words(word);
if (NULL != newWords) {
newWords->next = wordList;
}
return newWords;
}
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
words* myWords = create_words("Hello");
myWords = add_word(myWords, "World");
words* iter;
for (iter = myWords; NULL != iter; iter = iter->next) {
printf("%s ", iter->str);
}
delete_words(myWords);
return 0;
}
Yikes, sorry for the worlds longest answer. So WRT to the "don't want to use a linked list comment":
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
typedef struct {
char** words;
size_t nWords;
size_t size;
size_t block_size;
} word_list;
word_list* create_word_list(size_t block_size) {
word_list* pWordList = malloc(sizeof(word_list));
if (NULL != pWordList) {
pWordList->nWords = 0;
pWordList->size = block_size;
pWordList->block_size = block_size;
pWordList->words = malloc(sizeof(char*)*block_size);
if (NULL == pWordList->words) {
free(pWordList);
return NULL;
}
}
return pWordList;
}
void delete_word_list(word_list* pWordList) {
free(pWordList->words);
free(pWordList);
}
int add_word_to_word_list(word_list* pWordList, char* word) {
size_t nWords = pWordList->nWords;
if (nWords >= pWordList->size) {
size_t newSize = pWordList->size + pWordList->block_size;
void* newWords = realloc(pWordList->words, sizeof(char*)*newSize);
if (NULL == newWords) {
return 0;
} else {
pWordList->size = newSize;
pWordList->words = (char**)newWords;
}
}
pWordList->words[nWords] = word;
++pWordList->nWords;
return 1;
}
char** word_list_start(word_list* pWordList) {
return pWordList->words;
}
char** word_list_end(word_list* pWordList) {
return &pWordList->words[pWordList->nWords];
}
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
word_list* myWords = create_word_list(2);
add_word_to_word_list(myWords, "Hello");
add_word_to_word_list(myWords, "World");
add_word_to_word_list(myWords, "Goodbye");
char** iter;
for (iter = word_list_start(myWords); iter != word_list_end(myWords); ++iter) {
printf("%s ", *iter);
}
delete_word_list(myWords);
return 0;
}
If you want to dynamically allocate arrays, you can use malloc from stdlib.h.
If you want to allocate an array of 100 elements using your words struct, try the following:
words* array = (words*)malloc(sizeof(words) * 100);
The size of the memory that you want to allocate is passed into malloc and then it will return a pointer of type void (void*). In most cases you'll probably want to cast it to the pointer type you desire, which in this case is words*.
The sizeof keyword is used here to find out the size of the words struct, then that size is multiplied by the number of elements you want to allocate.
Once you are done, be sure to use free() to free up the heap memory you used in order to prevent memory leaks:
free(array);
If you want to change the size of the allocated array, you can try to use realloc as others have mentioned, but keep in mind that if you do many reallocs you may end up fragmenting the memory. If you want to dynamically resize the array in order to keep a low memory footprint for your program, it may be better to not do too many reallocs.
This looks like an academic exercise which unfortunately makes it harder since you can't use C++. Basically you have to manage some of the overhead for the allocation and keep track how much memory has been allocated if you need to resize it later. This is where the C++ standard library shines.
For your example, the following code allocates the memory and later resizes it:
// initial size
int count = 100;
words *testWords = (words*) malloc(count * sizeof(words));
// resize the array
count = 76;
testWords = (words*) realloc(testWords, count* sizeof(words));
Keep in mind, in your example you are just allocating a pointer to a char and you still need to allocate the string itself and more importantly to free it at the end. So this code allocates 100 pointers to char and then resizes it to 76, but does not allocate the strings themselves.
I have a suspicion that you actually want to allocate the number of characters in a string which is very similar to the above, but change word to char.
EDIT: Also keep in mind it makes a lot of sense to create functions to perform common tasks and enforce consistency so you don't copy code everywhere. For example, you might have a) allocate the struct, b) assign values to the struct, and c) free the struct. So you might have:
// Allocate a words struct
words* CreateWords(int size);
// Assign a value
void AssignWord(word* dest, char* str);
// Clear a words structs (and possibly internal storage)
void FreeWords(words* w);
EDIT: As far as resizing the structs, it is identical to resizing the char array. However the difference is if you make the struct array bigger, you should probably initialize the new array items to NULL. Likewise, if you make the struct array smaller, you need to cleanup before removing the items -- that is free items that have been allocated (and only the allocated items) before you resize the struct array. This is the primary reason I suggested creating helper functions to help manage this.
// Resize words (must know original and new size if shrinking
// if you need to free internal storage first)
void ResizeWords(words* w, size_t oldsize, size_t newsize);
In C++, use a vector. It's like an array but you can easily add and remove elements and it will take care of allocating and deallocating memory for you.
I know the title of the question says C, but you tagged your question with C and C++...
Another option for you is a linked list. You'll need to analyze how your program will use the data structure, if you don't need random access it could be faster than reallocating.
Your code in the last update should not compile, much less run. You're passing &x to LoadData. &x has the type of **words, but LoadData expects words* . Of course it crashes when you call realloc on a pointer that's pointing into stack.
The way to fix it is to change LoadData to accept words** . Thi sway, you can actually modify the pointer in main(). For example, realloc call would look like
*x = (words*) realloc(*x, sizeof(words)*2);
It's the same principlae as in "num" being int* rather than int.
Besides this, you need to really figure out how the strings in words ere stored. Assigning a const string to char * (as in str2 = "marley\0") is permitted, but it's rarely the right solution, even in C.
Another point: non need to have "marley\0" unless you really need two 0s at the end of string. Compiler adds 0 tho the end of every string literal.
For the test code: if you want to modify a pointer in a function, you should pass a "pointer to pointer" to the function. Corrected code is as follows:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ctype.h>
typedef struct
{
char *str1;
char *str2;
} words;
void LoadData(words**, int*);
main()
{
words **x;
int num;
LoadData(x, &num);
printf("%s %s\n", (*x[0]).str1, (*x[0]).str2);
printf("%s %s\n", (*x[1]).str1, (*x[1]).str2);
}
void LoadData(words **x, int *num)
{
*x = (words*) malloc(sizeof(words));
(*x[0]).str1 = "johnnie\0";
(*x[0]).str2 = "krapson\0";
*x = (words*) realloc(*x, sizeof(words) * 2);
(*x[1]).str1 = "bob\0";
(*x[1]).str2 = "marley\0";
*num = *num + 1;
}
Every coder need to simplify their code to make it easily understood....even for beginners.
So array of structures using dynamically is easy, if you understand the concepts.
// Dynamically sized array of structures
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
struct book
{
char name[20];
int p;
}; //Declaring book structure
int main ()
{
int n, i;
struct book *b; // Initializing pointer to a structure
scanf ("%d\n", &n);
b = (struct book *) calloc (n, sizeof (struct book)); //Creating memory for array of structures dynamically
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
scanf ("%s %d\n", (b + i)->name, &(b + i)->p); //Getting values for array of structures (no error check)
}
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
printf ("%s %d\t", (b + i)->name, (b + i)->p); //Printing values in array of structures
}
scanf ("%d\n", &n); //Get array size to re-allocate
b = (struct book *) realloc (b, n * sizeof (struct book)); //change the size of an array using realloc function
printf ("\n");
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
printf ("%s %d\t", (b + i)->name, (b + i)->p); //Printing values in array of structures
}
return 0;
}
If you want to grow the array dynamically, you should use malloc() to dynamically allocate some fixed amount of memory, and then use realloc() whenever you run out. A common technique is to use an exponential growth function such that you allocate some small fixed amount and then make the array grow by duplicating the allocated amount.
Some example code would be:
size = 64; i = 0;
x = malloc(sizeof(words)*size); /* enough space for 64 words */
while (read_words()) {
if (++i > size) {
size *= 2;
x = realloc(sizeof(words) * size);
}
}
/* done with x */
free(x);
Here is how I would do it in C++
size_t size = 500;
char* dynamicAllocatedString = new char[ size ];
Use same principal for any struct or c++ class.
I have the following C code which works:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <malloc.h>
int pw = sizeof(char*); // width of pointer (to char)
int num;
int first = 1;
int size = 0;
int incr = 10;
char *(*arr)[]; // pointer to array of pointers to char */
test(char* s, int i)
{
int j;
char *(*newarr)[]; // pointer to array of pointers to char
if (first) { // first time
arr = malloc(pw*incr); // malloc array
first = 0; // skip from now on
size = incr; // save the size
}
if (i >= size) { // out of space
newarr = malloc(pw*(size+incr)); // get incr bigger space
for (j=0; j<size; j++) // copy the elements from the old
(*newarr)[j] = (*arr)[j]; // array to new array
free(arr); // free the old array space
arr = newarr; // point old array to new array
size = size+incr;
};
int len = strlen(s); // length of s
(*arr)[i] = malloc(len+1); // assign pointer to pointer array element
strcpy((*arr)[i], s); // copy s to array
// both arguments must be pointers
printf("%d\t%s\n", i, (*arr)[i]);
};
main()
{
char* s = "this is a string";
for (num=0; num<30; num++) // add 30 pointers to s to *arr
test(s, num);
for (num=0; num<30; num++)
printf("%d\t%s\n", num, (*arr)[num]); // print out what they point to
};
It prints out 'i\tthis is a string' for 'i' from 0 to 29 twice. What I want to do is pass 'arr' from the top of the file as an argument of 'test'. The reason I want to do that is because I want to pass several different arrays all of which are declared the same way. If I make the minimal changes to do that I get:
0 this is a string
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Here is the output of the diff command which shows the minimal changes:
13c13
< char *(*arr)[]; // pointer to array of pointers to char */
---
> char *(*jarr)[]; // pointer to array of pointers to char */
15c15
< test(char* s, int i)
---
> test(char* s, int i, char *(*arr)[])
52c52
< test(s, num);
---
> test(s, num, jarr);
54,55d53
< for (num=0; num<30; num++)
< printf("%d\t%s\n", num, (*arr)[num]); // print out what they point to
In other words everything is the same except for renaming 'arr' as 'jarr' and passing it to 'test'.
Thanks in advance,
Mike
The trouble occurs when you call:
test(s, num, jarr);
You are passing jarr by value. Inside the function, you are reallocating (the hard way — why not use realloc() which does the copying for you?) the array, but that change does not affect the value of jarr 'in main()' because it was passed by value. The second time through the loop, you are still passing a null pointer to the function, but you are then dereferencing that null pointer, which is bad news.
How to fix?
Fair question...I'm not sure if the old "well, if I want to get to there, I wouldn't start from here" gag passes muster.
The 'simplest' change is to revise the call:
jarr = test(s, num, jarr);
and then 'just' revise the function so that it returns a pointer to an array of character pointers. That is a very esoteric function. My brain's not awake (insufficient caffeine), so I used an intermediate typedef to get around the problem of how to write the function declaration and definition:
typedef char *(ArrayString[]);
ArrayString *test3(char *s, int i, char *(*arr)[]);
ArrayString *test3(char *s, int i, char *(*arr)[]) { (*arr)[i] = s; return arr; }
It compiles without warnings; that isn't a guarantee that it's correct.
The primary alternative is to pass a pointer to a pointer to an array of char pointers to the function, which is even more esoteric.
However, both of these are 'starting from here' solutions. You'd do better, on the whole, to devise a different way of handling things. Pointers to arrays are certainly a part of C, but they are at the outer edges of C and you should generally assume that if your design calls for their use, then your design is probably not the best. You should use a simpler char ** (or, perish the thought, char ***; triple indirection is best avoided too, but that isn't always possible).
You seem to have misunderstood how arrays and pointers works. Lets say you want a dynamic array of strings, that is basically a pointer to a pointer of char:
char **arr = NULL;
To allocate memory for that you do e.g.
arr = malloc(sizeof(char *) * current_size);
Now you have an "array" of character pointers. Lets say you want each of these to be a specific string str:
for (int i = 0; i < current_size; i++)
{
arr[i] = strdup(str);
}
Oh, now you need to increase the number of strings, all initialized to the same string as before:
size_t new_size = current_size + 10;
arr = realloc(arr, sizeof(char *) * new_size);
for (int i = current_size; i < new_size)
{
arr[i] = strdup(str);
}
The problem now is that you want to do all of the above in a separate function. It's first now that you have to add another indirection.
I think you can do a double check on the first malloc value assigned to jarr both in the test(s, 0, jarr) and out of the test(s, 0, jarr); the jarr assignement is not successful since you change the pointer value in the passing by value.
I'm trying to split a string every X amount of characters, and then store each line in an array of structs. However, I'm wondering what would be a short and efficient way of doing it. I thought that maybe I could use sscanf, but not very sure how to. Any help will be appreciated. So far I have:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
struct st {char *str;};
int main ()
{
struct st **mystruct;
char tmp[] = "For configuration options (arch/xxx/config.in, and all the Config.in files),somewhat different indentation is used.";
size_t max = 20, j = 0; // max length of string
size_t alloc = strlen(tmp)/max + 1;
mystruct = malloc(alloc * sizeof *mystruct);
for (j = 0; j < alloc; j++)
mystruct[j] = malloc(sizeof *mystruct[j]);
const char *ptr = tmp;
char field [ max ];
int n;
while (*ptr != '\0') {
int line = sscanf(ptr, "%s", field, &n); // not sure how to use max in here
mystruct[j]->str = field;
field[0]='\0';
if (line == 1)
ptr += n;
if ( n != max )
break;
++ptr;
++j;
}
return 0;
}
So when I iterate over my struct, I can get something like:
For configuration op
tions (arch/xxx/conf
ig.in, and all the C
onfig.in files),some
what different inden
tation is used.
You could use strncpy.
FYI:
char field [ max ];
while (...) {
mystruct[j]->str = field;
Two problems with this: (1) every struct in your array is going to end up pointing at the same string, which will have the value of the last thing you scanned, (2) they are pointing to a variable on the stack, so when this function returns they will be trashed. That doesn't manifest itself visibly here (e.g. your program doesn't explode) because the function happens to be 'main', but if you moved this to a separate routine and called it to parse a string, you'd get back garbage.
mystruct doesn't need to be pointer to pointer. For a 1D array, just allocate a block N * sizeof *myarray for N elements.
A common C idiom when dealing with structs is to use typedef so you don't have to type struct foo all the time. For instance:
typedef struct {
int x, y;
} point;
Now instead of typing struct point pt you can just say point pt.
If your string is not going to change after you split it up, I'd recommend using a struct like this:
struct st {
char *begin;
char *end;
};
or the alternative:
struct st {
char *s;
size_t len;
};
Then instead of creating all those new strings, just mark where each one begins and ends in your struct. Keep the original string in memory.
One option is to do it character-by-character.
Calculate the number of lines as you are currently doing.
Allocate memory = (strlen(tmp) + number_of_lines) * sizeof(char)
Walk through your input string, copying characters from the input to the newly allocated memory. Every 20th character, insert a null byte to delimit that string. Save a pointer to the beginning of each line in your array of structs.
Its easy enough?
#define SMAX 20
typedef struct {char str[SMAX+1];} ST;
int main()
{
ST st[SMAX]={0};
char *tmp = "For configuration options (arch/xxx/config.in, and all the Config.in files),somewhat different indentation is used.";
int i=0,j;
for( ; (st[i++]=*(ST*)tmp).str[SMAX]=0 , strlen(tmp)>=SMAX; tmp+=SMAX );
for( j=0;j<i;++j )
puts(st[j].str);
return 0;
}
You may use (non C standard but GNU) function strndup().
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <string.h>
struct st {char *str;};
int main ()
{
struct st *mystruct; /* i wonder if there's need for double indirection... */
char tmp[] = "For configuration options (arch/xxx/config.in, and all the Config.in files),somewhat different indentation is used.";
size_t max = 20, j = 0; // max length of string
size_t alloc = (strlen(tmp) + max - 1)/max; /* correct round up */
mystruct = malloc(alloc * sizeof mystruct);
if(!mystruct) return 1; /* never forget testing if allocation failed! */
for(j = 0; j<alloc; j++)
{
mystruct[j].str = strndup(tmp+alloc*max, max);
}
}