Binary Tree segmentation fault after implementing search function - c

Question

i am trying to write a program that will do the following
-read a file from std in
-read each line, and add each line to a binary tree
*if name is already in binary tree,dont add the name to the tree again but update its count of repititions
-print out the binary tree
the file being read in looks something like
dylan
bob
dylan
randall
randall
so when i print out the binary tree i would like it to print out
bob 1
dylan 2
randall 2
i was able to successfully print out the names without worrying about repetitions. I have commented out the blocks of code that mess my program up which is anything interacting with my search function that i added after the fact to take care of repetitions. The code builds a binary tree with each "leave" being a structure of 4 parts,the name,thecount,and the pointers to left and right childs.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
struct node {
char* name;
int count;
struct node* left;
struct node* right;
};
struct node* addNode(char* string);
void insert(struct node *root, char* stringgg);
void preorder(struct node *root);
int search(struct node* leaf,char* string2find);
int main()
{
char buffer[20];
struct node *root = NULL;
while( fgets(buffer, sizeof(buffer), stdin) != NULL )
{
if(root == NULL)
root = addNode(buffer);
else
insert(root,buffer);
}
preorder(root);
}
struct node* addNode(char* string)
{
struct node *temp = malloc(sizeof(struct node));
temp->name = malloc(strlen(string) + 1);
strcpy(temp->name,string);
temp->left = NULL;
temp->right = NULL;
return temp;
}
void insert(struct node *root, char* stringgg)
{
/* int flag = 5;
flag = search(root,stringgg);
if(flag == 1)
return; */
if(strcmp(stringgg,root->name) < 0)
{
if(root->left == NULL)
root->left = addNode(stringgg);
else
insert(root->left, stringgg);
}
else
{
if(root->right == NULL)
root->right = addNode(stringgg);
else
insert(root->right,stringgg);
}
}
/*int search(struct node* leaf,char* string2find)
{
if(strcmp(string2find,leaf->name) == 0)
{
leaf->count = leaf->count + 1;
return 1;
}
else if(strcmp(string2find,leaf->name) < 0)
{
return search(leaf->left,string2find);
}
else
{
return search(leaf->right,string2find);
}
return 0;
} */
void preorder(struct node *root)
{
if(root == NULL)
return;
printf("%s",root->name);
preorder(root->left);
preorder(root->right);
}
the above code prints out all the names even if there already in a tree. I was hoping that someone would be able to point out my search function errors so that it wont cause a segmentation fault when printing. Possible causes may be my inappropriate use of the return function in which i am trying to return to main if flag == 1 which means match was found so dont addnodes. but if flag does not equal 1 no match was found so go about adding nodes.

Answer 1

at main
while( fgets(buffer, sizeof(buffer), stdin) != NULL ){
char *p = strchr(buffer, '\n');
if(p) *p=0;//remove '\n'
at addNode
temp->count = 1;//initialize counter
return temp;
at insert
void insert(struct node *root, char* stringgg){
int cmp_stat = strcmp(stringgg,root->name);
if(cmp_stat == 0)
root->count++;
else if(cmp_stat < 0) {
if(root->left == NULL)
root->left = addNode(stringgg);
else
insert(root->left, stringgg);
} else {
if(root->right == NULL)
root->right = addNode(stringgg);
else
insert(root->right,stringgg);
}
}
at preorder
printf("%s %d\n",root->name, root->count);

Answer 2

The error is in searching for the very first item in the empty tree — you call
search(root, stringgg)
but root is NULL, so in search() you call
strcmp(string2find, leaf->name)
with leaf == NULL and the program crashes.
A cure: do not search BEFORE you update your tree, but rather search TO update it.
struct node* update(struct node* nd, const char* str)
{
int cmp;
// (sub)tree is empty? - create a new node with cnt==1
if(nd == NULL)
return CreateNode(str);
// test if the node found
cmp = strcmp(str, nd->name);
if(cmp == 0) // YES
nd->count ++; // update the counter
else if(cmp < 0) // NO - search in a subtree
nd->left = update(nd->left, str);
else
nd->right = update(nd->right, str);
return nd; // return the updated subtree
}
Then in main() you just update the tree and store it:
root = update(root, buffer);
Actually, the root value will change only once, on the first call, and all subsequent assignments will not change its value. However that makes the code much more readable.