All Nodes in a linked list point to same object - c

Question

The problem is somewhere in here....
char buffer[80];
char *name;
while (1) {
fgets(buffer, 80, inf); //reads in at most 80 char from a line
if (feof(inf)) //this checks to see if the special EOF was read
break; //if so, break out of while and continue with your main
name = (char *) malloc(sizeof(char)*20);
....
name = strtok(buffer, " ");//get first token up to space
stock = newStock(name,...)
....
}
I'm working in C with generic linked lists. I made a list implementation that I've tested and know works with chars. I'm trying to add stocks (I created a stock struct) to the linked list, with each node of the linked list holding a stock struct, but when I finish reading in the stocks all of the nodes point to the same struct and I can't figure out why. Here's some snippets of my code
list *list = malloc(sizeof(list));
newList(list, sizeof(stock_t));
while(1) {
...
(read from file)
...
stock_t *stock;
stock = newStock(name, closes, opens, numshares, getPriceF, getTotalDollarAmountF,getPercentChangeF,toStringF);
addToBack(list, stock);
}
Here's the newStock function:
stock_t *newStock(char *name, float closingSharePrice, float openingSharePrice, int numberOfShares, getPrice getP, getTotalDollarAmount getTotal, getPercentChange getPercent, toString toStr) {
stock_t *stock = malloc(sizeof(stock));
stock->stockSymbol = name;
stock->closingSharePrice = closingSharePrice;
stock->openingSharePrice = openingSharePrice;
stock->numberOfShares = numberOfShares;
stock->getP = getP;
stock->getTotal = getTotal;
stock->getPercent = getPercent;
stock->toStr = toStr;
return stock;
}
In a way I see what's wrong. newStock returns a new pointer every time, but it always gets stored in the variable 'stock' which is what every node points to, so it's going to be equal to whatever the last pointer newStock returned was...but I don't see the way around this. I tried having newStock return just a stock_t, and doing addToBack(list, &stock), but that didn't solve the problem either.
Any help would be appreciated!
Here is some code from the list:
typedef struct node {
void *data;
struct node *next;
}node_t;
typedef struct {
int length;
int elementSize;
node_t *head;
node_t *tail;
} list;
void newList(list *list, int elementSize) {
assert(elementSize > 0);
list->length = 0;
list->elementSize = elementSize;
list->head = list->tail = NULL;
}
void addToBack(list *list, void *element) {
node_t *node = malloc(sizeof(node_t));
node->data = malloc(list->elementSize);
node->next = NULL; //back node
memcpy(node->data, element, list->elementSize);
if (list->length == 0) { //if first node added
list->head = list->tail = node;
}
else {
list->tail->next = node;
list->tail = node;
}
list->length++;
}
Here's code from the stock struct:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
typedef float (*getPrice)(void *S);
typedef float (*getTotalDollarAmount)(void *S);
typedef float (*getPercentChange)(void *S);
typedef char *(*toString)(void *S);
typedef struct stock{
char *stockSymbol;
float closingSharePrice;
float openingSharePrice;
int numberOfShares;
getPrice getP;
getTotalDollarAmount getTotal;
getPercentChange getPercent;
toString toStr;
}stock_t;
The generic functions probably seem like overkill but this is for homework (if you couldn't tell already) so we were asked to specifically use them. I don't think that has anything to do with the problem though.
Here are the definitions for those functions anyway
float getPriceF(void *S) {
stock_t *stock = (stock_t*)S;
return stock->closingSharePrice;
}
float getTotalDollarAmountF(void *S) {
stock_t *stock = (stock_t*)S;
return ((stock->closingSharePrice) * (stock->numberOfShares));
}
float getPercentChangeF(void *S) {
stock_t *stock = (stock_t*)S;
return ((stock->closingSharePrice - stock->openingSharePrice)/(stock->openingSharePrice));
}
char *toStringF(void *S) {
stock_t* stock = (stock_t*)S;
char *name = malloc(20*sizeof(char));
//sprintf(name, "Symbol is: %s. ", (stock->stockSymbol));
return stock->stockSymbol;
}
void printStock(void *S) {
char *str = toStringF(S);
printf("%s \n", str);
}
And this is how I'm traversing the list:
typedef void (*iterate)(void *); //this is in the list.h file, just putting it here to avoid confusion
void traverse(list *list, iterate iterator) {
assert(iterator != NULL);
node_t *current = list->head;
while (current != NULL) {
iterator(current->data);
current = current->next;
}
}
And then in my main I just called
traverse(list, printStock);

Answer 1

I can't find any problems with your code (that would cause your problem, anyway - there are places where you don't check the return from malloc() and stuff like that, but those are not relevant to this question). You don't supply the definition of stock_t, so I made a new data struct, and a new couple of functions, otherwise I just copied and pasted the code you provided:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <assert.h>
/* Your code starts here */
typedef struct node {
void *data;
struct node *next;
}node_t;
typedef struct {
int length;
int elementSize;
node_t *head;
node_t *tail;
} list;
void newList(list *list, int elementSize) {
assert(elementSize > 0);
list->length = 0;
list->elementSize = elementSize;
list->head = list->tail = NULL;
}
void addToBack(list *list, void *element) {
node_t *node = malloc(sizeof(node_t));
node->data = malloc(list->elementSize);
node->next = NULL; //back node
memcpy(node->data, element, list->elementSize);
if (list->length == 0) { //if first node added
list->head = list->tail = node;
}
else {
list->tail->next = node;
list->tail = node;
}
list->length++;
}
/* Your code ends here */
/* I made a new struct, rather than stock, since you didn't supply it */
struct mydata {
int num1;
int num2;
};
/* I use this instead of newStock(), but it works the same way */
struct mydata * newNode(const int a, const int b) {
struct mydata * newdata = malloc(sizeof *newdata);
if ( newdata == NULL ) {
fputs("Error allocating memory", stderr);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
newdata->num1 = a;
newdata->num2 = b;
return newdata;
}
/* I added this function to check the list is good */
void printList(list * list) {
struct node * node = list->head;
int n = 1;
while ( node ) {
struct mydata * data = node->data;
printf("%d: %d %d\n", n++, data->num1, data->num2);
node = node->next;
}
}
/* Main function */
int main(void) {
list *list = malloc(sizeof(list));
newList(list, sizeof(struct mydata));
struct mydata * data;
data = newNode(1, 2);
addToBack(list, data);
data = newNode(3, 4);
addToBack(list, data);
data = newNode(5, 6);
addToBack(list, data);
printList(list);
return 0;
}
which outputs this:
paul#MacBook:~/Documents/src$ ./list
1: 1 2
2: 3 4
3: 5 6
paul#MacBook:~/Documents/src$
demonstrating that you have a 3 node list, with all nodes different and where you'd expect them to be.
Either there is some other problem in code you're not showing, or for some reason you are thinking each node points to the same struct when it actually doesn't.
One possibility is that you have a char * data member in your stock struct. It's impossible to tell from the code you provided, but it's possible that you really are creating different nodes, but they all end up pointing to the same name, so they just look like they're the same. If you're assigning a pointer to name, you should make sure it's freshly allocated memory each time, and that you're not just, for instance, strcpy()ing into the same memory and assigning the same address to each stock struct.
EDIT: Looks like that was your problem. This:
name = (char *) malloc(sizeof(char)*20);
....
name = strtok(buffer, " ");
should be:
name = (char *) malloc(sizeof(char)*20);
....
strcpy(name, strtok(buffer, " "));
Right now, you malloc() new memory and store a reference to it in name, but then you lose that reference and your memory when you overwrite it with the address returned from strtok(). Instead, you need to copy that token into your newly allocated memory, as shown.