Trying to copy a char* to another char* - c++

I have a problem that my code
char* strdup(const char* s)
{
int n = 0;
for(; *s != 0; s++)
{
n++;
}
char* p = new char[n+1];
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
p[i] = s[i];
}
p[n] = 0;
return p;
}
int main()
{
const char* p = "testing";
char* p_copy = strdup(p);
std::cout << p << '\n' << p_copy << std::endl;
return 0;
}
doesn't work as intended.
I want to write a function which takes in const char* and copies it to a new allocated char memory. When it is done it should return a pointer to the char.
Now when I try it out my output is simply:
testing
thanks for any help in advance

Try not incrementing s before you start copying it to p. I notice that in your first for loop you increment s until it points at a null, and then later use that pointer value to start your string copy. No wonder you are getting a null string.

Here:
for(; *s != 0; s++)
You increment s. So it no longer points to the beginning of the input string. It points to the null terminator of the string. Then, here:
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
p[i] = s[i];
You try to copy n characters starting from the null terminator, and you end up reading past the end of the array which has undefined behaviour.
Solution: Make a copy of s for counting the characters:
const char* s2 = s;
for(; *s2 != 0; s2++)
Even better, you could refactor the length counting part into a reusable function called strlen.

Related

How can I convert vector<string> to char* arr[]?

Recently I want to convert vector to char* array[].
So I had found the solution. But It was not safety way..
Here is my code
char** arr = new char* [4];
vector<string> vv;
// setting strings
for (int i = 0 ;i < 4; i++)
{
vv.emplace_back("hello world");
}
// convert
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
arr[i] = new char[vv[i].size()];
memcpy(arr[i], vv[i].c_str(), vv[i].size());
}
// prints
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
cout << arr[i] << endl;
}
// output
// hello world羲羲?솎솨
// hello world羲羲拂솽솨
// hello world羲羲
// hello world羲羲?펺솨
// delete memorys
for (unsigned index = 0; index < 4; ++index) {
delete[] arr[index];
}
delete []arr;
Why does it happen string crash??
Is there no safe way anymore?
When you use memcpy, arr[i] is not guaranteed to be a null-terminated string. To treat arr[i] as null terminated string, as in
cout << arr[i] << endl;
causes undefined behavior.
You need couple of minor changes.
Allocate one more byte of memory.
Use strcpy instead of memcpy.
arr[i] = new char[vv[i].size() + 1];
strcpy(arr[i], vv[i].c_str());
There's an easier way of doing this if you can maintain the lifetime of your initial vector.
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
arr[i] = vv[i].c_str();
}
This way you won't allocate no additional memory, however, you'd have to keep in mind that once your initial vector gets destroyed, that array will be corrupted as well. But if you need such conversion for some simple synchronous api call within the same thread, that would do the trick.
In such cases I usually use this ugly construct.
arr[i] = new char[vv[i].size() + 1];
arr[i][vv[i].copy(arr[i], vv[i].size())] = 0;

C++. How can I free memory correctly?

Written code to find and remove the largest word in a string without the using of library functions. Everything works fine. But when I want to free memory, the result is negative (displays an empty line). If you remove the call to the memory release function, everything will work correctly, but there will be a leak of memory.
How do I fix it? Please help me.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int length(char *text) // string length
{
char *begin = text;
while(*text++);
return text - begin - 1;
}
int size(char **text) // size of two-dimensional array
{
int i = 0;
while(text[i]) i++;
return i;
}
void free_memory(char **text)
{
for(int i=0; i<size(text); i++)
delete text[i];
delete [] text;
}
char **split(char *text, char delim)
{
int words = 1;
int len = length(text);
for(int i=0; i<len; i++)
if(text[i] == delim) words++;
char **result = new char*[words + 1];
int j = 0, t = 0;
for(int i=0; i<words; i++)
{
result[i] = new char[len];
while(text[j] != delim && text[j] != '\0') result[i][t++] = text[j++];
j++;
t = 0;
}
result[words + 1] = nullptr;
return result;
}
char *strcat(char *source, char *destination)
{
char *begin = destination;
while(*destination) destination++;
*destination++ = ' ';
while(*source) *destination++ = *source++;
return begin;
}
char *removeWord(char *in_string)
{
char **words = split(in_string, ' ');
int max = length(words[0]);
int j = 0;
for(int i=0; i<size(words); i++)
if(max < length(words[i]))
{
max = length(words[i]);
j = i;
}
int index;
char *result;
if(!j) index = 1;
else index = 0;
result = words[index];
for(int i=0; i<size(words); i++)
if(i != j && i != index)
result = strcat(words[i], result);
free_memory(words); // I want free memory here
return result;
}
int main()
{
char text[] = "audi and volkswagen are the best car";
cout << removeWord(text) << endl;
return 0;
}
In fact, this is C style programming - not C++. I see that your aim is to implement everything from scratch, possibly for practicing. But even then, your code is not designed/structured properly.
Besides that, you also have several bugs in your code:
result[words + 1] = nullptr; must be result[words] = nullptr;
You need result[i][t] = '\0'; after the while loop in split
delete text[i] must be delete [] text[i]
You cannot assign to your result pointer memory from words, then free it and then return it for use by the caller.
There is at least one further bug in the second half of removeWord. It would be tedious to try to understand what you are trying to do there.
You might want to start with a simpler task. You also should proceed step-by-step and check each function for correctness independently first and not implement everything and then test. Also take a look at the tool valgrind for memory checking - if you use Linux.
The way you free memory correctly is to use RAII:
Only use new and new[] in constructors
Pair those with delete and delete[] in the corresponding destructor
Use automatic storage duration objects as much as possible
If you are specifically not using std::string and std::vector etc, for reasons of learning pointers, you will end up writing some small number of classes that resemble string and vector and unique_ptr, and then you go about programming as if you were using the std versions.
You have two issues. First is that result is assigned to a memory location in words. Second, is that you're storing the result of strcat in words[i] which will likely not have enough room (see strcat documentation).
result = new char[len(in_string)+1]; // +1 for space for null char
// the old loop reversed the word order -- if you want to keep doing
// that, make this a descending loop
for(int i=0; i<size(words); i++)
if(i != j && i != index)
strcat(result, words[i]);
free_memory(words);
return result;
So that when you free words, what result points to is also free'd. You would then need to free your result in main().
int main()
{
char text[] = "audi and volkswagen are the best car";
char * result = removeWord(text);
cout << result << endl;
delete[] result;
return 0;
}

C++ How to remove double quotes in char

I want to remove double-quotes from a string, for example 13.3" Rentina becomes 13.3 Rentina
const char* s = sheet->readStr(row, col);
int ii = strlen(s);
char* b;
b=(char*)s;
char ch;
for (int i = 0; i < ii ;++i) {
strncpy(&ch, b+ii, 1);
if(ch == '\"'){
ch = '\"';
memcpy(b+i, &ch, 1);
}
}
myfile << b;
If you deal with strings in C++, you should use character arrays and functions like strncpy only when you have a strong reason to use them. By default you should use standard string, which makes e.g. memory management much easier. The solution to your problem with std::string is
std::string s = sheet->readStr(row, col);
size_t pos = 0;
while ((pos = s.find('"', pos)) != std::string::npos)
s = s.erase(pos, 1);
myfile << s;
You cannot do b=(char*)s!!!
The compiler lets you in on this one, but you will get a runtime exception as soon as you attempt to write into the memory address space pointed by b.
The variable s is possibly pointing to an address in the code-section, which is a read-only memory address space within your program ("possibly", because perhaps that const declaration of s is just something you added on your own initiative).
You should allocate a new char array, and copy the output string into that array instead.
So first of all, change the above statement to b = (char*)malloc(strlen(s)).
In addition, do not pass to strncpy (or any other str function for that matter) an address of a char variable. These functions operate on char arrays, and either assume that the array ends with a 0 character, or set the character at the end of the array to 0.
You can try the following piece of code (assuming that your purpose is to remove the '"'):
const char* s = sheet->readStr(row, col);
int ii = strlen(s);
char* b = (char*)malloc(ii+1);
if (b != NULL)
{
int i,j;
for(i=0,j=0; i<ii; i++)
{
if (s[i] != '"')
b[j++] = s[i];
}
b[j] = 0;
// Add your code here (do whatever you wanna do with 'b')
free(b);
}
else
{
printf("Out of memory\n");
}

Deleting pointers from an array

I am fairly new to C++, and this problem I am having has had me stumped for like the last 2 hours. What I am trying to do is create an array of pointers to my class Word objects, so a 2 dimensional array, which is **wordPtrList. Then I need to delete the memory of certain objects in the array and set their pointers to null. I have written a smaller version of what I am trying to accomplish below.
int main()
{
char *cArray;
cArray = new char[4];
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
cArray[i] = 'a';
cArray[i + 1] = '\0'; //cArray is a null terminated string
Word **wordPtrList;
wordPtrList = new Word* [3];
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
wordPtrList[i] = new Word(cArray);
}
wordPtrList[1]->del();
delete wordPtrList[1];
wordPtrList[1] = '\0';
return 0;
}
class Word
{
private:
char* ptr_;
int len_;
public:
Word(const char* word)
{
len_ = strlen(word);
ptr_ = new char[len_];
strcpy(ptr_, word);
}
~Word()
{
delete [] ptr_;
ptr_ = 0;
}
void del()
{
delete [] ptr_;
ptr_ = 0;
return;
}
};
When I do this however, I get:
Debug Error Heap Corruption Detected after normal block
This is in VS 2010 on Windows 7.
So what I am asking is, how do I delete the memory of my object so that I can set wordPtrList[1] to Null?
You are allocating 4 bytes to cArray (meaning you have access to write to bytes 0 through 3), and then writing to cArray[4]. You also allocate one byte too small in the Word constructor.
char *cArray;
cArray = new char[4];
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
cArray[i] = 'a';
cArray[i] = '\0'; //cArray is a null terminated string - i is now 3
and
Word(const char* word)
{
len_ = strlen(word);
ptr_ = new char[len_ + 1];
strcpy(ptr_, word);
}
should do the trick.
Look at this code:
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
cArray[i] = 'a';
cArray[i + 1] = '\0'; //cArray is a null terminated string
The problem is at the last line which is using i+1 as index, which is going out of range, as by the time the loop exits, the value of i is already 3; that means i+1 will become 4 which cannot be a valid index when you've allocated cArray as:
cArray = new char[4]; //taken from your code
The solution is this:
cArray[i] = '\0'; //Now, it is correct. Here i is equal to 3
That is, use i instead of i+1; Or simply use 3.
In C++, you could std::fill instead of manual loop, as:
std::fill(cArray, cArray + 4, 'a'); //done
Even better avoid using char* with new as much as possible, and prefer using std::string instead.
There are two obvious off-by-one errors in the code (when you get out of the first loop what is the value of the variable i? when calling strlen did you remember to consider the space needed by the null terminator?).
Also please note that c strings are not "null terminated", they are "NUL terminated" with uppercase letters and only one "L". NUL is the name of the ASCII control character with all bits set to zero and is represented in C++ with '\0'.
In one place you used NUL character as a null pointer, and while this is technically correct (because of a design bug of the C++ language) it's better to understand that the two concepts are quite different.
As others have said, you're basically accessing an array index which is out of bounds of the array.
I would go with Nathan Wiebe's solution.
In the future, when you have the option to do this, it's recommended to use std::vector<T> as that will allow you to store any type you wish in a dynamically resizeble array. In other words, providing you don't access an index which is outside of the vector's bounds, you could do something like this:
std::vector< char* > str;
for( size_t i = 0; i < str.size(); ++i )
{
str.push_back( 'a pointer to a block of memory consisting of characters' );
}
class Word
{
public:
Word( const char* str )
{
mStrs.push_back( str );
}
~Word( void )
{
for( size_t i = 0; i < mStrs.size(); ++i )
{
if( mStrs[ i ] )
{
delete mStrs[ i ];
mStrs[ i ] = NULL;
}
}
mStrs.clear();
}
private:
void del( size_t index )
{
if( index > mStrs.size() )
{
//error - throw new exception or something
}
delete mStrs[ index ];
}
std::vector< const char* > mStrs;
};

Transfer an array of char via pointer to another temp array pointer

I'm learning to use pointer to copy char array.
I have the following code in C++. What I'm trying to do is to transfer and array (set1) using pointer to another pointer array (temp).
But when I try to print out (temp), it is not the same as (set1).
Transfer an array via pointer to another temp array pointer.
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char set1[] = "ABC";
char* p = &set1[0];
int tempSize = 0;
char* temp = new char[256];
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
*temp = *p;
cout << *temp; // ABC
++temp;
++tempSize;
++p;
}
cout << "\n";
for (int i = 0; i < tempSize; i++)
{
cout << temp[i]; // Why ABC is not printed?
}
delete [] temp;
return 0;
}
// Why ABC is not printed?
Because your pointer is travelling in undefined behavior region:
char* temp = new char[256];
...
++temp; // gone !!
On top of that,
you are not terminating the string with \0 in the end (may not be needed in your code)
delete[]ing this corrupt pointer in the end.
Since you are writing for learning purpose, I would suggest simple fix to your code:
char* const temp = new char[256];
^^^^^ ensures `temp` is not modifiable
Now use temp[i] for traversing purpose.
It's because in the loop copying the array, you change temp. After the loop, it points to one beyond the copied data.
Also, you forget to terminate the new allocated array. You should add the character '\0' at the end.
The problem is this line:
++temp;
You are incrementing the pointer and then write to it. In the end temp[i]; does not point to the beginning of your string, but to the end.
The easiest way to do this is to remove the first for loop with:
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
temp[i] = set1[i];
}
temp[4] = '\0'; // don't forget to close the string
C-style strings have a null terminator - "ABC" contains four characters. Also, I'm not at all sure that the delete call on temp is valid - you have been incrementing it since it was 'newed'.