string::length() returning garbage value [closed] - c++

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I am trying to use string::length() inside a function I wrote, named match(), but I'm getting garbage values.
Why does the marked line is outputting garbage values?
#include<iostream>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string>
using namespace std;
void match(string st1,string st2)
{
for(int i=0;i<st1.length();i++)
{
cout<<"Why this value is garbage "<<(i-st1.length()-1)<<"\t";
// this expression gives wrong values ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
}
}
int main()
{
string st1,st2;
cout<<"Enter the required string\n";
cin>>st1>>st2;
match(st1,st2);
return 0;
}

Answer 1

imagine a string "foo":
i-st1.length()-1 means:
when i is 0:
0 - 3 = -3
- 1 = -4
but st1.length() is a size_t, which is unsigned, so all terms in the expression are promoted to unsigned values.
(unsigned)0 - (unsigned)3 = 0xfffffffffffffffd
- 1 = 0xfffffffffffffffc
= 18446744073709551612

Answer 2

The problem is that i is an int value, while string::length will return you a size_t value. The first one is a signed value, while the second is unsigned. One way to prevent this is to cast your st1.length() as an int, so all the elements in your operation are signed values. You will then get the value you are looking for.
i-(int)st1.length()-1

Answer 3

This is not garbage, you are implicitly converting/promoting a signed type (i is signed int) to an 'unsigned' one (the return type of length() is size_t which is unsigned).
It happens implicitly because an unsigned type is more powerful than a signed one. This is a common source of bugs in the C/C++ world.
This is what you need to modify:
cout<<" **NOT** garbage "<<(i-(int)st1.length()-1)<<"\t"<<endl;
Happy programming!