String-copying function results in `pointer being freed was not allocated` - c++

I have the following function:
void stringcopy(char * to, char const * const from)
{
int size = 1;
while (from[size] != '\0') { ++size; }
if (to != 0) { delete [] to; }
to = new char[size];
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) { to[i] = from[i]; }
}
As the name notes, it copies a string, using dynamic allocation.
I don't believe the way I use it ought to matter (as I'm trying to make this function robust), but here are some examples:
CD::CD(char * s1, char * s2, int n, double x)
{
stringcopy(performers, s1);
stringcopy(label, s2);
selections = n;
playtime = x;
}
and
CD::CD(const CD & d)
{
stringcopy(performers, d.performers);
stringcopy(label, d.label);
selections = d.selections;
playtime = d.playtime;
}
etc.
Unfortunately, I'm getting the following error message, when I use the function: pointer being freed was not allocated.
I assume it occurs do to if (to != 0) { delete [] to; }.
Why doesn't this line protect against deallocating non-allocated memory?

What you are doing here
if (to != 0) { delete [] to; }
to = new char[size];
is freeing the memory to which the local to variable points, allocating it newly and storing the string there.
This new local memory address (let's call it to1) is however never exposed to the outside world, as it's not returned from the function. The function get's a copy of the to address. In order to fix that you need to make to a double pointer. Or a reference to a pointer.

Related

Heap corruption when using delete

I have a MultiString class that has some methods in it.
I am strugling with deleting my array of strings in the destructor, I get heap corruption.
Here is my class (some methods are cut)
class MultiString {
public:
//constructor destructor
MultiString(int);
~MultiString();
//methods
void Setat(int nindex, const char* str);
//attributes
char** buf;//pointer to vector
int str_nmb;//strings number
};
Constructor code:
MultiString::MultiString(int number)
{
str_nmb = number;
buf = new char* [number];
for (int i = 0; i < number; i++) buf[i] = NULL;
}
Setat code (used to set strings in array):
void MultiString::Setat(int nindex, const char* str)
{
if (nindex<0 || nindex>str_nmb || str == NULL) {
std::cout << "gg";
return;
}
char* tmp = new char[strlen(str)+1];
if (tmp == NULL) return;
if (buf[nindex] != NULL) delete buf[nindex]; //here delete works fine
buf[nindex] = tmp;
strcpy_s(buf[nindex], strlen(buf[nindex]), str);
std::cout << buf[nindex]<< std::endl;
}
Destructor code:
MultiString::~MultiString()
{
for (int i = 0; i < str_nmb; i++)
delete buf[i]; // heap corruption here
delete buf;
}
And my main():
int main()
{
MultiString* ms = new MultiString(3);
ms->etat(0, "qwerty");
ms->Setat(1, "asdfgh");
ms->Setat(2, "zxcvbn");
delete ms;
return 0;
}
char* tmp = new char[strlen(str)+1];
// ...
buf[nindex] = tmp;
strcpy_s(buf[nindex], strlen(buf[nindex]), str);
buf[nindex] points to the freshly allocated, but uninitialized memory area. Calling strlen on that is undefined behavior and likely what corrupts your heap. You probably want to call strlen(str) instead.
Apart from that you're making a few other mistakes:
Rule of 0/3/5 broken.
delete where delete[] would be necessary
Wrong bounds check (nindex>str_nmb)
What about Multistring(-5) ?
if (tmp == NULL) return; ... no, you shouldn't mute errors. Throw an exception or something.
Also .. why strcpy_s ? Use std::strncpy ... that's at least guaranteed to be available! Make sure the copied C string is null terminated!

Why does the last sr5 object not occupy memory with overloaded new operator?

When I run this program sr1, sr2, sr3, sr4 objects are created and values are assigned to corresponding variables. But in sr5 object, the name remains blank while the roll_no percentage shows the correct value.
When change the value of
int MAX = 5;
to
int MAX = 6;
everything works fine.
Here is my code:
const int MAX = 5;
const int FREE = 0;
const int OCCUPIED = 1;
int flag = 0;
using namespace std;
void warning()
{
cout<<"\n------All memory occupied------"<<endl;
exit(1);
}
class student_rec
{
private:
char name[25];
int roll_no;
float percentage;
public:
student_rec(char *n, int r, float per)
{
strcpy(name, n);
roll_no = r;
percentage = per;
}
student_rec()
{
}
void set_rec(char *n, int r, float per)
{
strcpy(name, n);
roll_no = r;
percentage = per;
}
void show_rec()
{
cout<<"\n-------------------\n";
cout<<"Name= "<<name<<endl;
cout<<"Roll number= "<<roll_no<<endl;
cout<<"Percentage= "<<percentage<<endl;
}
void *operator new (size_t sz);
void operator delete (void *d);
};
struct memory_store
{
student_rec obj;
int status;
};
memory_store *m = NULL;
void *student_rec::operator new (size_t sz)
{
int i;
if(flag == 0)
{
m = (memory_store *) malloc(sz * MAX);
if(m == NULL)
warning();
for(i=0; i<MAX; i++)
m[i].status = FREE;
flag = 1;
m[0].status = OCCUPIED;
return &m[0].obj;
}
else
{
for(i=0; i<MAX; i++)
{
if(m[i].status == FREE)
{
m[i].status = OCCUPIED;
return &m[i].obj;
}
}
warning();
}
}
void student_rec::operator delete (void *d)
{
if(d == NULL)
return;
for(int i=0; i<MAX; i++)
{
if(d == &m[i].obj)
{
m[i].status = FREE;
strcpy(m[i].obj.name, "");
m[i].obj.roll_no = 0;
m[i].obj.percentage = 0.0;
}
}
}
int main()
{
student_rec *sr1, *sr2, *sr3, *sr4, *sr5, *sr6, *sr7;
sr1 = new student_rec("sandeep", 21, 78);
sr1->show_rec();
sr2 = new student_rec("sachin", 21, 78);
sr2->show_rec();
sr3 = new student_rec("sapna", 21, 78);
sr3->show_rec();
sr4 = new student_rec("vipin", 21, 78);
sr4->show_rec();
sr5 = new student_rec("niraj", 21, 78);
sr5->show_rec();
sr6 = new student_rec; // error all memory occupied.
return 0;
}
I run this code on linux machine.
This is terrible code. It is totally unaware of the C++ object model. Forget it and start with a good introductory book, that explains the object lifecycle, and how to properly create new objects.
More explanations about what goes wrong: flaw 1
The problem is in student_rec::operator new (). This line:
m = (memory_store *) malloc(sz * MAX);
let you think that m points to some valid array of memory_store objects. Unfortunately, the C malloc() is used to allocate raw memory. There are thus no valid objects in that memory. Otherwise said, the objects pointed to by m are in an unknown dirty state.
Later, the line
m[i].status = FREE;
handles the objects pointed by m as if they were already valid. This is undefined behavior. If you don't allocate objects the C++ way (e.g. new instead of malloc() ) you would first need to create them with a placement new.
Now for your simple object trivial object this will not cause too many damages. There's yet another flaw.
Even more explanations about what goes wrong: fatal flaw 2
There is a second serious problem: malloc only allocates sz * MAX bytes. As the operator is overloaded for student_rec, it will be called with sz being sizeof(student_rec). But your code assumes that it is sizeof(memory_store), so that the allocated memory is at least sizeof(int)*n bytes too short !!
This is why increasing MAX (and thus allocating more memory than needed for your 5 objects) seems to work.
Other remarks
Using global variables as you did, exposing m to the outside world, is very dangerous and error prone. Suppose that in some other functions you'd like to use a local variable m, but forget to declare it; you could corrupt your data structure much faster than you'd expect ! You'd better make it a private static member of student_rec.
Forget about fixed char arrays for storing C strings. If a name would be longer than expected, you'd get another serious problem that is difficult to spot (strcpy could result in memory corruption in such case). If you code in C++, take advantage of string in order not to worry about such details :-)
Stylistic remark: why not make flag a boolean and use true & false instead of 0 and 1 ?
Stylistic remark: The warning() function has a misleading name: warning() suggests that you issue a warning and continue. Why not giving it a self-documenting name like for example fatal_error() or warning_and_exit()

How can I prevent these memory leaks?

I met huge problem with memory leaks and I don't know where to put that "delete" to get rid of them. Below is part of my code, and there is a full one: https://pastebin.com/Wtk83nuH.
string* startowa(int& rozmiar)
{
rozmiar = 5;
string* tablica = new string[rozmiar];
for (int i = 0; i < rozmiar; i++)
tablica[i] = "text";
return tablica;
}
string* plusx(string* tab, int& rozmiar)
{
string tekst = "something";
string* tablica_3 = new string[rozmiar];
tablica_3[rozmiar - 1] = tekst;
for (int i = 0; i<rozmiar - 1; i++)
tablica_3[i] = tab[i];
return tablica_3;
}
string* minusx(string* tab, int& rozmiar)
{
string* tablica_3 = new string[rozmiar];
for (int i = 0; i < rozmiar; i++)
tablica_3[i] = tab[i];
return tablica_3;
}
int main()
{
int wybor = 1, rozmiar = 1;
string *tablica = startowa(rozmiar);
while (wybor != 55) {
cin >> wybor;
if (wybor == 1) {
rozmiar++;
tablica = plusx(tablica, rozmiar);
}
if (wybor == 6) wybor = 55;
else {
rozmiar--;
tablica = minusx(tablica, rozmiar);
}
// there were other "ifs" but its just a part of the code
}
for (int i = 0; i < rozmiar; i++)
cout << tablica[i] << endl;
delete[] tablica;
cin >> wybor;
getchar();
return 0;
}
The memory leak is your least problem in that source code. In fact, you don't need heap allocations at all in your example.
Here are some fast improvements:
- use "std::string" instead of just string, I guess you are using "using namespace std"
- do not return a pointer to string, you can just declare a string and return it
- do not use a reference to an int as a function parameter if you are not returning it
- use const as much as you can
- replace "string *" with "const string&" if you are not returning it
- do not allocate string on heap (with new), instead declare it on stack
- use vectors
You can use this great site and Scott Meyers books for other C++ good practices.
To prevent memory leaks like that, avoid manual memory management. There are a lot of tools available to you.
For example, take your string array:
string* startowa(int& rozmiar) {
rozmiar = 5;
string* tablica = new string[rozmiar];
// ...
}
This should be replaced by std::vector. And since a vector keep track of it's size, you don't need to pass the size as reference:
std::vector<std::string> startowa() {
// ...
std::vector<std::string> tablica(5);
// ...
}
Then, your function that operates on the array should take the vector by reference to about copies, and return another vector. Since a vector already has a function that insert a new element, your plusx function becomes this:
void plusx(std::vector<std::string>& tab) {
std::string tekst = "something";
tab.emplace_back(std::move(tekst));
}
And your minusx function becomes that:
void minusx(std::vector<std::string>& tab) {
tab.pop_back();
}
By the way, with a vector, you can completely remove your startowa function by replacing the call in your main by this:
// Was `string *tablica = startowa(rozmiar);`
std::vector<std::string> tablica(5, "text");
Since std::vector manages it's memory itself, you don't need to delete it anywhere.
If you don't want to use vector, you can alway use std::unique_ptr<std::string[]>. The only difference in you code would be to send tablica.get() to your functions, and use std::make_unique<std::string[]>(rozmiar) instead of new std::string[rozmiar]
The correct answer is use std::vector. For example:
vector<string> startowa(int& rozmiar)
{
rozmiar = 5;
vector<string> tablica(rozmiar);
for (int i = 0; i < rozmiar; i++)
tablica[i] = "text";
return tablica;
}
Note the return by value. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you're saving processing time by returning by reference. That vector goes out of scope and is destroyed at the end of the function. With a returned reference the best you can hope for is the caller receiving a load of garbage and crashing before any damage can be done.
A decent compiler will eliminate the copying when you return the vector by value, and if the compiler decides that it cannot, std::move will take care of that.
vector also knows how big it is, eliminating the need for rozmiar.
Now... What went wrong? Let's look at the code
int main()
{
int wybor = 1, rozmiar = 1;
string * tablica = startowa(rozmiar);
startowa allocated an array of strings and stored a pointer to the array in tablica.
while (wybor != 55)
{
cin >> wybor;
if (wybor == 1)
{
rozmiar++;
tablica = plusx(tablica, rozmiar);
plusx allocated a new array of strings, a pointer to which has been returned and written over the pointer returned by startowa. startowa's array is now effectively lost, leaked, as it is next to impossible to find again to delete[].
We would need to delete[] tablica; before making the assignment. Clearly we can't do this before calling plusx as tablica is a parameter, so we need to store a temp.
string * temp = plusx(tablica, rozmiar);
delete[] tablica;
tablica = temp;
But what if something unexpected happens and an exception is thrown? The code never hits the delete[] and BOTH allocations are lost. vector handles all this for you.
And back to the code
}
if (wybor == 6)
wybor = 55;
else
{
rozmiar--;
tablica = minusx(tablica, rozmiar);
Same problem and solution as above.
}
// there were other "ifs" but its just a part of the code
}
for (int i = 0; i < rozmiar; i++)
cout << tablica[i] << endl;
delete[] tablica;
One of an in-determinant number of allocations is released here. The rest are lost.
cin >> wybor;
getchar();
return 0;
}

Converting integers into a char* c++

Here is the function I have, "Sprite" is an object in the program, and "GetSpriteAtPosition" just returns a pointer to the correct sprite at the coordinates.
My problem is that I store a letter in each sprite, in the form of an integer. 0 is a, and 25 is z, with everything in between respectively. I need my function to return a char* that gives me the letters of a row of sprites, so if in the program the sprites spell out "abcdefgh", then that's what I need this function to print out. There's an 8x8 grid of sprites, and I'm getting the coordinates correctly, but I get an error that I can't convert an int to a char* in the marked line. What can I do to get this to work?
Thanks in advance!
char* RowLetters(int row)
{
char* pointer;
for( int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
{
Sprite* selectedSprite = SpriteAtPosition(row*50, i * 50);
if(selectedSprite != NULL)
{
char* temp = (char)(selectedSprite->Frame() + 97); //error here
pointer = strcat(pointer, temp);
}
else
{
pointer = strcat(pointer, "test");
}
}
return pointer;
}
Try this:
char temp = (char)(selectedSprite->Frame() + 97);
pointer = strcat(pointer, &temp);
I've changed the variable into a standard char rather than a pointer and then passed a reference to strcat() with the & operator.
EDIT:
As pointed out in the comments, this doesn't work because &temp isn't NULL terminated. I used to get around this when I programmed more C by doing the following.
char temp[2];
temp[0] = (char)(selectedSprite->Frame() + 97);
temp[1] = '\0';
pointer = strcat(pointer, temp);
Of course, the temp array could be declared outside the for() loop for a little better performance (in theory).
None of this addresses the other problems with the code like pointer never being declared. I think a broader understanding of the calling function would be in order to determine whether pointer should be allocated within this function or passed in by the caller.
Your code as written, will have undefined behavior because pointer is not initialized, and does not point to any valid memory that you have allocated (to hold the appropriate length of letters in the row.
If this truly is C++, as you state, then you don't want to return a char* from this function, as that implies that you have a static string already allocated within that function (yuck), or you will be dynamically allocating the string in that function and the caller must free it (yuck).
Neither of these options is ideal.
I'd suggest a very simple change to return a std::string, like this:
std::string RowLetters(int row)
{
std::string pointer;
for( int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
{
Sprite* selectedSprite = SpriteAtPosition(row*50, i * 50);
if(selectedSprite != NULL)
{
pointer.push_back((char)(selectedSprite->Frame() + 97));
}
else
{
// ???
// pointer = strcat(pointer, "test");
}
}
return pointer;
}

strlen() not working

Basically, I'm passing a pointer to a character string into my constructor, which in turn initializes its base constructor when passing the string value in. For some reason strlen() is not working, so it does not go into the right if statement. I have checked to make sure that there is a value in the variable and there is.
Here is my code, I've taken out all the irrelevant parts:
Label class contents:
Label(int row, int column, const char *s, int length = 0) : LField(row, column, length, s, false)
{
}
Label (const Label &obj) : LField(obj)\
{
}
~Label()
{
}
Field *clone() const
{
return new Label(*this);
}
LField class contents:
LField(int rowNumVal, int colNumVal, int widthVal, const char *valVal = "", bool canEditVal = true)
{
if(strlen(valVal) > 0)
{
}
else
{
//This is where it jumps to, even though the value in
//valVal is 'SFields:'
val = NULL;
}
}
Field *clone() const
{
return new LField(*this);
}
LField(const LField &clone) {
delete[] val;
val = new char[strlen(clone.val) + 1];
strcpy(val, clone.val);
rowNum = clone.rowNum;
colNum = clone.colNum;
width = clone.width;
canEdit = clone.canEdit;
index = clone.index;
}
Screen class contents:
class Screen {
Field *fields[50];
int numOfFields;
int currentField;
public:
Screen()
{
numOfFields = 0;
currentField = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < 50; i++)
fields[i] = NULL;
}
~Screen()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++)
delete[] fields[i];
}
int add(const Field &obj)
{
int returnVal = 0;
if (currentField < 50)
{
delete[] fields[currentField];
fields[currentField] = obj.clone();
numOfFields += 1;
currentField += 1;
returnVal = numOfFields;
}
return returnVal;
}
Screen& operator+=(const Field &obj)
{
int temp = 0;
temp = add(obj);
return *this;
}
};
Main:
int main () {
Screen s1;
s1 += Label(3, 3, "SFields:");
}
Hopefully someone is able to see if I am doing something wrong.
<LANGUAGE FEATURE XXXX IS BROKEN>! ... No, it isn't.
Just before measuring the string, write in a puts(valVal), to ensure you are not mistaken about the contents of that variable.
Marcin at this point the problem will come down to debugging, I copied your code with some minor omissions and got the correct result.
Now it needs to be said, you should be using more C++ idiomatic code. For instance you should be using std::string instead of const char* and std::vector instead of your raw arrays.
Here is an example of what the LField constructor would look like with std::string:
#include <string> // header for string
LField(int rowNumVal,
int colNumVal,
int widthVal,
const std::string& valVal = "",
bool canEditVal = true)
{
std::cout << valVal;
if(valVal.length() > 0)
{
}
else
{
//This is where it jumps to, even though the value in
//valVal is 'SFields:'
//val = NULL;
}
}
Using these types will make your life considerably easier and if you make the change it may just fix your problem too.
PREVIOUS:
So you can be CERTAIN that the string is not being passed in correctly add a printline just before the strlen call. Once you do this work backward with printlines until you find where the string is not being set. This is a basic debugging technique.
Label(int row,
int column,
const char *s,
int length = 0) :
LField(row, column, length, s, false) {
}
LField(int rowNumVal,
int colNumVal,
int widthVal,
const char *valVal = "",
bool canEditVal = true)
{
std::cout << valVal << std::endl;
if(strlen(valVal) > 0)
{
}
else {
//This is where it jumps to, even though the value in
//valVal is 'SFields:'
val = NULL;
}
}
Whenever there is strange behavior like this, memory getting screwed up is almost always the culprit. Never mix new with delete[] OR new[] with delete. The latter is slightly worse than the former but they are both bad news. delete[] should only be used in conjunction with new[]. Mixing these allocation/deallocation notations will result in undefined behavior. Since you are never using new[], replace all of your delete[] calls with delete. It is also good practice and good manners to set your pointers to NULL after you delete them. It is highly unlikely that you will be the only one debugging this code and it would be extremely annoying to debug your pointers thinking that there is valid memory there, when in fact there isn't.
Mixing these notations inevitably lead to exploits and memory leaks.
There is a problem here:
LField(const LField &clone) {
delete[] val;
val = new char[strlen(clone.val) + 1];
val is uninitialized when the constructor is called, and you are deleting it.