EXC_BAD_ACCESS occurred when assign char with a poitner - c++

Question

EXC_BAD_ACCESS occurred in *str++ = *end;. What's wrong with this?
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
char *hello = "abcdefgh";
char c = 'c';
char *str = hello;
//printf("%s",str);
char * end = str;
char tmp;
if (str) {
while (*end) {
++end;
}
--end;
while (str < end) {
tmp = *str;
printf("hello:%s str:%c, end:%c\n", hello, *str, *end);
*str++ = *end;
*end-- = tmp;
}
}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

It is undefined behavior to attempt to alter a string literal. Change your code to the equivalent below, and you will see the issue:
const char *hello = "abcdefgh";
const char *str = hello;
const char * end = str;
So do you see why the line *str++ = *end; had a problem? You're attempting to write to a const area, and you can't do that.
If you want an even simpler example:
int main()
{
char *str = "abc";
str[0] = 'x';
}
Don't be surprised if this simple program produces a crash or segmentation fault when the
str[0] = 'x';
line is executed.
Unfortunately, string-literals did not have to be declared as const char* in C, and C++ brought this syntax over. So even though it looks like you are not using const, you are.
If you want the code to actually work, declare a writeable buffer, i.e. an array of char:
char hello[] = "abcdefgh";
char str[100];
strcpy(str, hello);
char end[100];
strcpy(end, str);

Answer 2

It seems like you're trying to reverse the string. It also looks like you're overcomplicating things.
C-style strings declared on the stack have to be declared as const char *, which means you can't change the characters as they are constant.
In C++ we use strings, and string iterators:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using std::string;
using std::reverse;
using std::swap;
using std::cout;
using std::endl;
int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
string hello("abcdefgh");
reverse(hello.begin(), hello.end());
cout << hello << endl;
return 0;
}
Manually:
static void reverse(std::string & str)
{
string::size_type b = 0, e = str.length() - 1, c = e / 2;
while(b <= c)
{
swap(str[b++], str[e--]);
}
}
Recursively:
static void reverse_helper(std::string & str,
string::size_type b,
string::size_type e)
{
if(b >= e)
return;
swap(str[b], str[e]);
reverse_helper(str, ++b, --e);
}
static void reverse(std::string & str)
{
reverse_helper(str, 0, str.length() - 1);
}