How to convert multiple strings into the same char array? - c++

I need a way to convert multiple strings into the same char array. For example if I have
string str1;
string str2;
char *myArray = new char[str1.size() + str2.size() + 1];
What's the best way to add the string characters into myArray?

You could use another string to combine the two:
auto myArray = str1 + str2;
You can then access the underlying (constant!) char array with the .c_str method or, if you want to modify certain characters, access them with the operator[] on string.
If you need an actual, modifiable char* style array, use std::vector:
std::vector<char> myArray (str1.begin(), str1.end());
myArray.insert(myArray.end(), str2.begin(), str2.end());
myArray.push_back('\0'); // If the array should be zero terminated
You can then access the underlying, modifiable char array with the .data method.
Note that variable length arrays like char myArray[str1.size() + str2.size() + 1] are a compiler extension that only works on certain compilers. They are not standard C++.

strcpy(myarray,(str1+str2).c_str())
or
strncpy(myarray,(str1+str2).c_str(),(str1+str2).length())

use strcpy and strcat:
strcpy(myArray,str1.c_str());
strcat(myArray,str2.c_str());
although , the expression char myArray[str1.size() + str2.size() + 1] will not compile under C++ , since VLAs are forbidden , use dynamic memory allocation:
char* myArray = new char[str1.size() + str2.size() + 1]

Related

Copy a part of an std::string in a char* pointer

Let's suppose I've this code snippet in C++
char* str;
std::string data = "This is a string.";
I need to copy the string data (except the first and the last characters) in str.
My solution that seems to work is creating a substring and then performing the std::copy operation like this
std::string substring = data.substr(1, size - 2);
str = new char[size - 1];
std::copy(substring.begin(), substring.end(), str);
str[size - 2] = '\0';
But maybe this is a bit overkilling because I create a new string. Is there a simpler way to achieve this goal? Maybe working with offets in the std:copy calls?
Thanks
As mentioned above, you should consider keeping the sub-string as a std::string and use c_str() method when you need to access the underlying chars.
However-
If you must create the new string as a dynamic char array via new you can use the code below.
It checks whether data is long enough, and if so allocates memory for str and uses std::copy similarly to your code, but with adapted iterators.
Note: there is no need to allocate a temporary std::string for the sub-string.
The Code:
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
std::string data = "This is a string.";
auto len = data.length();
char* str = nullptr;
if (len > 2)
{
auto new_len = len - 2;
str = new char[new_len+1]; // add 1 for zero termination
std::copy(data.begin() + 1, data.end() - 1, str); // copy from 2nd char till one before the last
str[new_len] = '\0'; // add zero termination
std::cout << str << std::endl;
// ... use str
delete[] str; // must be released eventually
}
}
Output:
his is a string
There is:
int length = data.length() - 1;
memcpy(str, data.c_str() + 1, length);
str[length] = 0;
This will copy the string in data, starting at position [1] (instead of [0]) and keep copying until length() - 1 bytes have been copied. (-1 because you want to omit the first character).
The final character then gets overwritten with the terminating \0, finalizing the string and disposing of the final character.
Of course this approach will cause problems if the string does not have at least 1 character, so you should check for that beforehand.

strcpy_s buffer L buffer is too small && 0

i have a problem.
i tried to proceede the following steps:
char * str;
char * s="Hello";
int len = std::strlen(s);
str=new char[len +10];
strcpy_s(str,sizeof(str) ,s);
But the programm displays the error, which i write in the title.
If i replace the sizeof(str) with a number, for example 256, a pop up window appear with the message project.exe has triggered a breakpoint.
How can i solve this errors with strcpy_s??
Thank you!
The sizeof(str) returns the size of char* which is (probably) either 4 or 8 (bytes) depending on the implementation. In your case it appears to be 4 which is not enough to hold the characters that make up the "Hello" literal plus the null terminating character. Since there is not enough space the strcpy_s function invokes undefined behavior. You need at least 6 bytes which is the number of characters + 1 byte for a null character. Also instead of str=new char[len + 10]; you probably meant str = new char[len + 1]; to accommodate for the \0 character. Hence your code should be:
#include <iostream>
int main(){
char* str;
char* s = "Hello";
int len = std::strlen(s);
str = new char[len + 1];
strcpy_s(str, len + 1, s);
}
That being said prefer std::string to C-style character array.
sizeof(str) gives the size of char*, which is not the length of the allocated array. To fix this, you must give the allocated length. In this case this would be
strcpy_s(str, len + 10, s);

How to concatenate a char * and a const char*? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How do I concatenate const/literal strings in C?
(17 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
I need to put "Hello World" in str3. How can I do this ?
const char *one = "Hello ";
char *two = "World";
char *str3;
You have to allocate void* malloc (size_t size); for str3 first then you can use sprintf to write in a string.
char *str3 = malloc(strlen(one) + strlen(two) + 1);
sprintf(str3, "%s%s", one, two); // ^ \0 termination
Adding #Nik Bougalis Suggestion:
One should know dynamic memory allocation in C. In my code I allocated using malloc() so latter in code when I don't need str3 we should explicitly deallocate memory using free() in C.
Also to avoid buffer-overflow always use snprintf instead of sprintf: So re-writing code as follows:
int length = strlen(one) + strlen(two) + 1;
char *str3 = malloc(length * sizeof(char));
snprintf(str3, length, "%s%s", one, two);
// write more code that uses str3
free(str3);
// now don't uses `str3`'s allocated memory
Read a book about C.
str3 = malloc(strlen(one) + strlen(two) + 1) ; // +1 for the 0 terminator
strcpy(str3, one) ;
strcat(str3, two) ;
...
free(str3) ; // frees allocated space when you are finished.
std::vector<char> v;
v.insert(v.end(), one, one + strlen(one));
v.insert(v.end(), two, two + strlen(two));
v.push_back('\0');
str3 = v.data();
String literals like "Hello" are stored in read-only memory, so you need to copy them somewhere where they can be modified.
So you must first allocate memory where the strings are to be stored. A simply char array will do. Then use strcpy() and strcat() to copy the string literals into that array.

Array initialization issue

I need an empty char array, but when i try do thing like this:
char *c;
c = new char [m];
int i;
for (i = 0; i < m; i++)
c[i] = 65 + i;
and then I print c. can see that c = 0x00384900 "НННННННээээ««««««««юоюою"
after cycle it becomes: 0x00384900 "ABCDEFGээээ««««««««юоюою"
How can I solve this problem? Or maybe there is way with string?
If you're trying to create a string, you need to make sure that the character sequence is terminated with the null character \0.
In other words:
char *c;
c = new char [m+1];
int i;
for (i = 0; i < m; i++)
c[i] = 65 + i;
c[m] = '\0';
Without it, functions on strings like printf won't know where the string ends.
printf("%s\n",c); // should work now
If you create a heap array, OS will not initialiase it.
To do so you hvae these options:
Allocate an array statically or globally. The array will be filled with zeroes automatically.
Use ::memset( c, 0, m ); on heap-initialised or stack array to fill it with zeroes.
Use high-level types like std::string.
I believe that's your debugger trying to interpret the string. When using a char array to represent a string in C or C++, you need to include a null byte at the end of the string. So, if you allocate m + 1 characters for c, and then set c[m] = '\0', your debugger should give you the value you are expecting.
If you want a dynamically-allocated string, then the best option is to use the string class from the standard library:
#include <string>
std::string s;
for (i = 0; i < m; i++)
s.push_back(65 + i);
C strings are null terminated. That means that the last character must be a null character ('\0' or just 0).
The functions that manipulate your string use the characters between the beginning of the array (that you passed as parameter, first position in the array) and a null value. If there is no null character in your array the function will iterate pass it's memory until it finds one (memory leak). That's why you got some garbage printed in your example.
When you see a literal constant in your code, like printf("Hello");, it is translate into an array of char of length 6 ('H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o' and '\0');
Of course, to avoid such complexity you can use std::string.

Combining std::string and std::vector<char>

This is not the actual code, but this represents my problem.
std::string str1 = "head";
char *buffer = "body\0body"; // Original code has nullbytes;
std::string str2 = "foot";
std::vector<char> mainStr(buffer, buffer + strlen(buffer));
I want to put str1 and str2 to mainStr in an order:
headbody\0bodyfoot
So the binary data is maintained. Is this possible to do this?
PS: Thanks for telling the strlen part is wrong. I just used it to represent buffer's length. :)
There should be some way of defining length of data in "buffer".
Usually character 0 is used for this and most of standard text functions assume this. So if you use character 0 for other purposes, you have to provide another way to find out length of data.
Just for example:
char buffer[]="body\0body";
std::vector<char> mainStr(buffer,buffer+sizeof(buffer)/sizeof(buffer[0]));
Here we use array because it provides more information that a pointer - size of stored data.
You cannot use strlen as it uses '\0' to determine the end of string. However, the following will do what you are looking for:
std::string head = "header";
std::string foot = "footer";
const char body[] = "body\0body";
std::vector<char> v;
v.assign(head.begin(), head.end());
std::copy(body, body + sizeof(body)/sizeof(body[0]) - 1, std::back_inserter<std::vector<char> >(v));
std::copy(foot.begin(), foot.end(), std::back_inserter<std::vector<char> >(v));
Because the character buffer adds an NUL character at the end of the string, you'll want to ignore it (hence the -1 from the last iterator).
btw. strlen will not work if there are nul bytes in your string!
The code to insert into the vector is:
front:
mainStr.insert(mainStr.begin(), str1.begin(), str1.end());
back:
mainStr.insert(mainStr.end(), str2.begin(), str2.end());
With your code above (using strlen will print)
headbodyfoot
EDIT: just changed the copy to insert as copy requires the space to be available I think.
You could use std::vector<char>::insert to append the data you need into mainStr.
Something like this:
std::string str1 = "head";
char buffer[] = "body\0body"; // Original code has nullbytes;
std::string str2 = "foot";
std::vector<char> mainStr(str1.begin(), str1.end());
mainStr.insert(mainStr.end(), buffer, buffer + sizeof(buffer)/sizeof(buffer[0]));
mainStr.insert(mainStr.end(), str2.begin(), str2.end());
Disclaimer: I didn't compile it.
You can use IO streams.
std::string str1 = "head";
const char *buffer = "body\0body"; // Original code has nullbytes;
std::string str2 = "foot";
std::stringstream ss;
ss.write(str1.c_str(), str1.length())
.write(buffer, 9) // insert real length here
.write(str2.c_str(), str2.length());
std::string result = ss.str();
std::vector<char> vec(result.c_str(), result.c_str() + result.length());
str1 and str2 are string objects that write the text.
I wish compilers would fail on statements like the declaration of buffer and I don't care how much legacy code it breaks. If you're still building it you can still fix it and put in a const.
You would need to change your declaration of vector because strlen will stop at the first null character. If you did
char buffer[] = "body\0body";
then sizeof(buffer) would actually give you close to what you want although you'll get the end null-terminator too.
Once your vector mainStr is then set up correctly you could do:
std::string strConcat;
strConcat.reserve( str1.size() + str2.size() + mainStr.size() );
strConcat.assign(str1);
strConcat.append(mainStr.begin(), mainStr.end());
strConcat.append(str2);
if vector was set up using buffer, buffer+sizeof(buffer)-1
mainStr.resize(str1.length() + str2.length() + strlen(buffer));
memcpy(&mainStr[0], &str1[0], str1.length());
memcpy(&mainStr[str1.length()], buffer, strlen(buffer));
memcpy(&mainStr[str1.length()+strlen(buffer)], &str2[0], str2.length());