Array causes stack overflow error - c++

Question

My program is this:
#include<iostream>
#include<fstream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char choice;
int o,i,marks[i],ttlcredit=0;
double ttlGPA=0,finalGPA=0,credit[7][2],clsavg;
cout<<"Please enter what you want to calculate"<<endl;
cout<<"A for calculating Class Average GPA"<<endl;
cout<<"B for calculating a Specific GPA"<<endl;
cout<<"Your choice is? ";
cin>>choice;
cout<<endl;
if (choice == 'A'||choice == 'a')
{
cout<<"=========================================="<<endl;
cout<<" Class Average GPA"<<endl;
cout<<"=========================================="<<endl<<endl;
cout<<"Please enter the number of students in the class: ";
cin>>number;
for(i=0;i<number;i++)
{
cout<<"\nEnter student #"<<i+1<<"'s marks: ";
cin>>marks[i];
ttlGPA=ttlGPA+marks[i];
}
clsavg=ttlGPA/number;
cout<<"\nThe Average is: "<<clsavg<<endl;
}
else
{
}
}
It is half completed. When I build and run on CodeBlocks, an error instantly appeared:
I tried finding the source of error and I think that it is caused by the following in the code:
int o,i,marks[i],ttlcredit=0;
What makes me think so is because when I remove the [i] from marks[i], I will be not receive that error.
I think is stack overflow because I use Microsoft Visual Studio to help me debug and this is the error they gave me:
Unhandled exception at 0x0041419e in Project (1).exe: 0xC00000FD: Stack overflow.
My question is...
Is that the main cause of problem?
How do I resolve this issue?

Answer 1

You have to initialize the marks array with a positive length.
Get the number of students first, THEN create the array using that number.
Also, you need to declare the variable number.

Answer 2

As the other answers stated correctly, the problem is that int i is used uninitialized. However, the proposed fix
// initialze i
int marks[i];
is not standard C++, but only available through a compiler extension. In C++, the length of a built-in array must be a compile time constant. The better solution would be using std::vector:
// initialize i (better make it std::size_t instead of int)
std::vector<int> marks (i);
This will create a variable length array in a safe and standard conforming way.

Answer 3

First thing to say is that you simply shouldn't use arrays. They just are too weird in C and C++, and we have superior alternatives in modern C++.
Anyway, whether you use arrays or vectors, there are some important issues. Before discussing marks[i], it's simpler to look at credit[7][2] in this code.
int o,i,marks[i],ttlcredit=0;
double ttlGPA=0,finalGPA=0,credit[7][2],clsavg;
The dimensions are explicit in this declaration of credit. It's seven-times-two. Simple enough. You can read and write to credit[0][0] and credit[6][1] and many other values. But if you go outside the range, e.g. try to use credit[7][0], your program will compile and will probably appear correct for a while, but it could behave very badly and it is undefined how it will behave. It could decide to delete all the files on your computer, it is (seriously) entitled to do anything random and crazy. This is Undefined Behaviour.
Anyway, the really weird line is the declaration of marks.
int marks[i];
This definitely doesn't do what you think it does. It doesn't create an array that can be "indexed with arbitrary i". No, it allocates an array whose size is the initial value of i. But i is undefined at this stage so this is meaningless.
But i isn't relevant here anyway. How big do you want this array to be? The answer is number, isn't it? That is the number of people you'll store in your array.
So, a small improvement is to do this instead of int marks[i].
int marks[number];
But even this isn't correct. The value of number isn't set until the line cin >> number;, therefore you must declare int marks[number] after the line cin >> number; in order to ensure that marks has the correct size.
But, but, but, even after all this, we still don't have standard C++. It's OK to do int credit[7][2] because the size is fixed at compile time. You are normally not allowed to set the size of an array at runtime, e.g. int marks[number]. You might be able to use it if your compiler allows this extension (it's called Variable Length Array, from C).
So, this is not standard C++, and it's potentially very dangerous (see the Undefined Behaviour). What's the solution?
The solution is the standard solution for any problem involving arrays. Stop using arrays. (Really advanced programmers, in particular situations, might use std::array in modern C++, or even write their own clone of std:: array in older C++. But raw C [] arrays are to be avoided where possible.)
#include<vector>
int o,i,ttlcredit=0;
std::vector<int> marks;
marks is initially empty. We don't do cin >> marks[i];. Instead we use push_back to append new items to the end of the list.
int next_mark;
cin >> next_mark;
marks.push_back(next_mark);
Also, don't use marks[i] with a vector. It might look OK, but it is dangerous. Better to use marks.at(i) to read or write the element. at will do bounds checking for you, giving you a proper error message if i is too small (less then 0) or too big for the size of the vector.

Answer 4

int o,i,marks[i],ttlcredit=0;
i is not initialized. initialize i first.
If you are not sure of the size of the array, allocate it dynamically.
use new
refer this link on how to use new - cpluspluss