Grabbing a portion of a string like substr - c++

So I'm making a function that is similar to SubStr. This is an assignment so I cannot use the actual function to do this. So far I have created a function to take a string and then get the desired substring. My problem is returning the substring. In the function when I do Substring[b] = AString[b]; the substring is empty, but if I cout from inside the function I get the desired substring. So what is wrong with my code?
Here is a working demo: http://ideone.com/4f5IpA
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void subsec(char AString[], char Substring[], int start, int length);
int main() {
char someString[] = "abcdefg";
char someSubString[] = "";
subsec(someString, someSubString, 1, 3);
cout << someSubString << endl;
return 0;
}
void subsec(char AString[], char Substring[], int start, int length) {
for (int b = start; b <= length; b++) {
Substring[b] = AString[b];
}
}

Maybe this does what you're looking for? It's hard to say as your initial implementation used the length parameter as more of an end position.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void subsec(char AString[], char Substring[], int start, int length)
{
const int end = start + length;
int pos = 0;
for(int b = start; b < end; ++b)
{
Substring[pos++] = AString[b];
}
Substring[pos] = 0;
}
int main()
{
char someString[50] = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
char someSubString[50];
subsec(someString, someSubString, 13, 10);
cout << someSubString << endl;
return 0;
}

There are several problems with the code:
1) The char arraysomeSubString has size 1 which cannot hold the substring.
2) The subsec is not correctly implemented, you should copy to the Substring from index 0.
Also remember to add \0 at the end of the substring.
void subsec(char AString[], char *Substring, int start, int length) {
int ii = 0;
for (int jj = start; jj <= length; jj++, ii++) {
Substring[ii] = AString[jj];
}
Substring[ii] = '\0';
}

You need to allocate more than 1 byte for someSubString i.e.
char someSubString[] = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
or just
char someSubString[100];
if you know the max size you'll ever need.
Either would allocate enough space for the string you're copying to it. Then, you're not doing anything about the terminating 0 either. At the end of a C-style string there needs to be a terminating null to signify end of string. Otherwise cout will print something like;
abcdefgxxxxxxx
if you initialized with x's as I indicated.

There are a few problems with your code as it stands. Firstly, as your compiler is no doubt warning you, in C++ a string literal has type const char[], not just char[].
Secondly, you need to have enough space to store your substring. A good way to do this is for your function to allocate the space it needs, and then pass back a pointer to this memory. This is the way things are typically done in C code. The only thing is that you have to remember to delete the allocated array when you're done with it. (There are other, better ways to do this in C++, with things like smart pointers and wrapper objects, but those come later :-) ).
Thirdly, you'll have a problem if you request a length which is actually longer than the passed-in string -- you'll run off the end and start copying random memory (or just crash), which is definitely not what you want. C strings are terminated with a "nul byte" -- so you need to check whether you've come across this.
Speaking of the nul, you need to make sure that your substring ends with one.
Lastly, it's not really a problem but there's no need for the start parameter, you can just pass a pointer to the middle of the array if you want to.
char* substring(const char* str, int length)
{
// Allocate memory for substring;
char* subs = new char[length+1];
// Copy characters from given string
int i = 0;
while (i < length && str[i] != '\0') {
subs[i] = str[i];
i++;
}
// Append the nul byte
subs[i] = '\0';
return subs;
}
int main()
{
const char someString[] = "foobarbaz"; // Note -- must be const in C++
char* subs = substring(someString + 3, 3);
assert(strcmp(subs, "bar") == 0);
delete subs;
}

Related

How do I reverse a c string without the use of strlen?

I'm trying to implement a void function that takes a c string as its only parameter and reverses it and prints it. Below is my attempt at a solution however I'm not sure how to go about this problem.
void printBackwards(char forward[]) {
int i = 0;
char backwards[];
while (forward[i] != '\0') {
backwards[i] = forward[-i - 1];
i++;
}
cout << backwards;
}
Under such a condition, I guess you are expected to use recursion.
void printBackwards(char forward[]) {
if (!forward[0])
return;
printBackwards(forward + 1);
cout << forward[0];
}
Not being able to use strlen, we'll calculate it ourselves using a simple for loop. Then dynamically allocate a suitable buffer (add one character for the null terminating char, and I "cheated" by using calloc to zero the memory so I don't have to remember to set the null terminator. Then anoher simple loop to copy the original into the result in reverse.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
char *rev(char *s) {
size_t i;
char *s2 = s; // A pointer to the beginning as our first loop modifies s
for (i = 0; *s; s++, i++);
char *result = calloc(0, i + 1);
if (!result) return NULL; // In case calloc didn't allocate the requested memory.
for (size_t j = 0; j < i; j++)
result[j] = s2[i - j - 1];
return result;
}
Assuming you want to reverse the string rather than just printing it in reverse order, you first need to find the last character location (actually the position of the null terminator). Pseudo-code below (since this is an educational assignment):
define null_addr(pointer):
while character at pointer is not null terminator:
increment pointer
return pointer
Then you can use that inside a loop where you swap the two characters and move the pointers toward the center of the string. As soon as the pointers become equal or pass each other the string is reversed:
define reverse(left_pointer):
set right_pointer to null_addr(left_pointer)
while right_pointer > left_pointer plus one:
decrement right_pointer
swap character at left_pointer with character at right_pointer
increment left_pointer
Alternatively (and this appears to be the case since your attempt doesn't actually reverse the original string), if you need to print the string in reverse order without modifying it, you still find the last character. Then you run backwards through the string printing each character until you reach the first. That can be done with something like:
define print_reverse(pointer):
set right_pointer to null_addr(pointer)
while right_pointer > pointer:
decrement right_pointer
print character at right_pointer
That's probably better than creating a new string to hold the reverse of the original, and then printing that reverse.
One thing you should keep in mind. This very much appears to be a C-centric question, not a C++ one (it's using C strings rather than C++ strings, and uses C header files). If that's the case, you should probably avoid things like cout.
By using abstractions, like , your code will be much better at communication WHAT it is doing instead of HOW it is doing it.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <ranges>
int main()
{
std::string hello{ "!dlrow olleH" };
for (const char c : hello | std::views::reverse)
{
std::cout << c;
}
return 0;
}
Use a template
#include <iostream>
template<int N, int I=2>
void printBackwards(char (&forward)[N]) {
std::cout << forward[N-I];
if constexpr (I<N) printBackwards<N, I+1>(forward);
}
int main() {
char test[] = "elephant";
printBackwards(test);
}
While there seems to be several working answers, I thought I'd throw my hat in the stack (pun intended) since none of them take advantage of a FILO data structure (except #273K's answer, which uses a stack implicitly instead of explicitly).
What I would do is simply push everything onto a stack and then print the stack:
#include <stack>
#include <iostream>
void printBackwards(char forward[]) {
// Create a stack to hold our reversed string
std::stack<char> stk;
// Iterate through the string until we hit the null terminator
int i = 0;
while (forward[i] != '\0'){
stk.push(forward[i]);
++i;
}
// Iterate through the stack and print each character as we pop() it
while (stk.size() > 0){
std::cout << stk.top();
stk.pop();
}
// Don't forget the newline (assuming output lines should be separated)
std::cout << '\n';
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]){
char s[] = "This is a string";
printBackwards(s);
return 0;
}
Hi guys as promised I have come back to add my own answer. This is my own way using array subscripts and using what I currently know.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void printBackwards(char[]);
int main()
{
char word[] = "apples";
printBackwards(word);
return 0;
}
void printBackwards(char word[]) {
char* temp = word;
int count = 0;
while (*temp++ != '\0') {
count++;
}
for (int i = count - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
cout << word[i];
}
}
You can make a fixed-size buffer and create new ones if needed. Fill it reverse by moving the string offset back with every inserted character. Chars exceeding the buffer are returned to be processed later, so you can make a list of such buffers:
template<int SIZE>
struct ReversedCStr
{
static_assert(SIZE > 10); // just some minimal size treshold
// constexpr
ReversedCStr(char const* c_str, char const** tail = nullptr) noexcept
{
for(buffer[offset] = '\0'; *c_str != '\0';)
{
buffer[--offset] = *c_str++;
if(offset == 0) break;
}
if(tail) *tail = c_str;
}
//constexpr
char const* c_str() const noexcept { return buffer.data()+offset;};
private:
size_t offset = SIZE -1;
std::array<char,SIZE> buffer;
};
The tag is 'C++' so I assume you use C++ not C. The following code is C++11 so it should fit in every modern project. I posted the working example on godbolt.org.
It doesn't allocate memory, and is completely exception-free. The maximum memory wasted is {buffer_size + sizeof(char*)*number_of_chunks}, and can be easily turned into a list of reversed chunks like this:
char const* tail;
std::vector<ReversedCStr<11>> vec;
for(vec.emplace_back(str,&tail); *tail != '\0';)
vec.emplace_back(tail,&tail);

Why can't I call my function recursively?

I'm trying to compile this code in order to reverse a string:
void reverse(char *str, int n)
{
if (n==0 || n==1) {
return; //acts as quit
} else {
char i = str[0]; //1st position of string
char j = str[n-1]; //Last position of string
char temp = str[i];
str[i] = str[j]; //Swap
str[j] = temp;
reverse(str[i+1],n-1); // <-- this line
}
}
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
char *word = "hello";
int n = sizeof word;
reverse(word, n);
std::cout << word << std::endl;
return 0;
}
The compiler reports an error where I call reverse() recursively:
invalid conversion from char to char* at reverse(str[i+1], n-1).
Why?
Any advice on other issues in my code is also welcome.
str[i+1] is a character, not a pointer to a character; hence the error message.
When you enter the function, str points to the character you're going to swap with the n:th character away from str.
What you need to do in the recursion is to increment the pointer so it points to the next character.
You also need to decrease n by two, because it should be a distance from str + 1, not from str.
(This is easy to get wrong; see the edit history of this answer for an example.)
You're also using the characters in the strings as indexes into the strings when swapping.
(If you had the input "ab", you would do char temp = str['a']; str['a'] = str['b']; str['b'] = temp;. This is obviously not correct.)
str[0] is not the position of the first character, it is the first character.
Use std::swap if you're allowed to, otherwise see below.
More issues: you shouldn't use sizeof word, as that is either 4 or 8 depending your target architecture - it's equivalent to sizeof(char*).
You should use strlen to find out how long a string is.
Further, you should get a warning for
char *word = "hello";
as that particular conversion is dangerous - "hello" is a const array and modifying it is undefined.
(It would be safe if you never modified the array, but you are, so it isn't.)
Copy it into a non-const array instead:
char word[] = "hello";
and increase the warning level of your compiler.
Here's a fixed version:
void reverse(char *str, int n)
{
if(n <= 1) // Play it safe even with negative n
{
return;
}
else
{
// You could replace this with std::swap(str[0], str[n-1])
char temp = str[0]; //1st character in the string
str[0] = str[n-1]; //Swap
str[n-1] = temp;
// n - 2 is one step closer to str + 1 than n is to str.
reverse(str + 1, n - 2);
}
}
int main()
{
char word[] = "hello";
// sizeof would actually work here, but it's fragile so I prefer strlen.
reverse(word, strlen(word));
std::cout << word << std::endl;
}
I'm going to dissect your code, as if you'd posted over on Code Review. You did ask for other observations, after all...
Firstly,
char *word = "hello";
Your compiler should warn you that pointing a char* at a literal string is undefined behaviour (if not, make sure that you have actually enabled a good set of warnings. Many compilers emit very few warnings by default, for historical reasons). You need to ensure that you have a writable string; for that you can use a char[]:
char word[] = "hello";
The next line
int n = sizeof word;
has now changed meaning, but is still wrong. In your original code, it was the size of a pointer to char, which is unlikely to be the same as the length of the word "hello". With the change to char[], it's now the size of an array of 6 characters, i.e. 6. The sixth character is the NUL that ends the string literal. Instead of the sizeof operator, you probably want to use the strlen() function.
Moving on to reverse():
You read characters from positions in the string, and then use those characters to index it. That's not what you want, and GCC warns against indexing using plain char as it may be signed or unsigned. You just want to index in one place, and your i and j are unnecessary.
Finally, the question you asked. str[i+1] is the character at position i+1, but your function wants a pointer to character, which is simply str+i+1. Or, since we worked out we don't want i in there, just str+1.
Note also that you'll need to subtract 2 from n, not 1, as it will be used as a count of characters from str+1. If you only subtract 1, you'll always be swapping with the last character, and you'll achieve a 'roll' rather than a 'reverse'.
Here's a working version:
void reverse(char *str, int n)
{
if (n < 2)
// end of recursion
return; //acts as quit
char temp = str[0];
str[0] = str[n-1]; //Swap
str[n-1] = temp;
reverse(str+1,n-2);
}
#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
int main()
{
char word[] = "hello";
int n = std::strlen(word);
reverse(word, n);
std::cout << word << std::endl;
}
We can make further changes. For example, we could use std::swap to express the switching more clearly. And we could pass a pair of pointers instead of a pointer and a length:
#include <utility> // assuming C++11 - else <algorithm>
void reverse(char *str, char *end)
{
if (end <= str)
// end of recursion
return;
std::swap(*str, *end);
reverse(str+1, end-1);
}
and invoke it with reverse(word, word+n-1).
Finally (as I'm not going to mention std::reverse()), here's the idiomatic iterative version:
void reverse(char *str, char *end)
{
while (str < end)
std::swap(*str++, *end--);
}
use like this :
reverse(&str[i+1],n-1);
pass address of the (i+1)th position not value.

Adding spaces at the beginning of an array of chars

As in the title, I need to add user-specified number of spaces at the beginning of some word, using array of chars. I need to do it in a function which takes my array as a parameter and returns it. Here's my code:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void writeDownCharArray(char t[], int sizee)
{
for (int i=0;i<sizee;i++)
{
cout<<t[i];
}
}
char * addSpaces(char t[], int ammountOfSpaces)
{
int numberOfCharacters=0;
for (int i=0; t[i]!=NULL; i++){numberOfCharacters++;} //checking the amount of characters in my array
char t2[numberOfCharacters+10];
for (int i=0; i<ammountOfSpaces; i++) {t2[i]=' ';} //adding the sapces
for (int i=ilosc;i<numberOfCharacters+ammountOfSpaces;i++) {t2[i]=t[i-ammountOfSpaces];} //filling my new array with characters from the previous one
return t2;
}
int main()
{
int numberOfSpaces;
char t[10];
cout << "Text some word: ";
cin.getline(t,10);
cout<<"How many spaces?: ";cin>>numberOfSpaces;
writeDownCharArray(addSpaces(t, numberOfSpaces), HERE);
return 0;
}
And now: How do I print it to the screen? If I say cout<<addSpaces(t, numberOfSpaces); it actually prints something strange to the screen (not numbers, just strange characters). And if I say writeDownCharArray, then what should I put in "HERE" place?
The C++ way to solve this would be to use a std::string like
std::string add_spaces(const std::string & line, std::size_t number_of_spaces)
{
std::string spaces(number_of_spaces, ' ');
return spaces + line;
}
If you cannot use std::string then you are doing to have to deal with dynamic memory allocations and change
char t2[numberOfCharacters+10];
to
char * ts = new char[numberOfCharacters + ammountOfSpaces + 1];
We have to have this as Variable length arrays are not standard and trying to return a pointer to an array declared in a function will leave you with a dangling pointer and trying to use it is undefined behavior.
Since new[] was used in the function you will need to remember to call delete[] on the pointer that is returned after you are done with it. This is another benefit of using a std::string as it takes care of itself.
As far as writeDownCharArray is concerned you do not need a size parameter as cout can handle null terminated c-strings. You can simply have
void writeDownCharArray(char t[])
{
cout<<t;
}
And then you main would look like
char * foo = addSpaces(t, numberOfSpaces);
writeDownCharArray(foo);
delete [] foo;

Delete repeated characters from a random word

I'm making a class to delete repeated character from a random word. For example if the input is "aabbccddeeff", it should output "abcdef". However my output contains strange characters after "abcdef". The main.cpp file already exists as the requirements for creating the class. Please see the following codes:
main.ccp
#include <iostream>
#include "repeatdeletion.h"
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char* noRepeats;
int length;
string s;
cout<<"Enter a random word with repeating characters: ";
cin>>s;
RepeatDeletion d;
length=s.length();
noRepeats=d.deleteRepeats(s, length);
cout<<"Your word without any repeating characters: ";
for (int k=0; k<length; k++){
cout<<noRepeats[k];
}
cout<<endl;
delete [] noRepeats;
noRepeats=NULL;
return 0;
}
repeatdeletion.h
#ifndef REPEATDELETION_H
#define REPEATDELETION_H
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class RepeatDeletion
{
char* c;
char arr[128]={};
bool repeated;
bool isRepeated(char);
public:
RepeatDeletion();
~RepeatDeletion();
char* deleteRepeats(string, int);
};
#endif // REPEATDELETION_H
repeatdeletion.cpp
#include "repeatdeletion.h"
RepeatDeletion::RepeatDeletion()
{
repeated=false;
}
RepeatDeletion::~RepeatDeletion()
{
delete [] c;
c=NULL;
}
bool RepeatDeletion::isRepeated(char c){
bool repeated=false;
if (arr[c]>=1){
repeated=true;
arr[c]++;
}else{
arr[c]++;
}
return repeated;
}
char* RepeatDeletion::deleteRepeats(string str, int len){
c=new char[len];
int j=0;
for (int i=0; i<len; i++){
if (isRepeated(str[i])==false){
c[j]=str[i];
j++;
}
}
return c;
}
Your return character array is not null terminated.
The length function of string does not include \0.
You have two choices
Add null at the end of returned character array, and std::cout the char array directly (instead of char by char)
Output the final length of your char array, and use that as range to print it char by char
Your printing loop loops using the old and unmodified string length. That means you will go outside the characters you added to memory returned by deleteRepeats.
The easiest solution to handle this is to terminate the data as a proper string, and check for the terminator in the loop.
If you want to use a C-string array, they have a null terminator at the end. That means you'll want to (in deleteRepeats) define your character array one character larger than the length:
c=new char[len+1];
And, after the for loop, ensure you put that null terminator in:
c[j] = '\0';
Then, in your calling function, you can just do:
cout << noRepeats;
Even if you don't want to use C strings, you'll need to communicate the new length back to the caller somehow (currently, you're using the original length). The easiest way to do that is (IMNSHO) still using a C-style string and using strlen to get the new length (a).
Otherwise, you're going to need something like a reference parameter for the new length, populated by the function and used by the caller.
(a) But I'd suggest rethinking the way you do things. If you want to be a C++ coder, be a C++ coder. In other words, use std::string for strings since it avoids the vast majority of problems people seem to have with C strings.
That's because in your code you write the following:
cout<<"Your word without any repeating characters: ";
for (int k=0; k<length; k++){
cout<<noRepeats[k];
}
cout<<endl;
Here, length refers to the length of the original string (which you, by the way shouldn't pass to your deleteRepeats method). I would suggest you make deleteRepeats return a string and write something like this:
std::string noRepeats = d.deleteRepeats(s);
std::cout << "Your word without any repeating characters: ";
std::cout << noRepeats << std::endl;
C-style string (char *, if you insist) follow the convention that the last character is '\0', indicating that the string ends. You could also change deleteRepeats by appending '\0', i.e.
char* RepeatDeletion::deleteRepeats(string str){
c = new char[str.size() + 1];
int j = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < str.size(); i++){
if(isRepeated(str[i]) == false){
c[j] = str[i];
j++;
}
}
c[j] = '\0';
return c;
}
and in your main
std::cout << noRepeats << std::endl;
instead of the for loop. But really, you should use std::string, and if possible not mix it with char *. Hope that helps.
for(k=0;k<length;k++)
Here length should be the exact length of noRepeats, but not of s
so :
char* RepeatDeletion::deleteRepeats(string str, int len)
should return the length-after too
use std::unique it does what you want:
std::string s{};
std::cin>>s;
auto it = std::unique(std::begin(s), std::end(s));
s.resize(std::distance(std::begin(s),it));
std::cout << s;
the way it works is to go through the range begin to end and move all the remaining elements forward if the current element is equal to the next. It returns the position of the end of the new string (it in this example) but does not actually shorten the string so on the next line we shorten the string to the length equal to the distance of begin() to it.
see live at http://ideone.com/0CeaHW

I get a number 2 when I reverse my string

I wrote this code to reverse strings. It works well, but when I enter short strings like "american beauty," it actually prints "ytuaeb nacirema2." This is my code. I would like to know what is wrong with my code that prints a random 2 at the end of the string. Thanks
// This program prompts the user to enter a string and displays it backwards.
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
using namespace std;
void printBackwards(char *strPtr); // Function prototype
int main() {
const int SIZE = 50;
char userString[SIZE];
char *strPtr;
cout << "Please enter a string (up to 49 characters)";
cin.getline(userString, SIZE);
printBackwards(userString);
}
//**************************************************************
// Definition of printBackwards. This function receives a *
// pointer to character and inverts the order of the characters*
// within it. *
//**************************************************************
void printBackwards(char *strPtr) {
const int SIZE = 50;
int length = 0;
char stringInverted[SIZE];
int count = 0;
char *strPtr1 = 0;
int stringSize;
int i = 0;
int sum = 0;
while (*strPtr != '\0') {
strPtr++; // Set the pointer at the end of the string.
sum++; // Add to sum.
}
strPtr--;
// Save the contents of strPtr on stringInverted on inverted order
while (count < sum) {
stringInverted[count] = *strPtr;
strPtr--;
count++;
}
// Add '\0' at the end of stringSize
stringInverted[count] == '\0';
cout << stringInverted << endl;
}
Thanks.
Your null termination is wrong. You're using == instead of =. You need to change:
stringInverted[count] == '\0';
into
stringInverted[count] = '\0';
// Add '\0' at the end of stringSize
stringInverted[count] == '\0';
Should use = here.
What is wrong with your code is that you do not even use strlen for counting the length of the string and you use fixed size strings (no malloc, or, gasp new[]), or the std::string (this is C++)! Even in plain C, not using strlen is always wrong because it is hand-optimized for the processor. What is worst, you have allocated the string to be returned (stringInverted) from the stack frame, which means when the function exits, the pointer is invalid and any time the code "works" is purely accidental.
To reverse a string on c++ you do this:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main() {
std::string s = "asdfasdf";
std::string reversed (s.rbegin(), s.rend());
std::cout << reversed << std::endl;
}
To reverse a string in C99 you do this:
char *reverse(const char *string) {
int length = strlen(string);
char *rv = (char*)malloc(length + 1);
char *end = rv + length;
*end-- = 0;
for ( ; end >= rv; end --, string ++) {
*end = *string;
}
return rv;
}
and remember to free the returned pointer after use. All other answers so far are blatantly wrong :)