Related
I'm trying to compare a character array against a string like so:
const char *var1 = " ";
var1 = getenv("myEnvVar");
if(var1 == "dev")
{
// do stuff
}
This if statement never validates as true... when I output var1 it is "dev", I was thinking maybe it has something to do with a null terminated string, but the strlen of "dev" and var1 are equal... I also thought maybe var1 == "dev" was comparing "dev" against the memory location of var1 instead of the value. *var1 == "dev" results in an error.... tried many things, probably a simple solution for the saavy c++ developer (I havent coded c++ in a looong time).
edit:
we've tried
if(strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0)
and
if(strncmp(var1, "dev", 3) == 0)
Thanks
edit: After testing at home I'm just going to suggest my co-worker changes the datatype to a string. I believe he was comparing a char array of a large size against a string. I put together a program that outputs sizeof, strlen, etc to help us work through it. Thanks to everyone for the help.
Use strcmp() to compare the contents of strings:
if (strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0) {
}
Explanation: in C, a string is a pointer to a memory location which contains bytes. Comparing a char* to a char* using the equality operator won't work as expected, because you are comparing the memory locations of the strings rather than their byte contents. A function such as strcmp() will iterate through both strings, checking their bytes to see if they are equal. strcmp() will return 0 if they are equal, and a non-zero value if they differ. For more details, see the manpage.
You're not working with strings. You're working with pointers.
var1 is a char pointer (const char*). It is not a string. If it is null-terminated, then certain C functions will treat it as a string, but it is fundamentally just a pointer.
So when you compare it to a char array, the array decays to a pointer as well, and the compiler then tries to find an operator == (const char*, const char*).
Such an operator does exist. It takes two pointers and returns true if they point to the same address. So the compiler invokes that, and your code breaks.
IF you want to do string comparisons, you have to tell the compiler that you want to deal with strings, not pointers.
The C way of doing this is to use the strcmp function:
strcmp(var1, "dev");
This will return zero if the two strings are equal. (It will return a value greater than zero if the left-hand side is lexicographically greater than the right hand side, and a value less than zero otherwise.)
So to compare for equality you need to do one of these:
if (!strcmp(var1, "dev")){...}
if (strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0) {...}
However, C++ has a very useful string class. If we use that your code becomes a fair bit simpler. Of course we could create strings from both arguments, but we only need to do it with one of them:
std::string var1 = getenv("myEnvVar");
if(var1 == "dev")
{
// do stuff
}
Now the compiler encounters a comparison between string and char pointer. It can handle that, because a char pointer can be implicitly converted to a string, yielding a string/string comparison. And those behave exactly as you'd expect.
In this code you are not comparing string values, you are comparing pointer values. If you want to compare string values you need to use a string comparison function such as strcmp.
if ( 0 == strcmp(var1, "dev")) {
..
}
"dev" is not a string it is a const char * like var1. Thus you are indeed comparing the memory adresses. Being that var1 is a char pointer, *var1 is a single char (the first character of the pointed to character sequence to be precise). You can't compare a char against a char pointer, which is why that did not work.
Being that this is tagged as c++, it would be sensible to use std::string instead of char pointers, which would make == work as expected. (You would just need to do const std::string var1 instead of const char *var1.
There is more stable function, also gets rid of string folding.
// Add to C++ source
bool string_equal (const char* arg0, const char* arg1)
{
/*
* This function wraps string comparison with string pointers
* (and also works around 'string folding', as I said).
* Converts pointers to std::string
* for make use of string equality operator (==).
* Parameters use 'const' for prevent possible object corruption.
*/
std::string var0 = (std::string) arg0;
std::string var1 = (std::string) arg1;
if (var0 == var1)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
And add declaration to header
// Parameters use 'const' for prevent possible object corruption.
bool string_equal (const char* arg0, const char* arg1);
For usage, just place an 'string_equal' call as condition of if (or ternary) statement/block.
if (string_equal (var1, "dev"))
{
// It is equal, do what needed here.
}
else
{
// It is not equal, do what needed here (optional).
}
Source: sinatramultimedia/fl32 codec (it's written by myself)
your thinking about this program below
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main ()
{
char str[][5] = { "R2D2" , "C3PO" , "R2A6" };
int n;
puts ("Looking for R2 astromech droids...");
for (n=0 ; n<3 ; n++)
if (strncmp (str[n],"R2xx",2) == 0)
{
printf ("found %s\n",str[n]);
}
return 0;
}
//outputs:
//
//Looking for R2 astromech droids...
//found R2D2
//found R2A6
when you should be thinking about inputting something into an array & then use strcmp functions like the program above ... check out a modified program below
#include <iostream>
#include<cctype>
#include <string.h>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int Students=2;
int Projects=3, Avg2=0, Sum2=0, SumT2=0, AvgT2=0, i=0, j=0;
int Grades[Students][Projects];
for(int j=0; j<=Projects-1; j++){
for(int i=0; i<=Students; i++) {
cout <<"Please give grade of student "<< j <<"in project "<< i << ":";
cin >> Grades[j][i];
}
Sum2 = Sum2 + Grades[i][j];
Avg2 = Sum2/Students;
}
SumT2 = SumT2 + Avg2;
AvgT2 = SumT2/Projects;
cout << "avg is : " << AvgT2 << " and sum : " << SumT2 << ":";
return 0;
}
change to string except it only reads 1 input and throws the rest out
maybe need two for loops and two pointers
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <stdio.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char name[100];
//string userInput[26];
int i=0, n=0, m=0;
cout<<"your name? ";
cin>>name;
cout<<"Hello "<<name<< endl;
char *ptr=name;
for (i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
cout<<i<<" "<<ptr[i]<<" "<<(int)ptr[i]<<endl;
}
int length = 0;
while(name[length] != '\0')
{
length++;
}
for(n=0; n<4; n++)
{
if (strncmp(ptr, "snit", 4) == 0)
{
cout << "you found the snitch " << ptr[i];
}
}
cout<<name <<"is"<<length<<"chars long";
}
I'm trying to compare a character array against a string like so:
const char *var1 = " ";
var1 = getenv("myEnvVar");
if(var1 == "dev")
{
// do stuff
}
This if statement never validates as true... when I output var1 it is "dev", I was thinking maybe it has something to do with a null terminated string, but the strlen of "dev" and var1 are equal... I also thought maybe var1 == "dev" was comparing "dev" against the memory location of var1 instead of the value. *var1 == "dev" results in an error.... tried many things, probably a simple solution for the saavy c++ developer (I havent coded c++ in a looong time).
edit:
we've tried
if(strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0)
and
if(strncmp(var1, "dev", 3) == 0)
Thanks
edit: After testing at home I'm just going to suggest my co-worker changes the datatype to a string. I believe he was comparing a char array of a large size against a string. I put together a program that outputs sizeof, strlen, etc to help us work through it. Thanks to everyone for the help.
Use strcmp() to compare the contents of strings:
if (strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0) {
}
Explanation: in C, a string is a pointer to a memory location which contains bytes. Comparing a char* to a char* using the equality operator won't work as expected, because you are comparing the memory locations of the strings rather than their byte contents. A function such as strcmp() will iterate through both strings, checking their bytes to see if they are equal. strcmp() will return 0 if they are equal, and a non-zero value if they differ. For more details, see the manpage.
You're not working with strings. You're working with pointers.
var1 is a char pointer (const char*). It is not a string. If it is null-terminated, then certain C functions will treat it as a string, but it is fundamentally just a pointer.
So when you compare it to a char array, the array decays to a pointer as well, and the compiler then tries to find an operator == (const char*, const char*).
Such an operator does exist. It takes two pointers and returns true if they point to the same address. So the compiler invokes that, and your code breaks.
IF you want to do string comparisons, you have to tell the compiler that you want to deal with strings, not pointers.
The C way of doing this is to use the strcmp function:
strcmp(var1, "dev");
This will return zero if the two strings are equal. (It will return a value greater than zero if the left-hand side is lexicographically greater than the right hand side, and a value less than zero otherwise.)
So to compare for equality you need to do one of these:
if (!strcmp(var1, "dev")){...}
if (strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0) {...}
However, C++ has a very useful string class. If we use that your code becomes a fair bit simpler. Of course we could create strings from both arguments, but we only need to do it with one of them:
std::string var1 = getenv("myEnvVar");
if(var1 == "dev")
{
// do stuff
}
Now the compiler encounters a comparison between string and char pointer. It can handle that, because a char pointer can be implicitly converted to a string, yielding a string/string comparison. And those behave exactly as you'd expect.
In this code you are not comparing string values, you are comparing pointer values. If you want to compare string values you need to use a string comparison function such as strcmp.
if ( 0 == strcmp(var1, "dev")) {
..
}
"dev" is not a string it is a const char * like var1. Thus you are indeed comparing the memory adresses. Being that var1 is a char pointer, *var1 is a single char (the first character of the pointed to character sequence to be precise). You can't compare a char against a char pointer, which is why that did not work.
Being that this is tagged as c++, it would be sensible to use std::string instead of char pointers, which would make == work as expected. (You would just need to do const std::string var1 instead of const char *var1.
There is more stable function, also gets rid of string folding.
// Add to C++ source
bool string_equal (const char* arg0, const char* arg1)
{
/*
* This function wraps string comparison with string pointers
* (and also works around 'string folding', as I said).
* Converts pointers to std::string
* for make use of string equality operator (==).
* Parameters use 'const' for prevent possible object corruption.
*/
std::string var0 = (std::string) arg0;
std::string var1 = (std::string) arg1;
if (var0 == var1)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
And add declaration to header
// Parameters use 'const' for prevent possible object corruption.
bool string_equal (const char* arg0, const char* arg1);
For usage, just place an 'string_equal' call as condition of if (or ternary) statement/block.
if (string_equal (var1, "dev"))
{
// It is equal, do what needed here.
}
else
{
// It is not equal, do what needed here (optional).
}
Source: sinatramultimedia/fl32 codec (it's written by myself)
your thinking about this program below
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main ()
{
char str[][5] = { "R2D2" , "C3PO" , "R2A6" };
int n;
puts ("Looking for R2 astromech droids...");
for (n=0 ; n<3 ; n++)
if (strncmp (str[n],"R2xx",2) == 0)
{
printf ("found %s\n",str[n]);
}
return 0;
}
//outputs:
//
//Looking for R2 astromech droids...
//found R2D2
//found R2A6
when you should be thinking about inputting something into an array & then use strcmp functions like the program above ... check out a modified program below
#include <iostream>
#include<cctype>
#include <string.h>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int Students=2;
int Projects=3, Avg2=0, Sum2=0, SumT2=0, AvgT2=0, i=0, j=0;
int Grades[Students][Projects];
for(int j=0; j<=Projects-1; j++){
for(int i=0; i<=Students; i++) {
cout <<"Please give grade of student "<< j <<"in project "<< i << ":";
cin >> Grades[j][i];
}
Sum2 = Sum2 + Grades[i][j];
Avg2 = Sum2/Students;
}
SumT2 = SumT2 + Avg2;
AvgT2 = SumT2/Projects;
cout << "avg is : " << AvgT2 << " and sum : " << SumT2 << ":";
return 0;
}
change to string except it only reads 1 input and throws the rest out
maybe need two for loops and two pointers
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <stdio.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char name[100];
//string userInput[26];
int i=0, n=0, m=0;
cout<<"your name? ";
cin>>name;
cout<<"Hello "<<name<< endl;
char *ptr=name;
for (i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
cout<<i<<" "<<ptr[i]<<" "<<(int)ptr[i]<<endl;
}
int length = 0;
while(name[length] != '\0')
{
length++;
}
for(n=0; n<4; n++)
{
if (strncmp(ptr, "snit", 4) == 0)
{
cout << "you found the snitch " << ptr[i];
}
}
cout<<name <<"is"<<length<<"chars long";
}
I have input coming in form a file input.txt as two columns of strings such as:
string1 string2
string3 string4
etc.
I am trying to number the strings in ascending order starting form 0 but in such a way that repeating strings don't get assigned new values but keep the once already assigned to them.
I decided to use a set::find operation to do this, but I am having a hard time making it work. Here's what I have so far:
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
std::ifstream myfile ("input.txt");
std::string line;
int num = 0; // num is the total number of input strings
if (myfile.is_open()) {
while(std::getline(myfile, line)) {
++num;
}
}
std::string str1, str1; // strings form input
int str1Num, str2Num; // numbers assigned to strings
int i = 0; // used to assign values to strings
StringInt si;
std::vector<StringInt> saveStringInts(num);
std::set<std::string> alreadyCounted(num, 0);
std::set<std::string>::iterator sit;
std::ifstream myfile2 ("input.txt");
if (myfile2.is_open()) {
while(myfile2.good()) {
// read in input, put it in vars below
myfile2 >> str1 >> str2;
// if strings are not already assigned numbers, assign them
if ((*(sit = alreadyCounted.find(str1)).compare(str1) != 0) { // doesn't work
str1Num = i++;
alreadyCounted.insert(str1);
saveStringInts.push_back(StringInt(str1Num));
}
else {
str1Num = si->getNum(str1);
}
if ((*(sit = alreadyCounted.find(str2)).compare(str2) != 0) {
str2Num = i++;
alreadyCounted.insert(str2);
saveStringInts.push_back(StringInt(str2Num));
}
else {
str2Num = si->getNum(str2);
}
// use str1 and str2 in the functions below before the next iteration
}
}
Unfortunately, I tried other approaches and now completely stuck. If you know how to fix my code or can suggest a better way to accomplish my task, I would greatly appreciate your help.
You need to compare std::set<int>::iterator against the end() iterator of your set, rather than dereferencing the iterator and comparing its value against something! Actually, derferencing the end() iterator is undefined behavior:
if ((*(sit = alreadyCounted.find(str1)).compare(str1) != 0) // WRONG: don't do that!
should really be
if (alreadyCounted.find(str1) != alreadyCounted.end())
... and likewise for the other string. Personally, I would use a different technique, though: when insert()ing into a std::set<T>, you get back a pair of an iterator and an indicator whether the object was inserted. The latter together with the current set's size give the next value, e.g.:
bool result = alreadyCounted.insert(str1).second;
strNum1 = result? alreadyCounted.size() - 1: si->getNum(str1);
I've been reading the book C++ For Everyone and one of the exercises said to write a function string reverse(string str) where the return value is the reverse of str.
Can somebody write some basic code and explain it to me? I've been staring at this question since yesterday and can't figure it out. The furthest I've gotten is having the function return the first letter of str (Which I still don't know how it happened)
This is as far as I got (An hour after posting this question):
string reverse(string str)
{
string word = "";
if (str.length() <= 1)
{
return str;
}
else
{
string str_copy = str;
int n = str_copy.length() - 1;
string last_letter = str_copy.substr(n, 1);
str_copy = str_copy.substr(0, n);
word += reverse(str_copy);
return str_copy;
}
return word;
}
If I enter "Wolf", it returns Wol. Somebody help me out here
If I return word instead of return str_copy then I get a w
If I return last_letter then I get an l
I'll instead explain the recursive algorithm itself. Take the example "input" which should produce "tupni". You can reverse the string recursively by
If the string is empty or a single character, return it unchanged.
Otherwise,
Remove the first character.
Reverse the remaining string.
Add the first character above to the reversed string.
Return the new string.
Try this one
string reverse(string &s)
{
if( s.length() == 0 ) // end condtion to stop recursion
return "";
string last(1,s[s.length()-1]); // create string with last character
string reversed = reverse(s.substr(0,s.length()-1));
return last+reversed; // Make he last character first
}
A recursive function must have the following properties
It must call itself again
It must have a condition when the recursion ends. Otherwise you have a function which
will cause a stack overflow.
This recursive function does basically create a string of the last character and then call itself again with the rest of the string excluding the last character. The real switching happens at the last line where last+reversed is returned. If it would be the other way around nothing would happen.
It is very inefficient but it works to show the concept.
Just to suggest a better way of handling recursion:
String reversal using recursion in C++:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
string reverseStringRecursively(string str){
if (str.length() == 1) {
return str;
}else{
return reverseStringRecursively(str.substr(1,str.length())) + str.at(0);
}
}
int main()
{
string str;
cout<<"Enter the string to reverse : ";
cin>>str;
cout<<"The reversed string is : "<<reverseStringRecursively(str);
return 0;
}
I won't write a full-blown algorithm for you, but here's a hint:
How about swapping the two outermost characters, and then apply the same to the characters in the middle?
Oh, and if that book really proposed string reverse(string str) as an appropriate function signature for this, throw it away and buy a good book instead.
Here is my version of a recursive function that reverses the input string:
void reverse(char *s, size_t len)
{
if ( len <= 1 || !s )
{
return;
}
std::swap(s[0], s[len-1]);// swap first and last simbols
s++; // move pointer to the following char
reverse(s, len-2); // shorten len of string
}
Shortest and easiest
class Solution {
public:
string reverseString(string s) {
string str;
if(s != "\0"){
str = reverseString(s.substr(1, s.length()));
str += s.substr(0,1);
}
return str;
}
};
1-line recursive solution:
string RecursiveReverse(string str, string prev = "") {
return (str.length() == 0 ? prev : RecursiveReverse(str.substr(0, str.length()-1), prev += str[str.length()-1]));
}
You call it like this:
cout << RecursiveReverse("String to Reverse");
I know I shouldn't give a solution, but since no one mentioned this easy solution I though I should share it. I think the code literally is the algorithm so there is no need for a pseudo-code.
void c_plusplus_recursive_swap_reverse(std::string::iterator start,
std::string::iterator end)
{
if(start >= end) {
return;
}
std::iter_swap(start, end);
c_plusplus_recursive_swap_reverse(++start, --end);
}
To call it use:
c_plusplus_recursive_swap_reverse(temp.begin(), temp.end());
All existing solutions had way too much code that didn't really do anything, so, here's my take at it:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
std::string
r(std::string s)
{
if (s.empty())
return s;
return r(s.substr(1)) + s[0];
}
int
main()
{
std::cout << r("testing") << std::endl;
}
P.S. I stumbled upon this question trying to find a C++ way for std::string of what s+1 for a char * in C is; without going the whole route of s.substr(1, s.length()-1), which looks too ugly. Turns out, there's std::string::npos, which means until the end of the string, and it's already the default value for the second argument, so, s.substr(1) is enough (plus, it also looks more efficient and on par with the simple s + 1 in C).
Note, however, that recursion in general doesn't scale as the input grows larger, unless the compiler is able to do what is known as tail-recursion optimisation. (Recursion is rarely relied upon in imperative languages.)
However, in order for the tail recursion optimisation to get activated, it is generally required that, (0), the recursion only happens within the return statement, and that, (1), no further operations are performed with the result of the recursive call back in the parent function.
E.g., in the case above, the + s[0] is logically done by the parent after the child call completes (and it probably would be so even if you go the more uglier s[s.length()-1] + route), so, it might as well prevent most compilers from doing a tail-recursion-optimisation, thus making the function very inefficient on large inputs (if not outright broken due to heap exhaustion).
(For what it's worth, I've tried writing a more tail-recursion-friendly solution (making sure to grow the return result through an argument to the function itself), but disassembly of the resulting binary seems to suggest that it's more involved than that in the imperative languages like C++, see gcc: is there no tail recursion if I return std::string in C++?.)
you can implement your own reverse similar to std::reverse.
template <typename BidirIt>
void reverse(BidirIt first, BidirIt last)
{
if((first == last) || (first == --last))
return;
std::iter_swap(first, last);
reverse(++first, last);
}
I did something like this, it did the reversal in place. I took two variables that traverse the string from two extreme end to the centre of the string and when they overlap or equal to each other then reversal terminates.
Take an example: input string str = "abcd" and call the function as
ReverseString(str,0,str.length()-1);
and increment/decrement the variable pointers recursively.
First the pointers points to 'a' and 'd' and swap them, then they point to 'b' and 'c' and swap them. Eventually i >= j which calls for the base case to be true and hence the recursion terminates. The main take away for this question is to pass input string as reference.
string ReverseString(string& str,int i,int j){
if(str.length() < 1 || str == "" || i >= j){
return "";
}
else{
char temp = str[i];
str[i] = str[j];
str[j] = temp;
ReverseString(str,i+1,j-1);
}
return str;
}
String can be reversed in-place. If we start from smallest possible string i.e. one character string, we don't need to do anything. This is where we stop or return from our recursive call and it becomes our base case.
Next, we have to think of a generic way to swap the smallest string i.e. two characters or more. Simplest logic is to swap the current character str[current_index] with character on the opposite side str[str_length-1 - current_index].
In the end, call the reverse function again for next index.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void reverse_string(std::string& str, int index, int length) {
// Base case: if its a single element, no need to swap
// stop swapping as soon as we reach the mid, hence index*2
// otherwise we will reverse the already reversed string
if( (length - index*2) <= 1 ) {
return;
}
// Reverse logic and recursion:
// swap current and opposite index
std::swap(str[index], str[length-1 - index]);
// do the same for next character (index+1)
reverse_string(str, index+1, length);
}
int main() {
std::string s = "World";
reverse_string(s, 0, s.length());
std::cout << s << endl;
}
There are already some good answer but I want to add my approach with full working Recursive reversing string.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
char * reverse_s(char *, char*, int,int);
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
if(argc != 2) {
cout << "\n ERROR! Input String";
cout << "\n\t " << argv[0] << "STRING" << endl;
return 1;
}
char* str = new char[strlen(argv[1])+1];
strcpy(str,argv[1]);
char* rev_str = new char[strlen(str)+1];
cout<<"\n\nFinal Reverse of '" << str << "' is --> "<< reverse_s(str, rev_str, 0, strlen(str)) << endl;
cin.ignore();
delete rev_str, str;
return 0;
}
char* reverse_s(char* str, char* rev_str, int str_index, int rev_index ) {
if(strlen(str) == 1)
return str;
if(str[str_index] == '\0' ) {
rev_str[str_index] = '\0';
return rev_str;
}
str_index += 1;
rev_index -=1;
rev_str = reverse_s(str, rev_str, str_index, rev_index);
if(rev_index >= 0) {
cout << "\n Now the str value is " << str[str_index-1] << " -- Index " << str_in
dex << " Rev Index: " << rev_index;
rev_str[rev_index] = str[str_index-1];
cout << "\nReversed Value: " << rev_str << endl;
}
return rev_str;
}
void reverse(string &s, int &m) {
if (m == s.size()-1)
return;
int going_to = s.size() - 1 - m;
string leader = s.substr(1,going_to);
string rest = s.substr(going_to+1,s.size());
s = leader + s.substr(0,1) + rest;
reverse(s,++m);
}
int main ()
{
string y = "oprah";
int sz = 0;
reverse(y,sz);
cout << y << endl;
return 0;
}
void ClassName::strgRevese(char *str)
{
if (*str=='\0')
return;
else
strgRevese(str+1);
cout <<*str;
}
here is my 3 line string revers
std::string stringRevers(std::string s)
{
if(s.length()<=1)return s;
string word=s.at(s.length()-1)+stringRevers(s.substr(0,s.length()-1));//copy the last one at the beginning and do the same with the rest
return word;
}
The question is to write a recursive function. Here is one approach. Not a neat code, but does what is required.
/* string reversal through recursion */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define size 1000
char rev(char []);
char new_line[size];
int j = 0;
int i =0;
int main ()
{
char string[]="Game On";
rev(string);
printf("Reversed rev string is %s\n",new_line);
return 0;
}
char rev(char line[])
{
while(line[i]!='\0')
{
i++;
rev(line);
i--;
new_line[j] = line[i];
j++;
return line[i];
}
return line[i];
}
It will reverse Original string recursively
void swap(string &str1, string &str2)
{
string temp = str1;
str1 = str2;
str2 = str1;
}
void ReverseOriginalString(string &str, int p, int sizeOfStr)
{
static int i = 0;
if (p == sizeOfStr)
return;
ReverseOriginalString(str, s + 1, sizeOfStr);
if (i <= p)
swap(&str[i++], &str[p])
}
int main()
{
string st = "Rizwan Haider";
ReverseOriginalString(st, 0, st.length());
std::cout << "Original String is Reversed: " << st << std::endl;
return 0;
}
I'm trying to compare a character array against a string like so:
const char *var1 = " ";
var1 = getenv("myEnvVar");
if(var1 == "dev")
{
// do stuff
}
This if statement never validates as true... when I output var1 it is "dev", I was thinking maybe it has something to do with a null terminated string, but the strlen of "dev" and var1 are equal... I also thought maybe var1 == "dev" was comparing "dev" against the memory location of var1 instead of the value. *var1 == "dev" results in an error.... tried many things, probably a simple solution for the saavy c++ developer (I havent coded c++ in a looong time).
edit:
we've tried
if(strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0)
and
if(strncmp(var1, "dev", 3) == 0)
Thanks
edit: After testing at home I'm just going to suggest my co-worker changes the datatype to a string. I believe he was comparing a char array of a large size against a string. I put together a program that outputs sizeof, strlen, etc to help us work through it. Thanks to everyone for the help.
Use strcmp() to compare the contents of strings:
if (strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0) {
}
Explanation: in C, a string is a pointer to a memory location which contains bytes. Comparing a char* to a char* using the equality operator won't work as expected, because you are comparing the memory locations of the strings rather than their byte contents. A function such as strcmp() will iterate through both strings, checking their bytes to see if they are equal. strcmp() will return 0 if they are equal, and a non-zero value if they differ. For more details, see the manpage.
You're not working with strings. You're working with pointers.
var1 is a char pointer (const char*). It is not a string. If it is null-terminated, then certain C functions will treat it as a string, but it is fundamentally just a pointer.
So when you compare it to a char array, the array decays to a pointer as well, and the compiler then tries to find an operator == (const char*, const char*).
Such an operator does exist. It takes two pointers and returns true if they point to the same address. So the compiler invokes that, and your code breaks.
IF you want to do string comparisons, you have to tell the compiler that you want to deal with strings, not pointers.
The C way of doing this is to use the strcmp function:
strcmp(var1, "dev");
This will return zero if the two strings are equal. (It will return a value greater than zero if the left-hand side is lexicographically greater than the right hand side, and a value less than zero otherwise.)
So to compare for equality you need to do one of these:
if (!strcmp(var1, "dev")){...}
if (strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0) {...}
However, C++ has a very useful string class. If we use that your code becomes a fair bit simpler. Of course we could create strings from both arguments, but we only need to do it with one of them:
std::string var1 = getenv("myEnvVar");
if(var1 == "dev")
{
// do stuff
}
Now the compiler encounters a comparison between string and char pointer. It can handle that, because a char pointer can be implicitly converted to a string, yielding a string/string comparison. And those behave exactly as you'd expect.
In this code you are not comparing string values, you are comparing pointer values. If you want to compare string values you need to use a string comparison function such as strcmp.
if ( 0 == strcmp(var1, "dev")) {
..
}
"dev" is not a string it is a const char * like var1. Thus you are indeed comparing the memory adresses. Being that var1 is a char pointer, *var1 is a single char (the first character of the pointed to character sequence to be precise). You can't compare a char against a char pointer, which is why that did not work.
Being that this is tagged as c++, it would be sensible to use std::string instead of char pointers, which would make == work as expected. (You would just need to do const std::string var1 instead of const char *var1.
There is more stable function, also gets rid of string folding.
// Add to C++ source
bool string_equal (const char* arg0, const char* arg1)
{
/*
* This function wraps string comparison with string pointers
* (and also works around 'string folding', as I said).
* Converts pointers to std::string
* for make use of string equality operator (==).
* Parameters use 'const' for prevent possible object corruption.
*/
std::string var0 = (std::string) arg0;
std::string var1 = (std::string) arg1;
if (var0 == var1)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
And add declaration to header
// Parameters use 'const' for prevent possible object corruption.
bool string_equal (const char* arg0, const char* arg1);
For usage, just place an 'string_equal' call as condition of if (or ternary) statement/block.
if (string_equal (var1, "dev"))
{
// It is equal, do what needed here.
}
else
{
// It is not equal, do what needed here (optional).
}
Source: sinatramultimedia/fl32 codec (it's written by myself)
your thinking about this program below
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main ()
{
char str[][5] = { "R2D2" , "C3PO" , "R2A6" };
int n;
puts ("Looking for R2 astromech droids...");
for (n=0 ; n<3 ; n++)
if (strncmp (str[n],"R2xx",2) == 0)
{
printf ("found %s\n",str[n]);
}
return 0;
}
//outputs:
//
//Looking for R2 astromech droids...
//found R2D2
//found R2A6
when you should be thinking about inputting something into an array & then use strcmp functions like the program above ... check out a modified program below
#include <iostream>
#include<cctype>
#include <string.h>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int Students=2;
int Projects=3, Avg2=0, Sum2=0, SumT2=0, AvgT2=0, i=0, j=0;
int Grades[Students][Projects];
for(int j=0; j<=Projects-1; j++){
for(int i=0; i<=Students; i++) {
cout <<"Please give grade of student "<< j <<"in project "<< i << ":";
cin >> Grades[j][i];
}
Sum2 = Sum2 + Grades[i][j];
Avg2 = Sum2/Students;
}
SumT2 = SumT2 + Avg2;
AvgT2 = SumT2/Projects;
cout << "avg is : " << AvgT2 << " and sum : " << SumT2 << ":";
return 0;
}
change to string except it only reads 1 input and throws the rest out
maybe need two for loops and two pointers
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <stdio.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char name[100];
//string userInput[26];
int i=0, n=0, m=0;
cout<<"your name? ";
cin>>name;
cout<<"Hello "<<name<< endl;
char *ptr=name;
for (i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
cout<<i<<" "<<ptr[i]<<" "<<(int)ptr[i]<<endl;
}
int length = 0;
while(name[length] != '\0')
{
length++;
}
for(n=0; n<4; n++)
{
if (strncmp(ptr, "snit", 4) == 0)
{
cout << "you found the snitch " << ptr[i];
}
}
cout<<name <<"is"<<length<<"chars long";
}