Dynamic memory in C

Did some reading, but I can't grasp the concepts. I realize that you need to use malloc() on a new pointer but I get confused in the transitions to functions. I could really use any help. Any advice on how I am doing this wrong?

Code:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

struct point
{
	int x; //point x
	int y; //point y
	char label[21]; //label of 2 points
	struct point *ptrNext;	// self referential pointer
};

int isEmptyList(struct point *ptrF);
void PrintList(struct point *ptrF);
void ResetList(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL);
void AddToBeginning(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL);
void AddToEnd(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL);
void InputRecord(struct point *ptrNew); // used by Add to interactively get the values from the user
int isEmptyList(struct point *ptrF)//emptylist will determine if the list is empty
{
   {
		if(ptrF==NULL)
		{
			return 0;
		}
		else
			return 1;
   }
}
//print list will print out everything
void PrintList(struct point *ptrF)
{
	struct point *pC = ptrF;
	while(pC != NULL)
   {
		printf("Label: %s\nx: %d y:%d\n", pC->label, pC->x, pC->y);
		pC = pC->ptrNext;  // this is how a list is traversed
   }	
}
//reset list will make everything equal to NULL
void ResetList(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL)
{
	free(ptrF);
	free(ptrL);
}
//addtobeginning will add a number to the beginning
void AddToBeginning(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL)
{
	struct point ptrNew;
	if(ptrF==NULL)
         *ptrF=ptrNew;
	InputRecord(&ptrNew);
	ptrNew.ptrNext=ptrF;
	ptrF=&ptrNew;
}
//addtoend will add a number to the end
void AddToEnd(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL)
{
	struct point ptrNew;
	if(ptrF==NULL)
		*ptrF = ptrNew;
	else
	{
		InputRecord(&ptrNew);
		ptrL=&ptrNew;
	}	
}
//reads in input
void InputRecord(struct point *ptrNew)
{
	printf("Please enter the 2 Data points(x and y):\n");
	ptrFirst=ptrNew;
	if(ptrNew==NULL)
		printf("No more memory.\n");	
	scanf("%d%d",ptrFirst->x, ptrFirst->y);	
	printf("Please enter the label:\n");
	scanf("%s", ptrFirst->label);
	ptrFirst->ptrNext=NULL;
}

struct point *ptrFirst = NULL;
struct point *ptrLast = NULL;
struct point *ptrNew = NULL;

void main()
{
	int empty=0;//helps determine if list is empty
	int input=1;//reads in user input
	while(input!=0)
	{
		printf(
		"1. Add a point at the END of the list.\n"
		"2. Add a point at the BEGINNING of the list.\n"
		"3. Is the list empty?\n"
		"4. Erase all points from the list (reset).\n"
		"5. Display the list.\n"
		"6. Save the list to a sequential file (reset/replace file contents)\n"
		"7. Read the list back from a sequential file\n" 
		"(reset/replace current memory content)\n"
		"0. Exit\n\n"
		);
		scanf("%d", &input);
		if(input==1)
		{
			ptrNew=(struct point *)(malloc(sizeof(struct point)));
			AddToEnd(ptrFirst,ptrLast);
		}
		if(input==2)
		{
			ptrNew=(struct point *)(malloc(sizeof(struct point)));
			AddToBeginning(ptrFirst,ptrLast);
		}
		if(input==3)
		{
			ptrNew=(struct point *)(malloc(sizeof(struct point)));
			empty=isEmptyList(ptrFirst);
			if(empty==1)
			{
				printf("The list is not empty\n\n");
			}
			else
			{
				printf("The list is empty\n\n");
			}
		}
		if(input==4)
		{
			ptrNew=(struct point *)(malloc(sizeof(struct point)));
			ResetList(ptrFirst,ptrLast);
		}
		if(input==5)
		{
			ptrNew=(struct point *)(malloc(sizeof(struct point)));
			PrintList(ptrFirst);
		}
		if(input==6)
		{
		}
		if(input==7)
		{
		}
		if(input==0)
		{
			input=0;
		}
		if(input<0)
			printf("Invalid entry, try again\n\n");
		if(input>7)	
			printf("Invalid entry, try again\n\n");
	}
}

It segmentation faults when scanning in the x and y values.

foo->thing gives you the value of thing. You still need a pointer to thing (its address) if you are going to try to scanf into it, just like if it was an actual int:

Code:

scanf( "%d", &myint );
/* or */
scanf( "%d", &foo->thing );

The first part is just saying "I'm accessing something through a pointer to a function that contains..." thing.


Quzah.

I spent forever trying to solve that, not sure how I never tried that. It is telling me that ptrFirst is undefined inside of InputRecord even though I have it declared globally, Why is that happening? Thanks for the & too.

Code:

void InputRecord(struct point *ptrNew)
{
	printf("Please enter the 2 Data points(x and y):\n");
	ptrFirst=ptrNew;
	if(ptrNew==NULL)
		printf("No more memory.\n");	
	scanf("%d%d",ptrFirst->x, ptrFirst->y);	
	printf("Please enter the label:\n");
	scanf("%s", ptrFirst->label);
	ptrFirst->ptrNext=NULL;
}

struct point *ptrFirst = NULL;
struct point *ptrLast = NULL;
struct point *ptrNew = NULL;

Because this comes before that in your program, so this doesn't know anything about that.

Your files in C are handled top to bottom by the compiler. Line 1 knows nothing of line 2. That's why you prototype functions at the top of a file, and write them at the bottom. That's also why you generally declare all of your variables at the top of the file, function, or block, so everything from that point on knows about them.


Quzah.

That problem is solved, however its back to segmenting again, and I do have the & in there now. Any idea what else could be causing this?:

Code:

void InputRecord(struct point *ptrNew)
{
	printf("Please enter the 2 Data points(x and y):\n");
	ptrFirst=ptrNew;
	if(ptrNew==NULL)
		printf("No more memory.\n");	
	scanf("%d%d",&ptrFirst->x, &ptrFirst->y);	
	printf("Please enter the label:\n");
	scanf("%s", ptrFirst->label);
	ptrFirst->ptrNext=NULL;
}

Originally Posted by JamesD

That problem is solved, however its back to segmenting again, and I do have the & in there now. Any idea what else could be causing this?:

Code:

void InputRecord(struct point *ptrNew)
{
	printf("Please enter the 2 Data points(x and y):\n");
	ptrFirst=ptrNew;
	if(ptrNew==NULL)
		printf("No more memory.\n");	
	scanf("%d%d",&ptrFirst->x, &ptrFirst->y);	
	printf("Please enter the label:\n");
	scanf("%s", ptrFirst->label);
	ptrFirst->ptrNext=NULL;
}

Well, you check to see if you ran out of memory (have a null pointer) but you go ahead and use it anyway. You should be doing something like:

Code:

void InputRecord(struct point *ptrNew)
{
    if( ptrNew != NULL )
    {
        ...ok
    }
    else
    {
        error...
    }
}

Quzah.

Yea, I meant to get that done, here it is:

Code:

void InputRecord(struct point *ptrNew)
{
	printf("Please enter the 2 Data points(x and y):\n");
	ptrFirst=ptrNew;
	if(ptrNew==NULL)
		printf("No more memory.\n");
	else
	{
	scanf("%d%d",&ptrFirst->x, &ptrFirst->y);	
	printf("Please enter the label:\n");
	scanf("%s", ptrFirst->label);
	ptrFirst->ptrNext=NULL;
	}
}

Its still segmenting though, I looked it over again, but being new to it still came up blank, any professional advice?

At what point? What's the last line you are getting before it segfaults? You also have a function's argument named the same thing as your global. I'm also not sure that you mean to be overwriting your list with your new node without keeping track of what's there already. Your function to empty a list doesn't. It just causes a memory leak.


Quzah.

It segements when I try to enter a number for input inside main, and sorry about the horrible coding... I really have a lot to learn.
It prints out the menu and I enter the number for the list it will segment only if I enter a 1 or 2. So its a problem within AddtoBeginning, AddtoEnd or InputRecord.

Code:

void AddToBeginning(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL)
{
	struct point ptrNew;
	if(ptrF==NULL)
         *ptrF=ptrNew;
	InputRecord(&ptrNew);
	ptrNew.ptrNext=ptrF;
	ptrF=&ptrNew;
}
//addtoend will add a number to the end
void AddToEnd(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL)
{
	struct point ptrNew;
	if(ptrF==NULL)
		*ptrF = ptrNew;
	else
	{
		InputRecord(&ptrNew);
		ptrL=&ptrNew;
	}	
}

Those aren't pointers. They will be destroyed when the function returns. Also, you keep naming local variables and function arguments the same thing as your globals.

Quzah.

Took a few mins to look over what you mentioned here is what I came up with:

Code:

void AddToBeginning(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL)
{
	if(ptrF==NULL)
         ptrF=ptrNew;
	InputRecord(ptrNew);
	ptrFirst->ptrNext=NULL;
}
//addtoend will add a number to the end
void AddToEnd(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL)
{
	if(ptrF==NULL)
		ptrF = ptrNew;
	else
	{
		InputRecord(ptrNew);
		ptrL=ptrNew;
	}	
}
//reads in input
void InputRecord(struct point *ptrNew)
{
	printf("Please enter the 2 Data points(x and y):\n");
	ptrFirst=ptrNew;
	if(ptrNew==NULL)
		printf("No more memory.\n");
	else
	{
		scanf("%d%d",&ptrFirst->x, &ptrFirst->y);	
		printf("Please enter the label:\n");
		scanf("%s", ptrFirst->label);
	}
}

So it takes in reads and displays correctly, now I have to get ResetList to run.

Code:

void ResetList(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL)
{
	free(PtrF);
	free(PtrL);
}

I kinda knew going into writing that it would fail, but how do you free a pointer without losing what it points to? and if you free the next you would lose what it points to.. so forth, how do you manage this?

You don't free pointers if you want to keep what they point to. If you want to free a list, you would do something like this:

Code:

while pointer is not null
    temp = pointer->next
    free( pointer )
    pointer = temp

Quzah.

Added temp globally:

Code:

struct point *ptrFirst = NULL;
struct point *ptrLast = NULL;
struct point *ptrNew = NULL;
struct point *temp=NULL;

Modified the function to this:

Code:

void ResetList(struct point *ptrF, struct point *ptrL)
{
	while(ptrF!=NULL)
	{
		temp=ptrF->ptrNext;
		free(ptrF);
		ptrF=temp;
	}
}

That didn't seem to work though, is ptrF what I should be using?

Why do you keep making everything global?

Quzah.

There's also the little matter of a rather nasty memory leak...

Code:

if(input==3)
{
    ptrNew=(struct point *)(malloc(sizeof(struct point)));
    empty=isEmptyList(ptrFirst);
    if(empty==1)
      {
         printf("The list is not empty\n\n");
     }
   else
    {
      printf("The list is empty\n\n");
    }
   }
if(input==4)
  {
    ptrNew=(struct point *)(malloc(sizeof(struct point)));
    ResetList(ptrFirst,ptrLast);
  }
if(input==5)
  {
     ptrNew=(struct point *)(malloc(sizeof(struct point)));
     PrintList(ptrFirst);
   }

You are repeatedly allocating memory to the same pointer and not using it. This will result in an accumulation of unused, reserved memory as the program runs...