Incompatible types when assigning to type ‘char[11]’ from type ‘char *'.

Code:

---

void table_sorting (char l_plates[M][N], double payments[M]) {
    int  i, j;
    char *tmp1;
    double tmp2;
   
   
    for (i = 0; i < M; i++) {
        for (j = i; j < M; j++) {
            if (strcmp(l_plates[i], l_plates[j]) > 0) {
               
                tmp1 = l_plates[i];
                l_plates[i] = l_plates[j];
                l_plates[j] = tmp1;
               
                tmp2 = payments[i];
                payments[i] = payments[j];
                payments[j] = tmp2;
            }
        }
    }
}

---

So at lines 12 & 13 I'm getting
error: incompatible types when assigning to type ‘char[11]’ from type ‘char *'

How come?

l_plates[i] = tmp1 is trying to change the location of the array at l_plates[i] (i.e. the array of chars that forms that license plate). You can't move where arrays or elements of arrays are, meaning you can't swap strings in the same way you might with integers. In general, you can't assign strings or arrays with the = sign. You have to use something like memcpy or strcpy to copy/swap arrays or strings. Also, you need to allocate space for tmp1, since right now it's just a pointer to nowhere in particular. It doesn't point to valid space to copy to. Try:

Code:

---

char tmp1[N];  // enough space to hold any of the license plate strings
...
strcpy(tmp1, l_plates[i]);
strcpy(l_plates[i], l_plates[j]);
strcpy(l_plates[j], tmp1);

---

Thank you, you're totally right! Looks like I need to get more familiar with pointers...