Assigning a value to a char

Hi,

In a while loop I need to clear out a value in a char[20] data type and then reassign another value to it, so that comparisons can be made.

the char is called folder 1 in the following code, but the compilier errors with "left operand must be l-value".

Code:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <io.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <sys/types.h> 
#include <sys/stat.h> 
#include <string.h>

 int main(void)
{
FILE *fp;
char filename[20];
char *test;
	
	 
	 char  folder1[20] = "";
	 char  buf1[80];
	 char  buf2[80];
	 time_t filecreate;
	 struct tm *ptr;
	 struct _finddata_t c_file;
	 long hfile;


	

	 if ((hfile = _findfirst("C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\\samples\\*.out",&c_file)) == 1L)
		 printf("a");

	 else
	 {
		 printf("%-12s %.24s % 9ld\n",c_file.name,ctime(&(c_file.time_write)),c_file.size);
		/* filecreate = ctime(&(c_file.time_write));*/
		 ptr = localtime(&(c_file.time_write));
		 strftime(buf1,80, "%d%m%Y",ptr);
	    	
		printf("%s",buf1);
		if(mkdir(buf1) != 0);
			{}
		strcat(folder1,buf1);
		printf("\nfolder1%s",folder1);
		if(file_copy(c_file.name,buf1)  != 0)
		{printf("smeg");}
	 }
	
	
	 
	 /*_findclose(hfile);*/

/*time to loop the other files with same extension as the first file*/
            while( _findnext( hfile, &c_file ) == 0 )
            {
                ptr = localtime(&(c_file.time_write));
		strftime(buf1,80, "%d%m%Y",ptr);
		printf("\nnewfilename %s", c_file.name);
		printf("\nnewtime%s",buf1);
		if (folder1 == buf1 )
			{
				if(file_copy(c_file.name,buf1)  != 0)
					{printf("smeg");}
                   	}
		else 
			{
				if(mkdir(buf1) != 0);
					{}
				folder1 = "";				strcat(folder1,buf1);
				printf("\nfoldera%s",folder1);
				if(file_copy(c_file.name,buf1)  != 0)
				 {printf("smeg");}
        		}    
	}

       _findclose( hfile );

you have a problem with your program... we have a problem reading it..

use code tags.

Code:

 

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


 int main(void)
{

	char folder1[20] = "";

	folder1 = "yes";

	printf("%s",folder1);

}

.

Sorry i didn't exactly get what you want , are you trying to clear out a string and replace it with another one? if so then try this :

Code:

	
    char folder1[20] = "original string";
    memset(folder1, 0, 20);
    strcpy(folder1, "new string");

memset() will set all elements of 'folder1' to zero byte so it clears whatever is there. And 'strcpy' just copies the new string to 'folder1'.

..this also helped understans why my strcat() wasn't working in - you have to allocate memory to hold your strings!

'memset()' doesn't allocate memory if thats what you mean. In the previous exmaple , it sets the first 20 elements of the string folder1 to 0 bytes therefore clearing it so it can hold another string.