Thread: sizeof question

  1. #1
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    sizeof question

    I was noticing that if you use sizeof to get the size of a char array that is not from to the function you are calling it from, it doesn't work. Even if you have a function that takes in a string, like function(char *string); and you refer to it as "string" instead of it's actual declaration name it still doesn't. Am I doing something wrong, and if not, anyone know why this is so?

    Code:
    void ash(char *string);
    
    main() {
    
    char str[50];
    
    //sizeof would work fine here
    
    return 0;
    }
    
    void ash(char *string) {
    
    printf("%d", sizeof(string)); <--why doesn't this work?
    
    printf("%d", sizeof(str)); // <--I understand why this doesn't   work, can't access a local var outside it's function
    
    } //

    btw, the freeware version of my program is done! as soon as i get a webpage to store it on, i'll post it here for all to d/l, cause i certainly couldn't have done it w/o everyone's help

  2. #2
    chococoder
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    You're getting the size of the pointer, not the size of the array.

    The size of a pointer is 32 bits on a 32 bit OS which translates to 4 bytes.

    The function is working perfectly, it's just doing something you didn't expect it to do

  3. #3
    ---
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    In this situation you should create your function so that the size of the array is specified.

    eg.
    Code:
    char str[10];
    fgets(str,sizeof(str),stdin);
    Other functions are fread, fwrite and lots of others that do this.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ash1981
    btw, the freeware version of my program is done! as soon as i get a webpage to store it on, i'll post it here for all to d/l, cause i certainly couldn't have done it w/o everyone's help
    You can attach source code files to posts

  5. #5
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    Read this -> http://c-faq.com/aryptr/index.html
    Focus on the parts which tell you about how arrays decay to pointers when you pass an array to a function (for example).

    sizeof(array) is one of the exceptional cases in which an array does not decay to a pointer, but since there is a function call in the way in your example, then it's already too late.

  6. #6
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    thanks for the replies, i'm still modifying the source code a bit, then i'll post it

    btw, I had a couple of other small questions that have been bugging me:

    Is there a way to convert a string into an integer or vice versa? I googled this, but I kept getting visual basic hits, lol.

    I know in the main function I always use exit(0) so the OS knows all went well, but if there is an error, do you use exit(1) or exit(-1), or if not those, what do you use, and what does this actually do?

    I know how to stop Ctrl-C from stopping my program, but how about ctrl-break?

    Thanks again
    Last edited by Ash1981; 02-01-2006 at 02:38 AM. Reason: mistake

  7. #7
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    Oh one more thing, if anybody happens to read this, you know how you can usually right click on a program and select properties under winx, and it will allow you to change the icon of the program, and offer you a list of icons to choose from? well get this, that's not an option on mine, so I have to stick with the regular windows console icon...

  8. #8
    Registered User ssharish2005's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ash1981
    thanks for the replies, i'm still modifying the source code a bit, then i'll post it

    btw, I had a couple of other small questions that have been bugging me:

    Is there a way to convert a string into an integer or vice versa? I googled this, but I kept getting visual basic hits, lol.

    I know in the main function I always use exit(0) so the OS knows all went well, but if there is an error, do you use exit(1) or exit(-1), or if not those, what do you use, and what does this actually do?

    I know how to stop Ctrl-C from stopping my program, but how about ctrl-break?

    Thanks again
    1. well, there are few lib fucntion to do that job that is to convert from string to int and visa versa. u can always look through atoi fucntion to get string to integer and itoa from int to string. as itoa fucntion is not a stand fucntion its better to use sprintf to covert from string to int

    2. its better to say return 0 or return 1 rather than exit(0) or exit(1). its just record for the OS. like for example if some file is not opened properly we normally say return 1 if you are in the main. returns are used only in the main

    3. clt-C is commanly used in the linux platforms and clt-break on wndows plat still clt-c works fine. i dont think there is any diff in clt-break and clt-C

    ssharish2005

  9. #9
    old man
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ash1981
    I know in the main function I always use exit(0) so the OS knows all went well, but if there is an error, do you use exit(1) or exit(-1), or if not those, what do you use, and what does this actually do?
    If you include stdlib.h you can use "exit (EXIT_SUCCESS)" and "exit (EXIT_FAILURE)" ... (on my system these are defined as 0 and 1 respectively).

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