Simple string question

Okay, I'm stumped. Can anyone see what's wrong this bit of code?:

Code:

int c, r , t;
char *str;
char[10] tmp;
 
for (r=0; r<array->rows; r++) {
   for (c=0; c<array->columns; c++) {
	  t = array2d_get(array, c, r);
	  sprintf(tmp, "%d ", t);
	  str = strcat(str, tmp);
   }
}
 
printf("%s", str);

The function "array2d_get" simply returns an int, and "array" is a structure defined earlier. When I try to run this code I get random crashes and unpredictable output, can anyone see the problem? The crashes all go away if I remove the strcat line...

Thanks

> char[10] tmp;
This isn't even valid C, so how you managed to get anything to run is beyond me.

Plus str is not pointing anywhere either, so you're just writing data to some unknown location.

> char[10] tmp;
This isn't even valid C, so how you managed to get anything to run is beyond me.

Ah, that'd be a stupid mistake then. I was copying the code from one screen to another and obviously messed up.

Plus str is not pointing anywhere either, so you're just writing data to some unknown location.

Oh okay, that makes some kind of sense. I apologise for my ignorance: I'm trying to teach myself C from a textbook that for some reason barely touches on string manipulation.

Essentially what I'm trying to do is print the contents of a two dimensional array to a string. Since I don't know the exact length of the string I'm unsure how I would go about doing this, aside from creating a ludicrously big char array and filling it in as I go.

I'll keep looking...

Okay, I seem to have got a working method, although it does seem a little long-winded for something as simple as string concatenation:

Code:

int c,r;
char *str;
char tmp[10];
 
//The initial size of the string buffer
int strSize = (100 * sizeof(char));
 
//Allocate memory for the string buffer
str = (char *) malloc(strSize);
strcpy(str, "");
 
//Add one element of the array at a time
for (r=0; r<array->rows; r++) {
   for (c=0; c<array->columns; c++) {
	 //Allocate more memory to the string buffer if required
	 if (strlen(str) > (strSize - 25)) {
		 strSize += (100 * sizeof(char));
		 str = realloc(str, strSize);
	 }
 
	 t = array2d_get(array, c, r);
	 sprintf(tmp, "%d ", t);
	 str = strcat(str, tmp);
   }
 
   //Add a newline character for each row
   str = strcat(str, "\n");
}
 
return str;

This seems to work well enough but I doubt it's the best way; can anyone give me any useful tips (Aside from optimising it)? I'd imagine someone with more experience (i.e. more than a week ) could come up with a better solution...

That's pretty good going

Just a couple of points.

> str = (char *) malloc(strSize);
There is no need to cast the result of malloc in C.
See the FAQ for details.

> str = realloc(str, strSize);
When you call realloc, you should assign to a temporary first, just in case it returns NULL.

Code:

void *temp = realloc(str, strSize);
if ( temp != NULL ) {
  str = temp;
} else {
  // some error
  free( str );
}

> str = strcat(str, tmp);
You don't need to assign anything here. strcat always returns the first argument.
The string data will have been appended whether you do the assignment or not.

Cool, I'll make those changes. Thanks very much for the info.

In strcat(str, tmp) you're passing the memory address of the string, so changes made in that function will propagate out to calling function scope. Meaning, str in the calling function is also changed. This is a property of most C-char*-but-called-string handling functions which modify their arguments, like fgets(), _scanf(), strcpy() etc.