qsort() in Array of Pointer to String

I m trying to sort an Array of Pointer to String using qsort() . Result doesnt show the sorted string , Have a look at the code

Code:

// qsort() in Array of Pointer to String 

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

int cmp(const void *, const void *);

main(void)
{
    char *s[] = {
                   "Gaurav",
                   "Vaibhav",                   
                   "Garima",
                   "Amit"                     
                };
                
    qsort( (char*)s, 4 , sizeof(s[0]), cmp);
    
    int i = 0;
    while(i<4)
    {
        printf("\t%s\n",s[i]);
        i++;      
    }
             
    getch();       
}

int cmp(const void *x, const void *y)
{
    return(strcmp((char*)x,(char*)y));       
}

qsort() passes pointers to each element to your compare function.

If you have an array of ints, you'll be passed pointers to those ints. In your case you have an array of pointers. Therefore you'll be passeed pointers to pointers. Hence you should cast x and y to char **'s instead of char *'s, and then you need to dereference them. They may be passed into strcmp() in that manner.

actually i have already tried my hand at bsearch() over Array of Pointer to String assuming Strings are sorted in assending order, and its working, here is the code

Code:

// bsearch() in Array of Pointer to String <assuming Sorted>

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

int cmp(const void *, const void *);

main(void)
{
    char *s[] = {
                   "Amit",
                   "Garima",
                   "Gaurav",
                   "Vaibhav"                     
                };
                
    char *str = "Vaibhav";
    
    char **found = (char**)bsearch( (char*)&str, (char*)s, 4 , sizeof(s[0]) , cmp);
    
    if(found!=NULL)
            printf("Found!");
    else
            printf("Not Found!");
             
    getch();       
}

int cmp(const void *x, const void *y)
{
    return(strcmp((char*)x,(char*)y));       
}

here, too i used only pointer to char in my cmp() and not pointer to pointer to char and it was working, so y not on qsort() ?

Originally Posted by vb.bajpai

here, too i used only pointer to char in my cmp() and not pointer to pointer to char and it was working, so y not on qsort() ?

Possibly because your compiler optimized the code. Similar string constants might have been saved in the same exact position in the table. Since you have the same string written twice, the compiler might have set both pointers to point to the same address, thereby making the code take less memory since only one copy of the string would be stored instead of two.

So with that in mind, the string you were searching for and the string that was inside the array might have been at the same exact address in memory. When you were comparing them, you would be comparing their addresses as strings. Even though that is not what you want to do, you would still get the same answer that they are equal, although the "equalness" means something different.

It's important to note that on some compilers, this will not produce the same results. Some compilers will say that the string cannot be found, although most modern compilers will perform this optimization. You're playing with undefined bahavior by doing this, and therefore this code is wrong.

See the fix in my first post.

ok!

so, my cmp() function is passed pointer to pointer to Strings stored.

strcmp() function declaration says:-

Code:

int strcmp(const char *s1, const char *s2);

this means strcmp() expects pointer to strings , so i need to dereference my pointers passed to cmp() only once. so i tried this

Code:

int cmp(const void *x, const void *y)
{
    return(strcmp((char*)(*x),(char*)(*y)));       
}

but i m getting an error !

You're being passed char **'s as void *'s. So as I said, cast them to char **'s. Then after they are cast as char **'s, then dereference them.

What you're trying to do now is dereference them before casting. You can't do that. Dereference them after casting.

thanx a ton! , it is working, here is what i hv done !

Code:

int cmp(const void *x, const void *y)
{
    return(strcmp(*((char**)x),*((char**)y)));       
}

You should probably be casting x and y to (const char *). But other than that, you've got it.

yeah right