Thread: char array to string

Okay, I've kind of figured out how to take a char array and convert it to a string, but I'm having one problem. I'm using a char array of size 20, but when I convert an array with less than 20 characters I get the string followed by garbage. Like this:

char temp[20];
string word;

word = temp;//temp is filled with input at this point ex:The

cout<<word;

^^^^^this statement gives me:

TheKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK//where K=garbage

So my question is how can I just convert the valid contents of the char array to the string instead of the garbage too.

What compiler are you using? I have tested your code using various length strings up to 20 chars long and there is no problem.
I use the Borland compiler. There is a free download.
http://www.borland.com/products/down..._cbuilder.html

This is what I've got, basically I'm reading in one letter at a time until I reach the end of a word or punctuation, converting to a string and then moving on to the next word.


while (! fin.eof())
{
while (fin.get(temp) && temp != '\n')
{
if (temp != ' ' && temp != ',' && temp != '-' && temp != '!' && temp !='.')
{
character[e] = temp;
e++;
}
else
{
word = character;
cout<<word;
e=0;
}
}
i++;


}

This is what I've got, basically I'm reading in one letter at a time until I reach the end of a word or punctuation, converting to a string and then moving on to the next word.

Code:

while (! fin.eof())
{
                while (fin.get(temp) && temp != '\n')
	{
	               if (temp != ' ' && temp != ',' && temp != '-' && temp != '!' && temp !='.')
		{
			character[e] = temp;
			e++;
			}
		else
		{
			word = character;
			cout<<word;
			e=0;
		}
	}
	i++;

		
}

And maybe to explain what Salem said,...

strings have to be terminated with a \0 [char(0)] at the end. Since you did not add this \0 or initialized the target string with a lenght and filled it \0, when you output the string, cout will display everything in the string and then the data of the memory "behind" the string until it reaches - by chance - a \0 byte in memory. This is a *very* bad thing to do.

By the way, the \0 character in the string doesn't count for it's length. So a string uses length +1 bytes of memory. (ya, I know, unless it's a multibyte string....)

Originally posted by Salem

Please use [code][/code]Tags
when posting code

I'll do that in the future, sorry I was in a hurry. Definitely makes code easier to read.


Thanks for the help guys, it's appreciated. I didn't know that the string had to be terminated like that, but it makes sense that it should be. It makes my output look a little better anyway.