Reversing words

I have a small problem with char arrays.
I made a function that reverses a char array, which is pretty easy but now I want to also reverse the words.

So if i have char word[] = "hello world"
a call to PrintStringReverse(word) would give me:
dlrow olleh

Code:

void PrintStringReverse(char s[])
{
	int N = strlen(s);
	for(int i=0;i<N/2;i++)	  
		swap(s[i],s[N-1-i]);
	cout << s << endl;
}

and a call to PrintWordReverse would give me:
olleh dlrow

How can I go about this using the functions built into <cstring> only, no vector or <string> suggestions please.

Make a function 'foo' that works like PrintStringReverse, except that instead of calculating N from strlen(s), pass N as an argument.

Then, loop through your string, one word at a time (using a pointer whose memory address sits at the front of the word and a variable that you increment forward, probing for spaces, tabs, and newlines), and call 'foo' on each individual word, passing the appropriate value N.

I'm so confused.

Hi,

Look for a space or a '\0'(which is at the end of the string) in your char array. If you find a space or a '\0', record the index position. Then reverse the characters between that index position and the previously recorded index position.

Code:

void PrintWordsReverse(char s[])
{	 	 
	int N = strlen(s);
	int count=0,lastindex=0,spaces=0;
	
	for(int i=0;i<N;i++)			
	{
		if(s[i] == ' ')
		{
			spaces++;
			for(lastindex;lastindex<(i/2);lastindex++)
				swap(s[lastindex],s[i-1-lastindex]);
			lastindex = i+1;

		}	 
	}
	
	if(spaces == 0)
	{
		for(int i=0;i<N/2;i++)
			swap(s[i],s[N-1-i]);
	}
	cout << s << endl;	  
}

This is as far as i got, my logic is that I look for a space and a space means a word so just reverse that word then move onto the next word to reverse. The first word works but the second doesn't. Can somebody seem some logic error in my code?

my logic is that I look for a space

"hello world"

Is there a space after "world"?

You need to account for the fact that there will not be a space after the last world. You could probably work the main loop so that the if(space == 0) stuff isn't needed.

Also:

Code:

for(lastindex;lastindex<(i/2);lastindex++)

Is probably not what you want. You want to swap characters from lastindex to i. But that conditional isn't right. What if I had a string of length 50, with lastindex equal to 44 at this point in the code? i must be > 44, so 44 / 2 = 22, which isn't greater than 44. The loop never runs, and characters are never swapped.

Your small inner for() loop makes my head hurt... let's reword it to use an offset variable:

Code:

for(offset = 0; offset = (i - lastindex) / 2; offset++)
   swap(s[lastindex + offset], s[i - 1 - offset]);

Merging that into your function I get this, which works for me:

Code:

void PrintWordsReverse(char s[])
{
	int N = strlen(s);
	int count = 0, lastindex = 0, spaces = 0, offset;

	for(int i = 0; i <= N; ++i)
	{
		if(s[i] == ' ' || s[i] == 0)
		{
			for(offset = 0; offset < (i - lastindex) / 2; ++offset)
				swap(s[lastindex + offset], s[i - 1 - offset]);
			lastindex = i + 1;
		}
	}

	cout << s << endl;
}

Code:

void PrintWordsReverse(char s[])
{	 	 
	int N = strlen(s);
	int count=0,lastindex=0,index=0;
	
	for(int i=0;i<N;i++)			
	{
		if(s[i] == ' ' || i == (N-1))
		{
			if(i==(N-1)) i++;
			for(index=lastindex;index<(i-((i-lastindex)/2));index++)
				swap(s[index],s[(i-1)-(index-lastindex)]);
			lastindex = i+1;
		}	 
	}
	cout << s << endl;	  
}

finally me and a friend worked it out. I still get confused by it, though I'll take it as it is.

Thanks.