code isnt doing anything??

Code:

string encryptKey(string key)
{
	string password;
	int passwordlength;
	int keylength = key.length();
	string encryptedKey;
	cin >> password; //executed
	passwordlength = password.length();
	cin >> password; //executed
        for(int x = 0;x<keylength;x++) 
        {
	   for(int o = 0;o<passwordlength;o++)
              {
			    encryptedKey[x]=key[x]^password[o];
			    cout << encryptedKey[x];
			    cin >> password;
	      }	  
             cout << encryptedKey[x];
	     cin >> password;  
        }
	    

    cout << key;
    cout << passwordlength; //executed
    cout << encryptedKey;
    cin >> password; //executed
	return encryptedKey;
}

so this function is supposed to take a key passed to it as a parameter, ask for a password, encrypt the key with the password using that XOR thing and then return the encrypted key. I put in a bunch of extra couts and cins to try to figure out what the program is doing, because its not doing what its supposed to. When I run the program it asks for input twice, outputs the passwordlength, asks for input again and then finishes. the string that it returns doesnt contain anything inside of it either


the output looks kinda like this:

Code:

asdf  (asks for input)
sd    (asks for input again)
4    (displays the length of password)
df    (asks for input)

so why doesnt it go through the for loops and actually encrypt the password

after a little tinkering, i've discovered that you are getting a
bounds error - the program crashes on this line:

encryptedKey[x]=key[x]^password[o];

why? encryptedKey[x] is out of bounds because you just created
a string and didn't give it any information about how big it needs
to be - it doesn't expect to be asked to resize itself in this
manner. it becomes out of bounds when x = 1.

alright i guess that makes sense, but how do i define its bounds?

Code:

	string encryptedKey[keylength];

when i do that, it wont let the funtion return that string. dev-cpp gives me this error:
88 C:\Dev-Cpp\My C++ Work\Encryption.cpp conversion from `std::string*' to non-scalar type `std::string' requested

Look up the resize() method of the string class. Call it before entering the loop.

thanks grumpy and richie, i think its been fixed now