pointer increments

I am trying to figure out pointer increment here...with method that finds length

I run the program and i get a scrolling mess of characters flying by till program crashes..lol

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int length( char *c ) {
        int cnt=0;
        if(c)                            //check to make sure pointer isnt null.
                for(;c++;cnt++)          //keep running till reach null \0, increment the cnt variable each time.
                        cout << *c;
        else
                return 0;
        c-=cnt;
        return cnt;
}

int main()
{
    char *st = "hello world";
        cout << endl <<length(st);
    return 0;
}

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Since c is a pointer and you're interested at the characters it points at, you'll need to use a * somewhere to dereference your pointer other than where you just print it.

You don't have to adjust the pointer back to where it started before the function returns.