Varible is different once returned.

Hey there,
I have a varible which is declared inside the scope of a function, of the type const char*. If I printf() the varible it's correct value is displayed and then that varible is returned. If I then printf() the varible which was returned (from another function) the value is just scrambled characters. Could anyone suggest why this is happening?
Thanks,
epoch

You can't return a pointer to a local variable and expect the memory to not be reclaimed when the function returns. In other words, this will not work because the memory for s is reclaimed when the function returns:

Code:

---

#include <iostream>

char *getStr()
{
  char s[100];

  std::cout<<"Enter a string: ";
  std::cin.getline ( s, sizeof s );

  return s;
}

int main()
{
  std::cout<< getStr() <<std::endl;
}

---

-Prelude

So, what you can do is return a string object or pass a char array buffer to the function where it is filled

Code:

---

string func(void)
{
    string s = "special message";
    return s;
}

---

// with this version, you must be sure that the buffer you pass to the
// function is large enough to hold whatever is going to go in it...

Code:

---

void funct(char *s)
{
    strcpy(s, "special message");
}

---

-Futura