Problem with char

I'm having problem with my program here. See, I have an array of char* as data member in Action class. With the help of getFirst() function, I'm returning the value of the first element in the array. But, when I tried to print out this value in the test.cpp, it showed me some weird characters. It doesn't work. Please look at my codes:

--> Action.h

Code:

---

#ifndef ACTION_H
#define ACTION_H
 
class Action
{
        public:
                inline Action() {}
                inline ~Action() {}
                inline char **getCommand() { return command; }
                inline char *getFirst() { return command[0]; }
                inline char *getSecond() { return command[1]; }
                void askCommand();
 
        private:
                char *command[5];
};
 
#endif

---

--> Action.cpp

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <cstring>
 
using namespace std;
 
#include "Action.h"
 
static const int NUM_OF_ARG = 5;
 
void Action::askCommand()
{
        int i = 0;
        char *res = NULL;
        char temp[200];
 
        cout << "> ";
 
        cin.getline(temp, sizeof(temp), '\n');
 
        res = strtok(temp, " ");
 
        while( res != NULL && i < NUM_OF_ARG )
        {
                command[i] = res;
                res = strtok(NULL, " ");
                i++;
        }
}

---

--> test.cpp

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
 
using namespace std;
 
#include "Action.h"
 
int main()
{
        Action a;
 
        a.askCommand();
 
        char **string = a.getCommand();
        cout << string[0] << endl;          // this doesn't show me the value
        cout << string[1] << endl;          // this doesn't show me the value too
        cout << a.getFirst() << endl;      // this shows me some weird characters
        cout << a.getSecond();              // this shows me weird characters too
 
        return 0;
}

---

Could anybody please tell me what is wrong with the codes? Thanks in advance.

You've got an array of pointers that you point to local data that goes away.

If you want to capture the text, you'll need to allocate memory and copy it.

Could you show me how to allocate memory and copy it? I've tried to allocate memory using:

Code:

---

char *res = new char;

---

and copying it into the array using strcpy:

Code:

---

strcpy(command[i], res);

---

But, this strcpy statement has made the program encounters a runtime error.

In lazy mode, I just did this.

Code:

---

  while ( res != NULL && i < NUM_OF_ARG )
  {
      command[i] = new char[strlen(res)+1];
      strcpy(command[i], res);
      res = strtok(NULL, " ");
      i++;
  }

---

Pff. That's pretty lazy, Dave. I mean where are all the colours?

You should consider using std::strings!

Well, thanks a lot. I find it working now. Huh, I'm feeling preety stupid now. It must've been very easy to figure out, lol.

Anyway, thanks. Yeah, using string is much better.