Thread: Confused about pointer solution for K&R stringcat problem

Hi all.
I was trying Exercise 5-3 from the K&R book where you rewrite this function version using pointers:

Code:

void stringcat(char s[], const char t[]) {
    int i, j;
    i = j = 0;
    while (s[i] != '\0')
        i++;
    while ((s[i++] = t[j++]) != '\0')
        ;
}

My solution (wrong) was to try something like this:

Code:

void stringcatp(char s[], const char t[]) {
    while (*s++ != '\0')
        ;
    while ((*s++ = *t++))
        ;
}

I finally gave up and looked at the solution:

Code:

void stringcatp(char s[], const char t[]) {
    while (*s) /* find end of s */
        s++;
    while ((*s++ = *t++)) /* copy t */
        ;
}

However I am confused... what is the difference between while (*s) with s++ in the while body compared to my way?

Suppose that s[i] == '\0'. Then, you want to move on to the next loop, and start writing at index i as you want to overwrite the null character since you will append a null character at the end of the result. The first and third code snippets do that. Your code, on the other hand, does not. Rather, it (equivalently) increments i one more time, so instead of overwriting the null character, you skip it. Thus, instead of concatenating the second string to the end of the first string, your code has no net effect from the perspective of a null terminated string.

Hi lasterlight, good to see you back.

@madcat, remember that a post increment expression evaluates to the previous value of the variable, so when it's equal to '\0' you've already moved past it! Therefore "one" (mis-)concatenated with "two" yields "one\0two" and is really still just "one".

BTW, your code is strangely colored. If you're doing that on purpose, maybe don't. If you aren't doing it on purpose then make sure you copy/paste your code as pure text, without any formatting.

It's strange that copying form your terminal would not give plain text.
Sometimes there's a "copy as plain text" or similar option.
It really should be available from within CLion.
Take a look for it. It would be weird if it forced you to always copy text with formatting.
If there isn't that option in the popup menu then there may be a setting that will turn off the formatted copying.

When you correctly paste plain code here, the site will add it's own formatting and line numbers, like this:

Code:

void stringcatp(char s[], const char t[]) {
    while (*s) /* find end of s */
        s++;
    while ((*s++ = *t++)) /* copy t */
        ;
}