char parsing problem

[Unregistered]

I'm trying to parse a char array and based on each individual letter value set an int value in a corresponding int array (it's for a bitmap font class in DirectX). Anyway here's what I've tried and where I'm stuck:

char *cTextIn, cCurLetter;
strcpy(cTextIn,"ThisIsATest");
int iLen=strlen(cTextIn);
for(int i=0;i<iLen;i++)
{
   cCurLetter=*cTextIn++;
   cout<<cCurLetter;
}

This works fine to give me the current letter incrimentally, but when I try to test that letter with strcmp I get an error during compile because it can't use a char where it needs a const char*.

int iPlaceInAlphabet;
if(strcmp(cCurLetter,"a")==0) iPlaceInAlphabet=0;
if(strcmp(cCurLetter,"b")==0) iPlaceInAlphabet=1;
//etc. etc.

To correct this I've tried using casting it which compiles fine but then I get an unhandled exception at runtime.

int iPlaceInAlphabet;
if(strcmp((const char*)cCurLetter,"a")==0) iPlaceInAlphabet=0;
if(strcmp((const char*)cCurLetter,"b")==0) iPlaceInAlphabet=1;
//etc. etc.

Does anyone else have experience with this?

What I have is a bitmap with the letters of the alphabet in a row, each letter is 32x32 pixels. Based on each letter parsed it will set an int value in a corresponding int array. The values in this int array are used to determine the source RECTs for the letter's to be blitted.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Hammer]

>char *cTextIn;
>strcpy(cTextIn,"ThisIsATest");
You can't do this, you haven't allocated any space, and cTextIn is pointing nowhere in particular. (Unless there's some additional code you just haven't shown here).

>if(strcmp(cCurLetter,"a")==0) iPlaceInAlphabet=0;
strcmp() compares strings, hence it's name. You are trying to compare a single character (cCurLetter), with a string ("a").

If all you want to do is compare 2 characters, just do it directly:
>if (cCurLetter == 'a')

Also, if all you want is the character offset in the alphabet, you could do something like

>iPlaceInAlphabet = cCurLetter - 'a';
This assumes that cCurLetter is actually a letter [a-z] in the first place.