Thread: Argghghghghgh!!!!

I have the following code

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h> // for getenv. don't implicit call this function
#include "functions.h"

void Form(void){
    /*if REQUEST_METHOD == GET */
   char *GETS = getenv("QUERY_STRING");
   /*gets query string up to \0 and assignes to GETVALUE */
   
   
   /*if REQUEST_METHOD == POST */
   char *formLength =  getenv("CONTENT_LENGTH");
   long size = atol(formLength);
   char hold[size];
   
  if ( (GETS) !=NULL){
      decodeUrl(GETS);
      fprintf(stdout,"<p>%s</p>",GETS);
  }    

  
  else{ //method was post. now parse accordingly. 
   printf("The submission size is %d characters.", size);
   
     if( ( fgets(hold,size,stdin) ) !=NULL)
       decodeUrl(hold);             
                     
   fprintf(stdout, "<p>%s</p>",hold);
        
}   //end of else       
     
  
  
  return;
  
}

where decodeUrl is defined as

Code:

#include "functions.h"

void decodeUrl(char *str){
    /*this function looks for all the characters '+' and '&' and replaces them with
    a space and a '\n' respectively. It also converts all hexadecimal values to their
    decimal equivalent. Converting ox to decimal should not be done on textarea and 
    other text type input in case end user meant for that to happen */
    while (*str++ ){
        puts(str);
        if ( *str == '+')
           *str = ' ';
           
        if ( *str == '&')
          *str = '\n';
      }
  }

Now when I run this code it works fine. However attempting to duplicate it. I coded the follwoing:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
void decodeUrl (char *str);
int main(void){
    
    char hold[]="this + *990))^%$#&^%$#21+++)(*&^%$4";
    char *hold2="this + *990))^%$#&^%$#21+++)(*&^%$4";
    
    decodeUrl(hold);
    decodeUrl(hold2);
    puts(hold);
    puts(hold2);
    
    getchar();
    return 0;
}    

void decodeUrl(char *str){
    /*this function looks for all the characters '+' and '&' and replaces them with
    a space and a '\n' respectively. It also converts all hexadecimal values to their
    decimal equivalent. Converting ox to decimal should not be done on textarea and 
    other text type input in case end user meant for that to happen */
    while (*str++ ){
       // puts(str);
        if ( *str == '+')
           *str = ' ';
           
        if ( *str == '&')
          *str = '\n';
      }
  }

And lo and behold I'm crashing my program. What am I not seeing. Everytime I think I have a hold on this language I get another surprise ...seemngly...
I'm going back over my chapters on arrays, pointers and char arrays, but in the meantime, someone enlighten me please...

Code:

 char *hold2="this + *990))^%$#&^%$#21+++)(*&^%$4";

hold2 is a string literal, and you're trying to modify it. Bad caroundw5h!

Quzah.

Greetings,

This is simple to fix. At least to stop the crashing. Let's look at our line that crashes:

Code:

char *hold2;

This line is a pointer to nothing. All pointers do is "point to" an existing memory object. Your program crashes because you are trying to write to memory that isn't yours, and/or you are writing to memory that doesn't exist.

The unary operator & gives the address of an object. Simple enough, we could write something similar to the lines of:

Code:

char abc[25];
char *hold2 = &abc[0];

Though this isn't always recommended. The best way to retrieve an empty block of memory, in C, is malloc().

Pointers are nothing until you "initialize" them the right way. Usually you could create an array and use it immediately, though there are differences with pointers and their elements.


- Stack Overflow

Thank you both for your responses. Quazah I assumed as much, but to be quite frank I assumed I was simply redirecting the ptr to point elsewhere on each occurance of the tokens I was looking for. Not to mention I cannot understand why the preceeding code worked.
I'm going over those 3 extensive chapters again to find my stupidity and I will be back.
Thank you guys again.

Originally Posted by Stack Overflow

Greetings,

This is simple to fix. At least to stop the crashing. Let's look at our line that crashes:

Code:

char *hold2;

This line is a pointer to nothing. All pointers do is "point to" an existing memory object. Your program crashes because you are trying to write to memory that isn't yours, and/or you are writing to memory that doesn't exist.

No, you're wrong. It is pointing to something. It's pointing to a string literal:

Code:

int main(void){
    
    char hold[]="this + *990))^%$#&^%$#21+++)(*&^%$4";
    char *hold2="this + *990))^%$#&^%$#21+++)(*&^%$4";
    
    decodeUrl(hold);
    decodeUrl(hold2);
    puts(hold);
    puts(hold2);
    
    getchar();
    return 0;
}

On the second colored line, we pass a string literal to the function decodeUrl, which then attempts to modify it. That's why it crashes.

Quzah.

Originally Posted by xErath

Wasn't this suposed not to compile????

how's that? The code is pretty straight forward.

I believe he's referring to the variable sized array. C99 allows for this.

Quzah.

Hello,

While overviewing array declaration I did notice that it works as the following:

Code:

array[constant-expression]

This tells us that your element declaration must be constant. Also, we know that a variable declared as the following is not constant:

Code:

long size;

Because size can change at any time. Most compilers should tell you that this is not permitted too.


- Stack Overflow

and what if i had done this

Code:

char *hold = malloc(size * sizeof( char ) )

what difference does it make?

The function malloc() returns a block of memory of your requested size. It is not dependant upon constant variables. You can send a fixed number or even a variable to malloc(). Of course as long as it is size_t. You can type cast your variables too.

- Stack Overflow

Originally Posted by Stack Overflow

The function malloc() returns a block of memory of your requested size. It is not dependant upon constant variables. You can send a fixed number or even a variable to malloc(). Of course as long as it is size_t. You can type cast your variables too.

- Stack Overflow

and there you have it. it evaluates to pretty much the same thing. another argument as to why c99 was a ridiculous additon. I used what was available but point taken.