Need more help with pointers...

I'm working on the practice problems in the Jumping into C++ book and I'm running into a segmentation fault when running my program.

The problem is as followed: "Modify the program you wrote for exercise 1 so that instead of always prompting the user for a last name, it does so only if the caller passes in a NULL pointer for the last name."

The problem they are talking about is: "Write a function that prompts the user to enter his or her first name and last name, as two separate values. This function should return both values to the caller via additional pointer (or reference) parameters that are passed to the function. Try doing this first with pointers and then with references. (Hint: the function signature will look be similar to the swap function from earlier!)"

Here is my solution to the new problem:

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

string name(string *pFname, string *pLname);

int main(){

    string firstName;
    //string lastName= NULL;
    //cout << "Nice to meet you " << name(&firstName, &lastName);
    cout << "Nice to meet you " << name(&firstName, NULL);
    return 0;
}

string name(string *pFname, string *pLname){

    cout << "Please enter your first name: ";
    getline(cin, *pFname);
    if(pLname){
        cout << "Please enter your last name: ";
        getline(cin, *pLname);
    }
    string fullName = (*pFname) + " " + (*pLname);
    return fullName;
}

---

The program allows me input the first name and then it seg faults. I'm a bit confused and would really appreciate if someone can point me into the right direction. Thanks!

I think you missed the "not" in the description.

Anyway, if there is no last name, then the full name cannot be constructed from the last name.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by laserlight

I think you missed the "not" in the description.

Anyway, if there is no last name, then the full name cannot be constructed from the last name.

---

Can you explain please? I'm still a bit confused.

That's the conceptual overview of what's happening. Here's what you are doing:

Code:

---

print the first name prompt
read a line for the first name
if there is space for the last name
    print the last name prompt
    read a line for the last name
full name = first name + space + last name
return full name

---

So, what you are saying is: if there is no space for the last name, we're still going to construct the full name using the last name. Yeah, no last name, we're going to force the full name to contain the last name, too bad, we're doing it anyway. Obviously, that doesn't make sense.

In C++ terms, what you are doing is dereferencing a null pointer: if pLname is a null pointer, then this line:

Code:

---

string fullName = (*pFname) + " " + (*pLname);

---

results in undefined behaviour because *pLname dereferences a null pointer. Therefore, it is wrong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by laserlight

So, what you are saying is: if there is no space for the last name, we're still going to construct the full name using the last name. Yeah, no last name, we're going to force the full name to contain the last name, too bad, we're doing it anyway. Obviously, that doesn't make sense.

In C++ terms, what you are doing is dereferencing a null pointer: if pLname is a null pointer, then this line:

Code:

---

string fullName = (*pFname) + " " + (*pLname);

---

results in undefined behaviour because *pLname dereferences a null pointer. Therefore, it is wrong.

---

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you basically saying that I need to reference the null pointer instead of dereferencing something that is already null?

I tried approaching the problem using references instead of pointers and it seems to work just fine.

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
 
using namespace std;

void name(string &ref_Fname, string &ref_Lname);
 
int main(){
 
    string firstName;
    string lastName;
    name(firstName, lastName);
    cout << "Nice to meet you " << firstName << " " << lastName;
    return 0;
}
 
void name(string &ref_Fname, string &ref_Lname){
 
    cout << "Please enter your first name: ";
    cin >> ref_Fname;
    cout << "Please enter your last name: ";
    cin >> ref_Lname;
}

---

I would like to figure out how to solve this using pointers, but I keep running into that seg fault.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KingFlippyNips

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you basically saying that I need to reference the null pointer instead of dereferencing something that is already null?

---

What do you mean by "reference the null pointer"?

I am saying that you need to take into account the possibility that the pointer could be a null pointer.

Actually, let's back up a bit. You wrote:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KingFlippyNips

The problem is as followed: "Modify the program you wrote for exercise 1 so that instead of always prompting the user for a last name, it does so only if the caller passes in a NULL pointer for the last name."

---

I assumed that this was a typo error, i.e., that the idea is the opposite: if you pass a null pointer, then the function does not prompt for a last name because there is no space for the last name; if you pass a valid pointer to a string, then the function prompts for a last name because there is space for the last name.

However, I checked the book and you're right: it does say "3. Modify the program you wrote for exercise 1 so that instead of always prompting the user for a last name, it does so only if the caller passes in a NULL pointer for the last name."

This means that this is wrong:

Code:

---

if(pLname){
    cout << "Please enter your last name: ";
    getline(cin, *pLname);
}

---

This asks the user to enter the last name if pLname is not a null pointer. You want the user to enter the last name only if pLname is a null pointer. This means that you should write:

Code:

---

if (!pLname){
    cout << "Please enter your last name: ";
    getline(cin, *pLname);
}

---

But of course this is wrong too: since pLname is a null pointer, you cannot dereference it.

What this means is that you need a string object for the last name:

Code:

---

string Lname;
// ...
    cout << "Please enter your last name: ";
    getline(cin, Lname);

---

Then you need to modify the way you create fullName to account for Lname.

EDIT:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KingFlippyNips

I tried approaching the problem using references instead of pointers and it seems to work just fine.

---

That's because the modification that you're trying to incorporate makes no sense when you're using references: there is no such thing as a null reference, so you cannot modify the program in that way. Therefore, you get what you did before you started trying to pass a null pointer as the second argument: it always works. Try passing a null pointer to your pointer version of the function before you modified it and it will likewise fail.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by laserlight

This asks the user to enter the last name if pLname is not a null pointer. You want the user to enter the last name only if pLname is a null pointer. This means that you should write:

Code:

---

if (!pLname){
    cout << "Please enter your last name: ";
    getline(cin, *pLname);
}

---

But of course this is wrong too: since pLname is a null pointer, you cannot dereference it.

What this means is that you need a string object for the last name:

Code:

---

string Lname;
// ...
    cout << "Please enter your last name: ";
    getline(cin, Lname);

---

Then you need to modify the way you create fullName to account for Lname.

EDIT:

That's because the modification that you're trying to incorporate makes no sense when you're using references: there is no such thing as a null reference, so you cannot modify the program in that way. Therefore, you get what you did before you started trying to pass a null pointer as the second argument: it always works. Try passing a null pointer to your pointer version of the function before you modified it and it will likewise fail.

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Thank you for clearing that up for me. With your help I was able to make my program work.

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
 
using namespace std;
 
string name(string *pFname, string *pLname);
 
int main(){
 
    string firstName;
    string *lastName= NULL;
    name(&firstName, lastName);
    return 0;
}
 
string name(string *pFname, string *pLname){

    string Lname;

    cout << "Please enter your first name: ";
    getline(cin, *pFname);
    if(!pLname){
        cout << "Please enter your last name: ";
        getline(cin, Lname);
    }
    string fullName = (*pFname) + " " + (Lname);
    cout << "Nice to meet you " << fullName;
    return fullName;
}

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I still have one more question. Is there ever a time where one should use references over pointers? Also, you've helped me numerous times on this forum and I really appreciate it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KingFlippyNips

Thank you for clearing that up for me. With your help I was able to make my program work.

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You're welcome. However, note that your program actually makes no use of the last name pointer. Rather unfortunately, I think this exercise was either poorly designed or poorly worded: your answer is technically correct even though it is a bad solution, and I don't think we can change it into a good solution without changing the exercise entirely.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KingFlippyNips

Is there ever a time where one should use references over pointers?

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Generally, you should prefer to use reference parameters instead of pointer parameters if both are feasible as a pointer would need to checked if it is a null pointer. References are not feasible when the argument is optional, but in such a case you would be checking for the null pointer anyway. However, you might also use a pointer parameter even for a required argument for an out parameter (also called an output parameter) as explicitly requiring a pointer can be useful to indicate that the argument is to be modified, so this would require judgement to decide whether such an indication is useful or a hindrance.