Newbie char pointer problem

I have a function like this:

Code:

---

void stringchange(char* sometext) {
  char* newtext = "thisisnewtext";
  /*Some code to change content of sometext array
    to content of newtext array*/
}

int main() {
  char* mytext;
  cin >> mytext;
  stringchange(mytext);  //???
  return 0;
}

---

My question is, how should I send mytext char array pointer to stringchange function so it can change sometext array to content of newtext array? And what code should be inside this function to perform thus assignment? Length of mytext array is not defined at the compile-time. I want to change mytext array the same way as sometext array does, of course!

It's going to segfault as soon as anyone enters
anything as mytex points to random value.

If you want to change what mytext points
to then the protype is fine. If your going to
be dynamically allocating the string and hence changing
mytext then you will have to use

void stringchange(char** sometext)

thanx

Nick, I don't see how a pointer to a pointer solves his problem.

First off, he is using a pointer without initializing it. You will get a warning, and it will allow you to compile, but that is not a good practice.

Secondly, it is also a good practice to allocate the space needed for the character array. If the string is very long, it may overwrite other variables in his program.

Thirdly, cin will only accept input up until the first space. Anything after that will be left in the keyboard buffer.

if he does not know how much room he will need, then he should allocate some character buffer space and if he needs more, allocate more.

char MyBuffer[250];
char *pMyBuffer;

pMyBuffer = MyBuffer

if he finds out that he needs more, I would allocate more with the malloc function call.

I would change cin to getche, and place it in a while loop looking for the enter key. I would then add to my buffer the result from getche. I would also keep ckecking in the while loop the size of the buffer to see if I needed to allocate more space. I would allocate space by 250 characters each time.

He could them pass the pointer *pMyBuffer to his function stringchange(pMyBuffer) and do whatever he wants with the character data.

Thanx again for you help guys. I'm new to C++. I've learnt how to use "new" keyword to dynamically allocate memory for strings with at-the-compile-time-unknown length recently. So I got no problems with char arrays now.