Why does the program crash?

Code:

---

char* sNameIN;
for(;;)
{
cout<<"Enter a name:"<<endl;
    for(int i=0;i<4;i++)
    {
    cout<<sNames[i]<<endl;
    }
cin>>sNameIN;
bool bCMP=false;
    for(int ind=0;ind<4;ind++)
    {
    bCMP=!(strcasecmp(sNameIN,sNames[ind]));
    iCount=ind;
    if(bCMP==1)
    {
    goto CharSelect;//"gotoEN"
    }
    }
}

---

I don't understand. Earlier in the day, I had this code in my file, it
compiled without error, and the program ran like it should have. Now,
when I try to run it, as soon as it hits the 'cin' line, and the user
hits 'enter' the program crashes. Why, and how do I get around this
P.I.T.A.? Keep in mind that this is of course only the relevant part of the program...

can't cin into a pointer directly.. but you can cin into a string or cstring and then make your pointer assignment.

*sNameIN; is not pointing anything so you cannot modify to where it is pointing.

You never assign your char* pointer to anything at first....so it could be pointing anywhere in memory. Also, gotos could get you killed around these parts.

sNameIN was not assigned to anything initiall because I had thought that C++ could accomodate for different sized strings entered by the user. (More than nine causes goofy outputs and
more than 13 causes the prog to crash). I had worried that if I initialized it to null value then memory would only accomodate space for one char, which is not good. Yes, I AM a noob.

As for that goto, I figured it was better to use that than to use
two break statements to exit the inner and outer loops. Really, why are gotos seen as so bad? This is genuine curiosity...

What I had after that that I didn't post was a switch referring to
iCount, for values between and including 0 to 3, since only those three values could be output from the for loop, I didn't include any outside contingencies. What I noticed was that when I had
declared an instance of the class [stats] within that switch, the program crashed upon the cin input. I removed it, and the switch worked fine.

What I have noticed is that if I use 'cin' to a char*, that does
'something' to the program that causes it to crash. Later in the program I included another 'cin' but no matter what that would crash the program. If I use 'cin' to a STRING type, I don't have a problem, but the function strcasecmp does not accept STRING on the compiler; only char*. The question is, how does one get around that and not risk crashing the program?

1. Use a std::string for input sNameIN

2a. bCMP=!(strcasecmp(sNameIN.c_str(),sNames[ind]));
2. Read this http://www.devx.com/getHelpOn/10Minu...16972/0/page/2

Not sure what you mean by that......I'm not that educated. I know you are referring to a class, though. The error message I usually get says 'cannot convert std::string from XXXX' or something to that effect.

Code:

---

std::string sNameIN;
cin >> sNameIN;
bCMP=!(strcasecmp(sNameIN.c_str(),sNames[ind]));

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