char* doesn't work as intended

I am quite new to C, and for some reason, I can't get this following program to work as intended. Can someone help me figure out why? Thanks in advance.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

void foo(char* source) {
        char random[] = "random";
        source = (char*)strdup(random);
}

int main() {
        char* source;
        foo(source);
        printf("%s\n", source); //Should say "random"
        return 0;
}

---

If you want to change the value of a pointer in a called function, pass a pointer to the pointer. Just like if you wanted to change the value of an int in a called function you pass a pointer to an int.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

void foo(char** source) {
        char random[] = "random";
        *source = strdup(random);
}

int main() {
        char* source;
        foo(&source);
        printf("%s\n", source); //Should say "random"
        return 0;
}

---

And not everyone has the non-standard strdup. And there is no need for the cast.

As Prelude would say, it might be easier to return the modified value than to deal with pointers-to-pointers ad infinitum.

foo doesn't look very useful. Maybe source should be where you get "random" and the function just returns the result of strdup?

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

char* modifiable(const char* source)
{
    return strdup(source);
}

int main(void)
{
    char* s = modifiable("random");

    printf("%s\n", s);

    return 0;
}

---

Also, C might not free memory at the end of the program and strdup uses malloc. You should free the memory when you're done. And I don't think strdup is a standard function, but it's not hard to write.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

char* strDup(const char* source)
{
    char* result = malloc(strlen(source) + 1);

    if (result != NULL)
    {
        strcpy(result, source);
    }

    return result;
}

char* modifiable(const char* source)
{
    return strDup(source);
}

int main(void)
{
    char* s = modifiable("random");

    printf("%s\n", s);
    free(s);

    return 0;
}

---

But since all you're doing is returning the result of strdup, why not just use it in the first place?

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

char* strDup(const char* source)
{
    char* result = malloc(strlen(source) + 1);

    if (result != NULL)
    {
        strcpy(result, source);
    }

    return result;
}

int main(void)
{
    char* s = strDup("random");

    printf("%s\n", s);
    free(s);

    return 0;
}

---

I don't think I like strdup. It's too hard to remember to free the memory.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

char* strDup(const char* source)
{
    char* result = malloc(strlen(source) + 1);

    if (result != NULL)
    {
        strcpy(result, source);
    }

    return result;
}

int main(void) {
    strDup("");
    strDup(NULL);

    return 0;
}

---

Oops. :)

Quote:

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Oops. :)

---

I'm sorry, I don't understand. Are you trying to tell me that my strDup is wrong? strDup("") works as it should and strDup(NULL) is a problem with the call, not the function. I should have added an assert in strDup though. Gomen.

Sorry, I thought strdup did something special when passed NULL, but it doesn't; and the first example was intended to crash but it doesn't. :)

Quote:

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Sorry, I thought strdup did something special when passed NULL, but it doesn't; and the first example was intended to crash but it doesn't.

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Ah, thank you. I wasn't sure if there was a problem I was missing or not. Thank you for the help. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hikaru

I'm sorry, I don't understand. Are you trying to tell me that my strDup is wrong? strDup("") works as it should and strDup(NULL) is a problem with the call, not the function. I should have added an assert in strDup though. Gomen.

---

Really though, you should fix it. It's easy:

Code:

---

char *strDup( char *s )
{
    char *dup = NULL;
    if( s )
    {
        ...dupe it...
    }
    return dup;
}

---

Easy fix. I find it usually better to allow for stupid users, especially in cases like this where it's simple to do so.


Quzah.

Thanks for all the replies. Actually, I wrote the program in my initial post just as an example of the problem I was encountering in my larger program. In my larger one, I haven't been able to design it so that I can avoid double pointers. Anyways, Dave_Sinkula's first post corrected exactly what I needed to fix.

As I'm looking through these other replies, I'm beginning to doubt my use of the strdup() function. I know that it's in glibc, but which C libraries don't have it? Should I really be using just str(n)cpy instead?

Thanks again for all the replies.

Well since strdup is not part of the C standard, you are obviously not guaranteed to find it on any implementation. If you think you are going to be building your code on a machine that does not support it, just write your own (as you have done) and don't worry about it. As far as using strcpy, if you end up having to malloc space every time you want to copy a new string, and if you have lots of instances of such a task in your code, why not just roll the work into one function (such as strdup), and be done with it?