"Stack around the variable was corrupted" error - visual-c++

I'm trying to read a char value using fgets as follows:
int main() {
char m_cityCharCount;
// Input the number of cities
fgets(&m_cityCharCount, 4, stdin);
return 0;
}
Visual Studio returns this error after the code is executed - Stack around the variable m_cityCharCount was corrupted
Is there something I can do about it?

m_cityCharCount is a char, it can hold one char at the most, but you are telling fgets it is 4 bytes buffer. Even if you input nothing but hit the enter key, fgets will store the new line AND the null terminator to the buffer, which of cause is a serious problem. You need a bigger buffer to do fgets:
char str[4096];
fgets(str, sizeof str, stdin);

First parameter of fgets() is pointer on buffer (size of it should be great or equals than second parameter. But sizeof(char) == 1)
int main() {
char m_cityCharCount[4];
// Input the number of cities
fgets(m_cityCharCount, 4, stdin);
return 0;
}

Related

How to add pointer char datas (created using malloc) to a char array in C?

In my MPI code in C, i'm receiving a word from each of my slave processes. I want to add all these words to an char array in master side (part of code below). I can print these words but not collect them into a single char array.
(I consider max word length as 10, and number of slave's as slavenumber)
char* word = (char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*10);
char words[slavenumber*10];
for (int p = 0; p<slavenumber; p++){
MPI_Recv(word, 10, MPI_CHAR, p, 0,MPI_COMM_WORLD, MPI_STATUS_IGNORE);
printf("Word: %s\n", word); //it works fine
words[p*10] = *word; //This does not work, i think there is a problem here.
}
printf(words); //This does not work correctly, it gives something like: ��>;&�>W�
Can anybody help me on this?
Let's break it down line by line
// allocate a buffer large enough to hold 10 elements of type `char`
char* word = (char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*10);
// define a variable-length-array large enough to
// hold 10*slavenumber elements of `char`
char words[slavenumber*10];
for (int p = 0; p<slavenumber; p++){
// dereference `word` which is exactly the same as writing
// `word[0]` assigning it to `words[p*10]`
words[p*10] = *word;
// words[p*10+1] to words[p*10+9] are unchanged,
// i.e. uninitialized
}
// printing from an array. For this to work properly all
// accessed elements must be initialized and the buffer
// terminated by a null byte. You have neither
printf(words);
Because you left elements uninitialized and didn't null terminate, you're invoking undefined behavior. Be happy that you didn't get demons crawl out of your nose.
In seriousness though, in C you can copy strings by mere assignment. Your usage case calls for strncpy.
for (int p = 0; p<slavenumber; p++){
strncpy(&words[p*10], word, 10);
}

Warning : comparison between pointer and integer

struct smt{
char *c;
};
int main(){
char *w="astring";
if(smt->c == w[0])
...do something
}
How do I fix the warning that I get in the if and what exacly causes it?
The warning shows up because you're comparing smt->c, which is char*, to w[0], which is a character (that for this comparison gets implicitly casted to int).
You probably meant comparing the first character like this:
if(smt->c[0] == w[0]) { ... }
If you want to compare full strings, use
if(strcmp(smt->c, w) == 0) { ... }
or even better, use strncmp if you know the maximum length the strings can have.
The error comes from the fact that often (almost always), you don't want to compare an adress (pointer) with a character.
You're comparing a char* c with a char 'a'. What you want to do is this I believe:
struct smt{
char *c;
};
int main(){
char *w="astring";
// Here smt->c returns a char*
// w[0] gets you the first character, so 'a'
if(strcmp(smt->c, w) == 0)
...do something
}
If you want to compare the first characters of both strings, you have to add [0] to smt->c

How to send integer as a string with WriteFile for serialport

I want to send an integer as a string buffer to a serial port with WriteFile. This data value is result from the sensor, this data max has 2 characters.
I have tried to convert with itoa
for example:
DWORD nbytes;
int a,b,c;
a=10;
char *tempa ="";
tempa = itoa(a, tempa,0);
if(!WriteFile( hnd_serial, a, 2, &nbytes, NULL )){MessageBox(L"Write Com Port fail!");return;}
This code is not working.
Unhandled exception at 0x1024d496 (msvcr100d.dll) in ENVSConfig.exe: 0xC0000094: Integer division by zero.
Also I have tried the suggestion from this website:
convert int to string but still does not working to.
Is there any clue to do this?
You are not using itoa properly, you need to allocate space for your string, you need to provide a proper radix (this is where your divide-by-zero error is happening) and finally you need to use the buffer, not your original a value, as the buffer in your write.
Try the following:
DWORD nbytes;
int a,b,c;
a = 10;
char tempa[64]; // Randomly picked 64 characters as the max size
itoa(a, tempa, 10);
if(!WriteFile(hnd_serial, tempa, 2, &nbytes, NULL))
{
MessageBox(L"Write Com Port fail!");
return;
}

VC++ read variable length char*

I'm trying to read a variable length char* from the user input. I want to be able to specify the length of the string to read when the function is called;
char *get_char(char *message, unsigned int size) {
bool correct = false;
char *value = (char*)calloc(size+1, sizeof(char));
cout << message;
while(!correct) {
int control = scanf_s("%s", value);
if (control == 1)
correct = true;
else
cout << "Enter a correct value!" <<endl
<< message;
while(cin.get() != '\n');
}
return value;
}
So, upon running the program and trying to enter a string, I get a memory access violation, so I figured something has gone wrong when accessing the allocated space. My first idea was it went wrong because the size of the scanned char * is not specified within scanf(), but it doesn't work with correct length strings either. Even if I give the calloc a size of 1000 and try to enter one character, the program crashes.
What did I do wrong?
You have to specify the size of value to scanf_s:
int control = scanf_s("%s", value, size);
does the trick.
See the documentation of scanf_s for an example of how to use the function:
Unlike scanf and wscanf, scanf_s and wscanf_s require the buffer size to be specified for all input parameters of type c, C, s, S, or [. The buffer size is passed as an additional parameter immediately following the pointer to the buffer or variable.
I omit the rest of the MSDN description here because in the example they're providing, they use scanf instead of scanf_s what is quite irritating...

Pointer initialization doubt

We could initialize a character pointer like this in C.
char *c="test";
Where c points to the first character(t).
But when I gave code like below. It gives segmentation fault.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
main()
{
int *i=0;
printf("%d",*i);
}
Also when I give
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
main()
{
int *i;
i=(int *)malloc(2);
*i=0;
printf("%d",*i);
}
It worked(gave output 0).
When I gave malloc(0), it worked(gave output 0).
Please tell what is happening
Your first example is seg faulting because you are trying to de-reference a null pointer which you have created with the line:
int *i=0;
You can't de-reference a pointer that doesn't point to anything and expect good things to happen. =)
The second code segment works because you have actually assigned memory to your pointer using malloc which you may de-reference. I would think it's possible for you to get values other than zero depending on the memory adjacent to the address you're allocated with malloc. I say this because typically an int is 4 bytes and you've only assigned 2. When de-referencing the int pointer, it should return the value as an int based on the 4 bytes pointed to. In your case, the first 2 bytes being what you received from the malloc and the adjacent 2 bytes being whatever is there which could be anything and whatever it is will be treated as if it was an int. You could get strange behavior like this and you should malloc the size of memory needed for the type you are trying to use/point at.
(i.e. int *i = (int *) malloc(sizeof(int)); )
Once you have the pointer pointing at memory that is of the correct size, you can then set the values as such:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
int *i = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int));
*i = 25;
printf("i = %d\n",*i);
*i = 12;
printf("i = %d\n",*i);
return 0;
}
Edit based on comment:
A pointer points to memory, not to values. When initializing char *ptr="test"; You're not assigning the value of "test", you're assigning the memory address of where the compiler is placing "test" which is placed in your processes data segment and is read only. It you tried to modify the string "test", you program would likely seg-fault. What you need to realize about a char * is that it points at a single (i.e. the first) character in the string. When you de-reference the char *, you will see 1 character and one character only. C uses null terminated strings, and notice that you do not de-reference ptr when calling printf, you pass it the pointer itself and that points at just the first character. How this is displayed depends on the format passed to printf. When printf is passed the '%c' format, it will print the single character ptr points at, if you pass the format '%p' it will print the address that ptr points. To get the entire string, you pass '%s' as the format. What this makes printf do is to start at the pointer you passed in and read each successive byte until a null is reached. Below is some code that demonstrates these.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
// Initialize to data segement/read only string
char *ptr = "test";
printf("ptr points at = %p\n", ptr); // Prints the address ptr points to
printf("ptr dereferenced = %c\n", *ptr); // Prints the value at address ptr
printf("ptr value = %s\n", ptr); // Prints the string of chars pointed to by ptr
// Uncomment this to see bad behavior!
// ptr[1] = 'E'; // SEG FAULT -> Attempting to modify read-only memory
printf("--------------------\n");
// Use memory you have allocated explicitly and can modify
ptr = malloc(10);
strncpy(ptr, "foo", 10);
printf("ptr now points at = %p\n", ptr); // Prints the address ptr points to
printf("ptr dereferenced = %c\n", *ptr); // Prints the value at address ptr
printf("ptr value = %s\n", ptr); // Prints the string of chars pointed to by ptr
ptr[1] = 'F'; // Change the second char in string to F
printf("ptr value (mod) = %s\n", ptr);
return 0;
}

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