How to compare string variable to constant string in visual c++? - visual-c++

Question

I have this piece of code:
#include "stdafx.h"
#include "afx.h"
...
char * connectionType;
...
int readParameters() {
...
//hFile is a file handler previously initialized
result = readParameter(hFile, connectionType);
if (strcmp(connectionType, "3") == 0) {
//do something
} else {
//do other thing
}
...
}
int readParameter(HANDLE hFile, OUT char * buffer) {
BOOL bResult = true;
BOOL continueLine = true;
char inBuffer[1];
DWORD bytesToRead = 1;
DWORD bytesRead = 0;
OVERLAPPED stOverlapped = {0};
char parameter[256] = {};
int counter = 0;
while (continueLine) {
bResult = ReadFile(hFile, inBuffer, sizeof(char), &bytesRead, &stOverlapped);
if (!bResult) {
return 0;
} else if (inBuffer[0] == '\n' || bytesRead == 0) {
continueLine = false;
} else {
parameter[counter] = inBuffer[0];
counter++;
if (bResult && bytesRead == 0) {
continueLinea = false;
}
}
}
parameter[counter] = '\0';
memcpy(buffer, parameter, 256);
return 1;
}
By debugging, I know that the connectionType attribute ends up being a null terminated string "3", but the strcmp method keeps returning 3328 (>0). Is there a problem because "3" is a constant? What might be the problem?

Answer 1

I realized what was the problem with the code. The problem was that connectionType, whose value was a null terminated string "3", was in fact different to the line read from the file, which was actually a "3" plus a carriage return plus a null.
After I added that consideration to the code, my problem was solved.