Manipulating strings within structs C - string

Question

So I have a struct named task that initializes a few things.
typedef struct _task{
char *task_name;
int priority; // higher numbers have higher priority
char date_entered[11];
char date_completed[11]; // not used yet
} task;
I'm trying to write a function named task *makeTask that takes in (char *name, char *date, and char *priority)
I need to allocate memory for the new task, the name within the new task, and I think the date. So far, I've reached a segmentation fault using this:
task *makeTask(char *name, char *date, char *priority)
{
int i;
int j;
int k;
task *newtask = malloc(sizeof(task));
for(i=0; name[i] != '\0'; i++){
if(name[i] == '\n')
name[i] = '\0';
}
newtask->task_name = malloc(sizeof(char *)*(strlen(name)+1));
strcpy(newtask->task_name, name);
newtask->priority = atoi(priority);
for(j=0; date[j] != '\0'; j++){
if(date[j] == '\n')
date[j] == '\0';
}
return newtask;// FILE THIS IN
}
I think I don't have a really solid understanding of strings and how to manipulate them. Why is my code here giving me a segmentation fault? Is it the loops or the way I've allocated memory for the struct? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I haven't found anything yet that would guarantee a segmentation fault, but here are some issues.
your loops,
for(i=0; name[i] != '\0'; i++){
if(name[i] == '\n')
name[i] = '\0';
}
aside from being somewhat bizarre, You're presuming that name has been properly initialized. If it hasn't been, then that loop will throw a segmentation fault. the same goes for your date loop
the following line:
newtask->task_name = malloc(sizeof(char )(strlen(name)+1));
sizeof(char *), is a little odd, because you're initializing an array of characters, rather than an array of character pointers(an array of arrays). I don't know if that really makes too much of a difference, but it is odd.