Can't initialize array of strings and use them

Question

This is outside the main:

char message_ecran[NUMBER_OF_STRINGS][STRING_LENGTH+1];

And this is my function

 int main(void)
    {
        Init(); 

        int i;
        char texte7[] = "io";

        for (i=0;i<=NUMBER_OF_STRINGS;i++)
            {
            message_ecran[i] = texte7;
            }
    }

I would like to have an array of strings message_ecran, but it does'nt work:

incompatible types in assignment

You cannot do that in C. Use strcpy_s instead of your assignment operator. — Anish Ramaswamy
– Anish Ramaswamy, Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 8:19
@AnishRam: strcpy_s isn't part of the C standard library. Use strncpy instead. — Zeta
– Zeta, Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 8:21
@Zeta, Good point. I didn't know that. Come to think of it, wouldn't memset or memcpy be better then? — Anish Ramaswamy
– Anish Ramaswamy, Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 8:25
You should change your for-loop's condition of i <= NUMBER_OF_STRINGS into i < NUMBER... — xQuare
– xQuare, Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 8:36
@AnishRam: Well, no. memcpy is a general copy algorithm, while strncpy will stop on \0 or if a specified number of characters has been copied (strncpy = str ing (n characters) c o py) — Zeta
– Zeta, Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 9:08

Sebastian · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-11 09:37:01Z

1

strcpy() , implemented in your program.

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

#define NUMBER_OF_STRINGS 3
#define STRING_LENGTH 80

char message_ecran[NUMBER_OF_STRINGS][STRING_LENGTH+1];

int main(void)
{
    int i;
    char texte7[] = "io";

    for (i=0;i<=NUMBER_OF_STRINGS;i++)
    { 
        strcpy(message_ecran[i],texte7);
        puts(message_ecran[i]);
    }
}

edited Mar 11, 2013 at 9:37

Sebastian

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answered Mar 11, 2013 at 9:07

Barath Ravikumar

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Comments

uba · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-11 08:20:19Z

1

You have to use strcpy for copying strings, assignment will not work. Replace

message_ecran[i] = texte7;

with

strcpy(message_ecran[i], texte7);

answered Mar 11, 2013 at 8:20

uba

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Comments

Alex · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-11 10:16:28Z

1

The operation you're doing now is an assignment of the pointer.

You can't simply assign one string to another, you have to strcpy() to really copy data.

strcpy(message_ecran[i], texte7);

Also you have to be sure that there is enough memory allocated in message_ecran[i] for string that you're trying to copy. Otherwise, you will corrupt the data.

EDIT:

You can check, the following:

if(strlen(texte7) < STRING_LENGTH+1)

Or you can simply use the following function:

char * strncpy ( char * destination, const char * source, size_t num );

strncpy(message_ecran[i], texte7, STRING_LENGTH);

edited Mar 11, 2013 at 10:16

answered Mar 11, 2013 at 8:20

Alex

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1 Comment

edi9999 Over a year ago

How should I make sure the memory allocated is sufficient ?

mani bharataraju · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-11 08:22:42Z

0

use strcpy(destination,source) and try

answered Mar 11, 2013 at 8:22

mani bharataraju

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