Hey All

I've a problem I can't figure out despite consulting my texts, faqs and plain
old trial & error.  

A brief description and then sample code.

I use strstr on a string to find a "keyword".  I then pass that pointer to a
function to parse out the keyword + : + SPACE  (e..g Date: xyz) so that the
return is the value that follows the keyword (e.g. Date: 08 31 and I get 08
31) this works fine.  Then I pass the pointer to that result (i.e. 08 31) to
another function to separate the month from the date and then convert both to
integers.  Everything is just peachy until I need to return the integer array
containing the month & the day (e.g. Date[0]=Month # and Date[1]=Date #) and
actually use the information parsed in my main function.

Now onto the code:

prototypes & variable declarations:

int *Day_Convert(char *Info)
int Deadline[2], *Ptr_2_Deadline;

Ptr_2_Deadline=Deadline;
Ptr_2_Deadline=Day_Convert(char *The_Date_String)
/*  This doesn't work nor does using a pointer below */
printf("(%d, %d) (month, day)\n", Deadline[0],Deadline[1]);
/*   Output tends to be (0,0) (month, day)  and inspection shows a unmodified
array of (0,0) */

int *Day_Convert(char *Info)
{

int When[2], *Ptr_2_When, Index=0;
char Month_Array[3], Day_Array[3];

Ptr_2_When=When;

/** Read in month and then read in day  **/
/**  Data is from a WWW form, so is predictable  **/

for(Index=0;Index<2;Index++)
        {
        Month_Array[Index]=*Info;
        Info++;
/**  BTW Can I safely say Month_Array[Index]=*Info++  ???? */
        }
Info++;

for(Index=0;Index<2;Index++)
        {
        Day_Array[Index]=*Info;
        Info++;
        }

When[0]=atoi(Month_Array);
When[1]=atoi(Day_Array);

/*  When inspecting during debugging sessions, everything works till here  */
/*  I.e. When[0]=8 and When[1]=31 which are correct for the data given  */

return When;

I've also tried a slightly different approach by using the target for the
return as an argument to the function (i.e. void Day_Convert(char *Info, int
*Day_of_Deadline);

and I get the same results it doesn't seem to work.  

Thanks also better cc via e-mail as I'm not yet confident about my ISPs
ability to collect all the news out there.

Take Care!

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FROM:  Mark Allen Framness


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[ snip ]

Uhhh! this last affectation overrides the previous one. As declared, the
function Day_Convert returns a pointer to int, so the question is :
"Does the value returned point to dynamically allocated memory, or does
it point to some static data ?". In your 2 above statements, you seem to
mix the two points.

Yes, no problem.

The problem is here : "When" is an automatic variable, it is allocated
on the stack and its life duration is the scope of the function
Day_Convert. The returned value has no meaning outside the function and
invokes undefined behaviour. If you choose to return a pointer to
dynamically allocated data, you have to change the declaration of the
variable "When", use (m)alloc, and through Ptr_2_When :

       int *When;

       When = malloc(2 * sizeof *When);

This is an usual approach and I think it is better in your case, because
it avoids dynamic memory allocation. From this point of view, it is not
to the callee to do the memory allocation, but this is left to the
caller. It can be used when the size of the data is either known at
compile time, or is limited to an (reasonable) upper bound.

Such a function should work :

void Day_Convert(char *Info, int *Day_of_Deadline)
using Deadline instead of When in the function body

Day_Convert(The_Date_String, Deadline);

--
Herve Couppe de Lahongrais (SEU)       | Eurocontrol Experimental Centre

<snip>

One problem is returning a pointer to a local array (see section
7.5 of the C FAQ). Instead, pass the address of an int array to
your function and have it store the results there.

Here is a very simplistic example:

#include <stdio.h>

void test( int *a );

int main()
{
   int a[2];

   test( a );
   printf("%d %d\n", a[0], a[1] );

   return 0;

void test( int *a )
{
   a[0] = 546;
   a[1] = 611;
--
Scott Allen            

Something like this ought to work:

#include <stdio.h>

void Day_Convert( char *date, int *deadline )
{
  sscanf( date, "%d %d", deadline, deadline + 1 );

int main(void)
{
  int deadline[2];
  char *date  = "08 31";

  Day_Convert( date, deadline );

Implement your own error checking.