Hello Joe!

Friday April 14 1995 18:52, Joe Kelch wrote to Donnie Benners:

 ->> it will be. If you want to use the pointer, you will need to
 ->> allocate memory fo it before you start filling it with
 ->> information. I like using calloc() because it also clears
 ->> memory, unlike malloc(). Ex: char *StrName; int size, number;
 ->> number = 1; size = 10; StrName = (char *)calloc (number,
 ->> size); This will allocate 10 bytes of memory of type char and
 ->> pass the starting addres to StrName.

 JK> Everyone seems to suggest something like this, but I fail to see
 JK> how this is any different in effect from simply declaring char
 JK> StrName[10] to begin with, which is what I trying NOT to do.  I
 JK> want a VARIABLE length string, which apparently C just doesn't
 JK> let you do!

C will let you do that too. Do this:

char *StrName;

StrName = (char*)malloc (50);
//size to create---------^^

cout << StrName;

You can have variable lengths using pointers, but you need to allocate the
space for it before you can fill it. I use them all the time with
structures and linked lists. Here is an example of reading input into a
buffer then putting it into a string:

char *StrName, buffer[100];

gets(buffer);
StrName = (char*)malloc (strlen (buffer));

cout << StrName;

One of the best books I've seen for beginners is The Turbo C++ Bible from
the Waite Group. It has good examples and would be a very valuable
resource. I still use mine from time to time.

                                                        Donnie

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