"Segmentation fault (core dumped)" error.

[RodEsp]

Hey guys, so I'm trying to write a little program that will put together any number of strings passed to it into a single string and then print out that string backwards.
I think I have everything correct but I keep getting a "Segmentation fault (core dumped)" error after compiling and running. So far the output I get looks like this if I enter "Hello" and "World" for my two strings:

argc = 3
argv[1] = Hello
argv[2] = World
len = 12
string = ÿ9
string = ÿ9Hello World
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Also, how can I fix that I'm getting that weird ÿ9 character for my *string[0] index? I'd like my string "Hello World" to start from *string[0].

This is my code:

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

void reverse(char *string);

/******************************************************************************
 * main() function
 ******************************************************************************/

int main(int argc, char **argv){

        //check for arguments
        if ( argc < 2 )
        {
          printf("Usage : reverse <string>\n");
          return 0;
        }

        printf("argc = %d\n", argc);

        //concatenate the strings
        int i = 1;
        int len = 0;

        while ( i < argc  )
        {
          printf("argv[%d] = %s\n", i, argv[i]);
          i++;
        }

        i = 1;

        while ( i < argc )
        {
          len += strlen(argv[i]) + 1;
          i++;
        }

        printf("len = %d\n", len);

        char *string[len];
        i = 1;

        printf("string = %s\n", *string);

        while ( i < argc )
        {
          strcat(*string, argv[i]);
          strcat(*string, " ");
          i++;
        }

        //reverse the string
        reverse(*string);

        printf("string = %s\n", *string);

        return 0;
}

/******************************************************************************
 * reverse() function using recursion
 ******************************************************************************/

void reverse(char *string)
{
        if(*string != '\0')
        {
          reverse(string+1);
        }

        printf("Reverse of String = %s\n", *string);
}

[Moschops]

Oop. Never mind. :)

[chrjs]

at line 42, you can't declare a variable in c in the middle of the program, all variable declarations have to be at the beginning of the code. Also, you can't use a non-constant variable to initialize the size of the array inside brackets. Even if you could do that, you shouldn't have a pointer that points to arrays of characters, you never allocated any memory to that pointer, thats why you are getting the segmentation fault.

[Moschops]

at line 42, you can't declare a variable in c in the middle of the program

I understand it became legal to do so in C99.

[WaltP]

And does your compiler support C99?

[chrjs]

I understand it became legal to do so in C99.

Even though it is legal in C99, its not legal in standard C. C code isn't as portable by writing declarations halfway through the code.

[Moschops]

Even though it is legal in C99, its not legal in standard C.

In March 2000, ANSI adopted the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard. This forum is labelled "Our C forum is the place for Q&A-style discussions related to the C language as per the ANSI C standard."

Do you mean "standard", or do you mean "a previous version"? :)

[chrjs]

Hmm... I didn't know ANSI C was changed from C90 to C99, I guess I am more than 10 years behind the times...

[RodEsp]

Yeah, my compiler supports C99, and no that was not the problem. I still don't know why I got a segmentation fault but my program works now.

Here's the functional code if anyone is interested. (It only works if you're running it from a command prompt or a terminal in UNIX since the strings have to be passed through the command line. That can be easily adapted for other methods of input though.)

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

void reverse(char *string);

/******************************************************************************
 * main() function
 ******************************************************************************/

int main(int argc, char **argv){

        //check for arguments
        if ( argc < 2 )
        {
          printf("Usage : reverse <string>\n");
          return 0;
        }

        //concatenate the strings
        int i = 1;
        int len = 0;

        i = 1;

        while ( i < argc )
        {
          len += strlen(argv[i]) + 1;
          i++;
        }

        char string[len];
        string[0] = '\0';
        i = 1;

        while ( i < argc )
        {
          strcat(string, argv[i]);
          if ( i == (argc - 1))
          {
            break;
          }
          strcat(string, " ");
          i++;
        }

        printf("Reverse of String = ");

        //reverse the string
        reverse(string);

        printf("\n");

        return 0;
}

/******************************************************************************
 * reverse() function using recursion
 ******************************************************************************/

void reverse(char *string)
{
        if(*(string+1) != '\0')
        {
          reverse(string+1);
        }

        printf("%c", *string);
}

[chrjs]

The reason you were got a segmentation fault is because when you declared char *string[len]; in your first code as opposed to char string[len]; like in your second code, there was no memory bing pointed to by string. The first is a pointer to an array of strings, while the second is just a string.

[RodEsp]

Got it. Thanks.