C's printf doesn't print a string (char array) out

Question

My question is basically using printf print a char array.

In some cases, it prints the result out:

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  char* orig = "@reveals#?the treasure chest#$President Barack H. Obama#";
  printf("The input: %s\n", orig);
  printf("The output: %s\n", reArrange(orig));

  return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

sometimes not:

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  char* orig = "@reveals#?the treasure chest#$President Barack H. Obama#";
  printf("%s\n", reArrange(orig));

  return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

Here is the complete code (the main function is included):

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

#define SUBJECT '$'
#define ACTION '@'
#define OBJECT '?'
#define END '#'

char* reArrange(char* orig) {
  int origSize = strlen(orig);

  char subject[origSize], action[origSize], object[origSize];

//int i;
//for(i = 0; i < origSize; i++) {
//  subject[i] = ' ';
//  action[i] = ' ';
//  object[i] = ' ';
//}
  int subjectIndex = 0,   actionIndex = 0,  objectIndex = 0;

  int timesEndCharShowUp = 0;

  char state;
  int i;
  for(i = 0; i < origSize; i++) {
    char ch = orig[i];

    if(ch == SUBJECT) {
      state = SUBJECT;
    }
    else if(ch == ACTION) {
      state = ACTION;
    }
    else if(ch == OBJECT) {
      state = OBJECT;
    }
    else if(ch == END) {
      if(timesEndCharShowUp == 3) {
        break;
      }
      else {
        timesEndCharShowUp++;
      }
    }
    else {
      if(state == SUBJECT) {
        subject[subjectIndex++] = ch;
      }
      else if(state == ACTION) {
        action[actionIndex++] = ch;
      }
      else if(state == OBJECT) {
        object[objectIndex++] = ch;
      }
    }
  }

  subject[subjectIndex] = '\0';
  action[actionIndex] = '\0';
  object[objectIndex] = '\0';

  char rearranged[origSize];
  sprintf(rearranged, "%s %s %s.\0", subject, action, object);
  //printf("%s\n", rearranged);

  orig = rearranged;
  return orig;
}

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  char* orig = "@reveals#?the treasure chest#$President Barack H. Obama#";
//  printf("The input: %s\n", orig);
//  printf("The output: %s\n", reArrange(orig));
  printf("result: ");
  printf("%s\n", reArrange(orig) );
//fflush(stdout);

  return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

Answer 1

You are returning a pointer to memory that resides on the stack. rearranged is not available after the enclosing function (reArrange) returns and may contain garbage.

You may want to malloc rearranged or declare it globally.

Answer 2

Instead of only returning a char *, make reArrange() accept a buffer to which it can write the result. Now the caller must provide a suitable buffer to your function, and you have no problems with memory management anymore. You merely strncpy() arranged to the buffer. To be sure the buffer is large enough, the user should also provide the size of the buffer, in a 3rd argument:

char *rArrange(char *orig, char *result, int resultSize)
{
    if (!result || resultSize == 0)
        return NULL;

    /* your code here */

    strncpy(result, arranged, resultSize);
    return result;
}

The alternative malloc() to store the result is not very user fiendly (the user must freemem() the buffer but may not be aware of this). Using a static/global buffer is not very thread-safe.