Increment char pointer

Question

The following code gives a seg fault at second line:

 char *tester = "hello";
 char a = (*tester)++;  // breaks here
 printf("Char is %c\n", a);

The following code works:

 char *tester = "hello";
 a = *tester;
 a++;
 printf("Char is %c\n", a);

 // prints i

Why can't it be done in one operation?

Answer 1

It can be, you're just incrementing the wrong thing. (*tester)++ increments the data to which tester is pointing. I believe what you wish to do is *(++tester) which will increment the pointer and then dereference it.

Answer 2

char *tester = "hello";

Here tester is pointing to a string constant. It is stored in a read-only memory. Any write modifications causes undefined behavior.

As @Taelsin pointed, it seems you want to increment the pointer itself, and not what it is pointing to. You need *(++tester).

After OP's clarification:

In case you want to increment the H to I, then (*tester + 1) would do the job.