Return char[]/string from a function [duplicate]

Question

Im fairly new to coding in C and currently im trying to create a function that returns a c string/char array and assigning to a variable.

So far, ive observed that returning a char * is the most common solution. So i tried:

char* createStr() {     char char1= 'm';     char char2= 'y';     char str[3];     str[0] = char1;     str[1] = char2;     str[2] = '\0';     char* cp = str;     return cp; } 

My question is how do I use this returned char* and assign the char array it points to, to a char[] variable?

Ive tried (all led to noob-drowning errors):

1. char* charP = createStr();
2. char myStr[3] = &createStr();
3. char* charP = *createStr();

Answer 1

Notice you're not dynamically allocating the variable, which pretty much means the data inside str, in your function, will be lost by the end of the function.

You should have:

char * createStr() {      char char1= 'm';     char char2= 'y';      char *str = malloc(3);     str[0] = char1;     str[1] = char2;     str[2] = '\0';      return str;  } 

Then, when you call the function, the type of the variable that will receive the data must match that of the function return. So, you should have:

char *returned_str = createStr(); 

It worths mentioning that the returned value must be freed to prevent memory leaks.

char *returned_str = createStr();  //doSomething ...  free(returned_str);