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String in function parameter

int main()
{
        char *x = "HelloWorld";
        char y[] = "HelloWorld";

        x[0] = 'Z';
        //y[0] = 'M';

        return 0;
}

In the above program, HelloWorld will be in read-only section(i.e string table). x will be pointing to that read-only section, so trying to modify that values will be undefined behavior.

But y will be allocated in stack and HelloWorld will be copied to that memory. so modifying y will works fine. String literals: pointer vs. char array

Here is my Question:

In the following program, both char *arr and char arr[] causes segmentation fault if the content is modified.

void function(char arr[])
//void function(char *arr)
{
   arr[0] = 'X';
}        
int main()
{
   function("MyString");    
   return 0;
}
  1. How it differs in the function parameter context?
  2. No memory will be allocated for function parameters??

Please share your knowledge.

like image 253
Jeyaram Avatar asked Jun 14 '13 14:06

Jeyaram


1 Answers

function("MyString");

is similar to

char *s = "MyString";
function(s);

"MyString" is in both cases a string literal and in both cases the string is unmodifiable.

function("MyString");

passes the address of a string literal to function as an argument.

like image 99
ouah Avatar answered Oct 13 '22 18:10

ouah