Re: Declaring a dynamic pointer to an array of char pointers

From:
"Giovanni Dicanio" <giovanniDOTdicanio@REMOVEMEgmail.com>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.vc.language
Date:
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:24:01 +0100
Message-ID:
<ePwXSZDoKHA.5552@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl>
Messaggio multiparte in formato MIME.

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"DS" <dsutNOSPAMter@tc3NOSPAMnet.com> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:uQhIpY6nKHA.5520@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

I would like to declare a pointer to an array of char pointers, that
I can allocate at some time during a run.
I'll expect a variable length string of tokens seperated by white space
chars.
I would like to search for each token head and store it's address in a
sequential
array of pointers, Then insert a NULL at each tokens end.
ie: string = "Cmd Arg1 Arg2 Arg3..."

Now I tried:
   char ** PtrArray;
       But the program hanged.


char** would be just fine in pure C.

I have turned my "C Reference Manual inside and out.
I have read several web documents, pointer tutorials...
Please help,


Considering that you are asking for a pure C solution, you may find useful a
simple C tokenzier I wrote and attached here.
It seems to work in some tests, but it needs more verification.

Note that if you could use C++, vector<CString> would be better choice than
raw C-like array of pointers.

(To my limited knowledge, there are few cases in which you must use pure C
instead of C++, like e.g. developing device drivers in kernel mode; if you
aren't in this elite, C++ could make your life easier.)

HTH,
Giovanni
 

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/************************************************************************=

 * FILE: TestTokenizer.c
 * DESC: A simple tokenizer written in C.
 *
 * By Giovanni Dicanio <giovanni.dicanio@gmail.com>
 =
************************************************************************/=

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/
/* INCLUDES =
*/
/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/

#include <stdio.h> /* printf */
#include <stdlib.h> /* calloc/free */
#include <string.h> /* memset */

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/
/* HELPER FUNCTIONS FOR THE TOKENIZER =
*/
/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/

/*
 * Given a string, skips all consecutive separator characters
 * starting from the beginning.
 * Returns a pointer to the first non-separator character.
 */
char * SkipSeparators(char * s, char separator)
{
    char * p = s; /* Scanner in input string */

    /* Until the end of string: */
    while (*p != '\0')
    {
        if (*p != separator)
        {
            /* A non-separator was found: so return its position */
            break;
        }

        /* Move to next character */
        ++p;
    }

    return p;
}

/*
 * Given a string, searches the first occurrence of a separator =
character.
 * On success, returns pointer to the separator character.
 * If no separator is found, returns a pointer to end-of-string =
character.
 */
char * FindNextSeparator(char * s, char separator)
{
    char * p = s; /* Scanner in input string */

    while (*p != '\0')
    {
        if (*p == separator)
        {
            /* Found ! */
            break;
        }

        /* Move to next character */
        ++p;
    }

    return p;
}

/*
 * Given a string, returns the number of tokens found in it.
 */
int GetTokenCount(char * s, char separator)
{
    int tokenCount = 0; /* # of tokens found */
    char * p = s; /* Scanner of source string */

    /* If string is NULL or empty, there is no token */
    if (s == NULL || *s == '\0')
        return 0;

    /* For each character in input string: */
    while (*p != '\0')
    {
        /* Skip initial separators, if any */
        p = SkipSeparators(p, separator);

        /* If there are no more character, just quit looping */
        if (*p == '\0')
            break;

        /* Find separator delimiting current token */
        p = FindNextSeparator(p, separator);

        /* Update token counter */
        ++tokenCount;
    }

    /* Return number of tokens found */
    return tokenCount;
}

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=

 * *** Main Tokenizer Function ***
 *
 * Given a string, tokenizes it.
 *
 * A string array is returned, containing pointers to tokens.
 * End of array is marked by a NULL pointer.
 *
 * The caller must call free() to release allocated memory returned
 * by this function.
 *
 * Input string is modified (\0 characters are inserted to separate
 * tokens.)
 *
 * If input string is NULL or empty, or there are no tokens, returns =
NULL.
 * On allocation error, returns NULL.
 =
*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/=

char ** Tokenize(char * s, char separator)
{
    int tokenCount = 0; /* # of tokens found */
    int currToken = 0; /* index of current token in token =
array
*/
    char * p = s; /* Scanner of source string */
    char * end = NULL; /* Token end */
    char ** tokens = NULL; /* Array of pointers to tokens
                                     * (last pointer is NULL) */

    /* If string is NULL or empty, there is no token */
    if (s == NULL || *s == '\0')
        return NULL;

    /* Get number of tokens in input string */
    tokenCount = GetTokenCount(s, separator);
    if (tokenCount == 0)
        return NULL;

    /* Create token array.
     * This array stores pointers to each token.
     * There are tokenCount+1 array slots, because last slot
     * (set to NULL) marks the end of the array.
     */
    tokens = (char **) calloc(tokenCount + 1, sizeof(char *));
    if (tokens == NULL)
        return NULL;

    /* Clear array pointers */
    memset(tokens, 0, (tokenCount + 1) * sizeof(char *));

    /* For each character in input string: */
    while (*p != '\0')
    {
        /* Skip initial separators, if any */
        p = SkipSeparators(p, separator);

        /* If there are no more character, just quit looping */
        if (*p == '\0')
            break;

        /* Find separator delimiting current token */
        end = FindNextSeparator(p, separator);

        /* Store token pointer in array */
        tokens[currToken] = p;

        /* Update token counter */
        ++currToken;

        if (*end != '\0')
        {
            /* If this was not last character in string,
             * terminates token with a \0 */
            *end = '\0';

            /* Continue looping from next character */
            p = end + 1;
        }
        else
        {
            /* End of string found: stop looping */
            break;
        }
    }

    /* Return found tokens */
    return tokens;
}

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/
/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/
/* TEST =
*/
/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*=
/

/*
 * Prints content of a string array using printf (debug/test purposes).
 * End of array is marked by a NULL pointer.
 */
void PrintStringArray(char ** strings)
{
    if (strings == NULL )
    {
        printf(" *** empty string array ***\n");
    }
    else
    {
        int i = 0;
        while ( strings[i] != NULL )
        {
            printf(" \"%s\"\n", strings[i]);
            i++;
        }
    }
    printf("\n");
}

/*
 * Helper macro to get number of items in array
 */
#define COUNTOF(a) (sizeof(a) / sizeof(a[0]))

int main(void)
{
    int i; /* loop index */
    const char separator = ' '; /* separator character */

    /*
     * Test strings
     */
    char test1[] = "Ciao Arg1 Arg2 hello";
    char test2[] = " Ciao Arg1 Arg2 hello ";
    char test3[] = "";
    char test4[] = " ciao ";
    char test5[] = " ";
    char test6[] = "ciao";

    char *tests[] = {test1, test2, test3, test4, test5, test6};

    printf("*** Tokenization in pure C ***\n\n");

    for (i = 0; i < COUNTOF(tests); i++)
    {
        char ** tokens;

        printf("------------ Tokenization #%d ----------------\n", =
(i+1));

        /* Print current test string */
        printf("String: \"%s\"\n\n", tests[i]);

        /* Tokenize current string */
        tokens = Tokenize(tests[i], separator);

        /* Print resulting tokens */
        printf("Tokens:\n");
        PrintStringArray(tokens);

        printf("---------------------------------------------\n\n");

        /* Cleanup */
        free(tokens);
        tokens = NULL;
    }

    return 0;
}

/************************************************************************=
/

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*** Tokenization in pure C ***

------------ Tokenization #1 ----------------
String: "Ciao Arg1 Arg2 hello"

Tokens:
  "Ciao"
  "Arg1"
  "Arg2"
  "hello"

---------------------------------------------

------------ Tokenization #2 ----------------
String: " Ciao Arg1 Arg2 hello "

Tokens:
  "Ciao"
  "Arg1"
  "Arg2"
  "hello"

---------------------------------------------

------------ Tokenization #3 ----------------
String: ""

Tokens:
  *** empty string array ***

---------------------------------------------

------------ Tokenization #4 ----------------
String: " ciao "

Tokens:
  "ciao"

---------------------------------------------

------------ Tokenization #5 ----------------
String: " "

Tokens:
  *** empty string array ***

---------------------------------------------

------------ Tokenization #6 ----------------
String: "ciao"

Tokens:
  "ciao"

---------------------------------------------

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