Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!uunet!mcsun!hafro!isgate!krafla!rispa2!orn
From: orn@rsp.is (Orn E. Hansen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Help...
Message-ID: <142@.rsp.is>
Date: 13 Oct 89 13:01:23 GMT
References: <731@carroll1.UUCP> <39902@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Organization: National Hospital of Iceland
Lines: 28

In article <39902@bu-cs.BU.EDU>, austin@bucsf.bu.edu (Austin Ziegler) writes:
> On 9 Oct 89 23:26:06 GMT,
> dnewton@carroll1.UUCP (Dave 'Yes, I'm weird' Newton) said:
> 
> Dave> ==========================
> Dave> #include <stdio.h>
> Dave> main ()
> Dave> {
> Dave>    char      h[];
> Dave>    scanf ("%s", h);
> Dave>    printf ("%s\n", h);
> Dave> }
> Dave> ==========================
> 

The code 'char h[]' equals 'char *h'.  This pointer doesn't point to any
space that can hold any value's, it points to a random point naturally
giving random results.

The pointer probably points to your stack (the unused portion), so when
calling 'printf' it alters the space scanned by 'scanf' thus printing
garbage (I guess ...).

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orn Hansen

National Hospital of Iceland,      Internet: orn@rsp.is
Computer Department.