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From: nnj20229@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Nesha Nicole Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: returning automatic variables
Summary: Can you return a string from a function
Keywords: automatic variables, returning values
Message-ID: <1991May24.153133.13590@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 24 May 91 15:31:33 GMT
Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 31

I wrote the following simple program and when it runs I get the following 
output.  Is it possible to return an automatic string form a function
because I cannot get it to work.

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
        char machine[100];
        char *word(void);

        sprintf(machine,"%s",word());
        printf(" the value of name after the function call is %s\n",machine);

}

char *word(void)
{
        char name[100];

        printf("enter a value for name : ");
        scanf("%s",name);
        return name;
}
******************* output ***********************************

enter a value for name : nesha
 the value of name after the function all is oo$


** I copied this directly from the screen , you could not see the ^?^?o^?o^?$