can i use fgets for accepting strings in character pointer array instead of scanf

Question

Although the below code is working fine.But its showing "segmentation fault" when i am trying to accept the strings using fgets as i want to store strings which might contain spaces.How to accept strings (which might contain spaces) in character pointer array

int main(){
    char* nm[5];
    char* st;
    for(int i=0;i<5;i++)
        //fgets(nm[i],30,stdin);
        scanf("%ms",&nm[i]);
    for(int i=0;i<5;i++)
        printf("%s\n",nm[i]);
return 0;
}

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 12 '18 at 07:16

-1

nm is a pointer to 5 chars not a pointer to 5 strings, so &nm[2] is the address of the 3rd char in nm. If you change nm to be

char* nm[5][50];

you will have an array of 5 x 50 chars. That should stop the segfault.

answered Aug 12 '18 at 07:16

Neil

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Neil please check this link https://stackoverflow.com/a/50667860/10212490.I think nm[2] points to the base address of 3rd string in the array – NIKITA AGARWAL Aug 12 '18 at 07:26
1

`nm` is not a pointer to 5 `char`s, but an _array_ of 5 pointers to `char`. – ad absurdum Aug 12 '18 at 08:37
1

This answer is wrong. Even the analysis it gives is wrong. – alk Aug 12 '18 at 09:41
BTW, "*a pointer to 5 chars*" would be defined as `char (*pointer_to_array_of_5_char)[5];` – alk Aug 12 '18 at 09:43
I knew my c was rusty but I didn't think it was that bad – Neil Aug 12 '18 at 09:46

can i use fgets for accepting strings in character pointer array instead of scanf

1 Answers1