Returning pointer to character in C

Question

I have a legacy code snippet that looks like:

const char *GetStr() const {
  return ("");
}

I am wondering whether this is a risky code as instead of returning a global character pointer, returning a local string literal? For example, perhaps, the following code snippet is better.

const char *NullStr = "";
const char *GetStr() const {
  return NullStr; // instead of ""
}

What could be pros/cons?

Even the following implementation could be better:

const char *GetStr() const {
  static const char * lNullStr = "";
  return lNullStr;
}

If you're really programming C++ (which I believe you do considering the `const` qualified function, don't tag C even for legacy C++ code) then you should not be using raw pointers for strings to begin with. The author of the function needs a smack on the head for writing it, in my not humble at all opinion. And with "modern" C++ there are alternatives for returning [optional](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/utility/optional) data. Finally, if pointers are really needed, IMO the correct way to return "null" would be a null pointer. — Some programmer dude, Dec 19 '19 at 08:56

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 19 '19 at 08:52

-1

Your first snippet is not strictly portable.

An alternative, which is, is:

const char *GetStr() const {
    static const char* s = "";
    return s;  
}

and also has the benefit that s is contained within the function.

answered Dec 19 '19 at 08:52

Bathsheba

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Returning pointer to character in C

1 Answers1