This question already has an answer here:
-
How to replace specific characters in a string with other characters
3 answers
I am trying to do something really basic on C but I keep getting a segmentation fault. All I want to do is replace a letter of a word with a different letter- in this example replace the l with a L. Can anyone help explain where I have gone wrong? It should be a really basic problem I think, I just have no idea why its not working.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char *string1;
string1 = "hello";
printf("string1 %s\n", string1);
printf("string1[2] %c\n", string1[2]);
string1[2] = 'L';
printf("string1 %s\n", string1);
return 0;
}
For my output I get
string1 hello
string1[2] l
Segmentation fault
Thanks!
string1 = "hello";
string1[2] = 'L';
You can't change string literals, it's undefined behavior. Try this:
char string1[] = "hello";
Or maybe:
char *string1;
string1 = malloc(6); /* hello + 0-terminator */
strcpy(string1, "hello");
/* Stuff. */
free(string1);
char *string1;
string1 = "hello";
string1
points to a string literal and string literals are non-modifiable.
What you can do is initialize an array with the elements of a string literal.
char string1[] = "hello";
the elements of string1
array are modifiable.
char *string1 = "hello";
When running the code, the string literal will be in a section that is read-only. OS does not allow the code to change that block of memory, so you get a seg-fault.
char string1[] = "hello";
The string literal will be pushed onto the stack when you run the code.
string1[2] = 'L';
you are trying to change a string literal which is undefined behavior in C.
Instead use string1[]="hello";
Segmentation fault you get is because the literal is probably stored in the the read only section of the memory and trying to write to it produces undefined behavior.