If you desire to store formatted output in a buffer, the snprintf() function, covered in last week’s Lesson, is a safe alternative to the standard Library sprintf() function. An even better choice is the asprintf() function.
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Another non-standard library function is snprintf(). Like the strlcpy() and strlcat() functions shown in previous Lessons, snprintf() is safer than its standard Library counterpart, sprintf().
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Coding my own version of the non-standard strlcat() function proved to be a bit more work than I anticipated. That’s because I also had to code my own versions of the strcpy() and strlen() functions to make the thing work.
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The strlcat() function (with the L) achieves the same goal as the venerable strcat() function: to append one string onto the end of the other. The problem with strcat(), however, is that a size limitation isn’t set for the destination buffer. It’s quite possible for this buffer to overflow.
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Armed with information about how the non-standard strlcpy() function is implemented by my compiler (see last week’s Lesson), and fully testing its input and output, I was better able to craft my own version. Granted, it’s not the way I would have coded things on my own, but the point is to recreate the function exactly so it can be used as a substitute.
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I though writing a substitute strlcpy() function would be easy. Boy was I wrong!
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As part of my research, I run my C code on different platforms using different compilers. Occasionally I’m crushed to discover that my code won’t compile because my development computer uses a customized version of the C library, one that features a non-standard function, such as strcasecmp().
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A programming puzzle kept me awake one night: If a structure allows for any variable type to be a member, and a function is a valid variable type, why not have a structure with a function as one of its members? Am I nuts?
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When a buffer is void, its contents are treated as raw memory, not assigned to any specific data type. This ambiguity means your code can cast the memory’s data type and do interesting things with it.
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Gone are the old days when your C program ruled the entire computer’s domain. Back then, you could access any chunk of memory in the computer, manipulate it in all sorts of interesting ways, and not be concerned that your code’s actions would be restricted. Ah, those were good times.
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