As with the strcpy() function, covered in last week’s Lesson, you run a risk of buffer overflow with strcat(). The compiler doesn’t check for an overflow; to ensure that you’re practicing safe coding habits, that task is up to you.
Continue reading
C offers a smattering of string-manipulation functions, but it leaves many of the critical issues up to you. Specifically, you must ensure that a string doesn’t overflow its buffer and that all strings are capped with the null character, '\0'.
Continue reading
When it was pointed out to me that using the scanf() functions in my online teaching material was an “unsafe coding practice,” I thought, “Well, duh!” I’ve never been a fan of scanf(); it’s an ugly function.
Continue reading
Recently, I was notified of some weak programming practices common in beginning C material. As someone who appreciates solid code, I was surprised to hear about these items. As a teacher, I’m quick to address them.
Continue reading
With almost all the former-constants converted to variables, only one puzzle remains: Padding each string’s output so that the columns line up. (Yes, this is the final part of this series!)
Continue reading
The process of converting the sample program from one that relies upon constants to one that exclusively uses variables is nearly complete. Only two steps are left:
Continue reading
Last week’s Lesson accomplished the task of obtaining the number of elements in the fruit[] array. This week, the task is to obtain the next item, the widest string in the array. This item is currently a constant, but it must become a variable to ensure the code’s flexibility.
Continue reading
Once you accept that a program’s data set is flexible, you must abandon all constants and use variables. It’s a good move: The variables ensure that no matter what changes with the data, the code can handle it.
Continue reading
It’s easy to code single-column list output. It takes a bit more programming skill to present the list in columns. To sort the list by columns is the most difficult. Like many programming tasks, it’s one of those things that once you figure it out, you just keep stealing your own code to do it again and again.
Continue reading
Sometimes programming can be a snap, especially when you have a known data set and pretty much all the values are static. You can whip out code right away, it runs well and looks beautiful — but that’s because everything is known. The fewer variables, the easier to code.
Continue reading