--- Jeremy Hill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Greetings and salutations, > First time posting; have a quick question for you. I use Erwin's note > board system. I was going to make a note formatter > for it, but then I noticed that OLC had a formatter built in, called > format_string: > char *format_string (char *oldstring) > > I figured I could kind of make use of this and use that instead of making my > own line formatter, so this is what I did in > void handle_con_note_finish (part of board.c): > > case 'o': /*format note*/ > ch->pcdata->in_progress->text = format_string > (ch->pcdata->in_progress->text); > write_to_buffer (d,"Note formatted.\n\r",0); > break; > > Now, here's my question-- some of the other calls to format_string use > pointers, like > *ch->desc->pString = format_string (*ch->desc->pString); > while others do not, like > pRoom->description = format_string (pRoom->description); > > I was wondering if I am making a _TERRIBLE_ mistake by somehow sending > non-pointed type stuff to format_string, > which uses pointers. (As you can obviously tell, I'm not exactly the > world's most competent C programmer, verily). > > Is passing the note text like that fine? No bad juju with memory being > scrambled or anything? I tried it out with much suspense, > and it appears to be okay--no compiler warnings on the make, and the box > we're on still seems stable after making a few notes. > (Obviously you can tell pointers to me are something similar to > superstition).
Yes, they are a source of confusion for many newbie c programmers.. In answer to your question yes, it should be fine. The source of your confusion lies in the fact that you think pRoom->description = format_string (pRoom->description); Is not passing a pointer into the function. It is. If you look up the definition of room_index_data you will see that description is defined as: char *description; Thus it is a pointer to a character. So now you are thinking.. well if it is a pointer, why doesn't it have the * symbol in front of it like: *ch->desc->pString = format_string (*ch->desc->pString); The question should be, why does ch->desc->pString need to be dereferenced with the * before it gets passed. And the answer is because ch->desc->pString is not a pointer to a character like pRoom->description. It is most likely defined in descriptor_data as: char **pString; Or a pointer to a pointer to a character. Thus to get the character pointer that pString points to you need to dereference it with the * operator. I realize it's late, and this may not make the most sense of anything you've read before, so if you have more questions feel free to ask. ~Kender ===== -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version 3.1 GCS/L/C/O d-(+) s++:+ a-- C+++$>++++ UBLS++++$ P+++(--)$ L++>+++ E--- W+>++$ N !o K? w(--) !O M- !V PS+ PE(++) Y+ PGP->+ t- 5 X+() R(+) tv+@ b++(+++) !DI+++ D G(-) e>+++$ h---() r+++ y+++ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com
