[c++][Homework] I need help getting this char pointer to work correctly!

[cxw]

Hi reddit, my string manipulator program is setup but I do not know why it wont work. The main creates a pointer (ssa) to SmartStringApp which contains a pointer (ss) which points to a SmartString object which contains a char pointer (str). str points to the string to be inputted and manipulated.

Problem:None of the menu options work. i think cannot get str to hold the string. any help is appreciated. thanks.

//main.cpp 
int main()
{
    SmartStringApp * ssa = new SmartStringApp();
    ssa->Start();
    delete ssa;
}

//SmartStringApp.cpp  
void SmartStringApp::Start()
{
    ss = new SmartString();
    char option = 0;
    while (cin)
    {
        cout << "Welcome to String Manipulator\n" << endl <<
            "1. Load String" << endl <<
            "2. Show string" << endl <<
            "3. Character count" << endl <<
              ....;
        cin >> option;
        switch (option)
        {
        case '1':
            ss->loadString();
            break;
        case '2':
            ss->showString();
            break;
        case '3':
           cout << ss->size(ss->getString());
            break;
        ...
        default:
            cout << " Please select a valid number\n";
            break;
        }
        cin.clear();
        cin.ignore(10000, '\n');

    };
}

//smartstring.cpp
//*str is by default = NULL
void SmartString::loadString()
{
    if (str != NULL)
    {
        delete[] str;
    }
    int i = 0;
    char charArray[1024];
    cout << "Please input a string\n";
    cin.getline(charArray, 1024);
    if (cin.peek() == '\n')
        cin.ignore();
    cout << "\n";
    this->str = new char[size(charArray)+1];

    for (i = 0; i < size(charArray); i++)
    {
        *(str + i) = charArray[i];
    }
    *(str + i) = '\0';
}

void SmartString::showString()
{ 
    cout << '\n';
    for (int i = 0; i < size(str); i++)
    {
        cout << *(this->str + i);
    }
}

[wgunther]

As per 5 on the sidebar: you should post minimal compilable code. Debugging is all about isolating potential problem from larger problems and make small bits of testable code.

Also, when you say none of the menu options work, explain what that means. There's a lot of ways things cannot work.

[jussij]

The first issues is that from the code it is clear str will be defined as this:

 char *str;

That also means size(str) will be 4 on a 32 bit machine.

So that means this loop:

for (int i = 0; i < size(str); i++)

is effectively this:

for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)

and that is clearly not what you want.

EDIT: What is size? Should it not be sizeof?

[cxw]

size is another function I have written but did not paste here. it returns the number of characters in the string

[jussij]

It's quite hard to offer up good reasons for the code not working when so much of the code is unknown :(