Problem with "chars"

Problem with "chars"

[xlp]

Hi C people, first of all, I'd like to thank you this mailing list and kernel.org project to give us a place where C programmers feel free to ask their questions and the support is excellent.
I dont understand what's the way I should handle 'chars' on C. 
I need to code a C function that returns a char, I want to do this:
char foo();
main(){
	char bar*;
	bar=foo();
}
How should i declare the 'char' inside foo()?
How should i 'return' the char inside foo()?
How can i understand "chars" and pointers to chars?, I have a C books, but I dont get it, because ALL THE EXAMPLES are with chars like char foo[20], that is the easy way!, I want to handle char without a specific length!.

bye.

Re: Problem with "chars"

[Jason L. Shiffer]

On Wed, Jul 17, 2002 at 04:08:16AM -0500, xlp wrote:
> I dont understand what's the way I should handle 'chars' on C. 
> I need to code a C function that returns a char, I want to do this:
> char foo();
> main(){
> 	char bar*;
> 	bar=foo();
> }

Firstly if you are just going to return a char ie. some value between
-128 & 127, then the above definition is incorrect:
char bar*;   defines a char pointer most commenly known as a string;
char bar;    defines a char

> How should i declare the 'char' inside foo()?

the same as above eg,
char foo(void){
  char x = 'a';
  return x;
}

> How should i 'return' the char inside foo()?
see the previous example.

> How can i understand "chars" and pointers to chars?, I have a C books, but I dont get it, because ALL THE EXAMPLES are with chars like char foo[20], that is the easy way!, I want to handle char without a specific length!.

The best book that I know of for this is "Expert C Programming (Deep C
Secrets) ISBN:0-13-177429-8.  And don't let the name scare it is a great
book that will take you pretty much from entry level programming to
advanced topics.

As a short introduction you can think about pointers like this:

char a = 'b';  //the symbol a represents the VALUE b
char *b = &a;  //the symbol b represents the MEMORY ADDRESS of the
               //symbol a;

it is a little simplified but I hope that it helps.

Jason
> 
> bye.
> 
> 
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Re: Problem with "chars"

[Elias Athanasopoulos]

On Wed, Jul 17, 2002 at 09:30:41AM -0400, Jason L. Shiffer wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 17, 2002 at 04:08:16AM -0500, xlp wrote:
> > I dont understand what's the way I should handle 'chars' on C. 
> > I need to code a C function that returns a char, I want to do this:
> > char foo();
> > main(){
> > 	char bar*;
> > 	bar=foo();
> > }
> 
> Firstly if you are just going to return a char ie. some value between
> -128 & 127, then the above definition is incorrect:
> char bar*;   defines a char pointer most commenly known as a string;

This defines nothing. It produces a syntax error.

Both, you mean "char *bar;". 

Elias

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