Re: const char * vs char[]

[Jan-Benedict Glaw <jbglaw@lug-owl.de>]

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On Tue, 2004-03-23 11:52:12 -0300, Mariano Moreyra <moremari@aca.org.ar>
wrote in message <000f01c410e6$6d7197e0$0c81640a@aca.org.ar>:
> No... "char*" and "char []" are synonyms.

There's a subtle difference:

char *hello_ptr = "A really loooong hello world";
char write_string[] = "this is some long garbage";

void main(void) {
	/* legal */
	sprintf (write_string, "%s", "stuff");

	/* illegal - may be in a read-only segment */
	sprintf (hello_ptr, "%s", "Don't do that");
}

So if you're preparing some space for say building up some packet (to be
sent out to hardware), use "char xx[]", but if you only want to have a
read-only string (to printf() it to the user), you can use "char *xx".

MfG, JBG

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