On Sep 24, 2006, at 10:04 PM, Dave Smith wrote:
<snip>
Look, the original poster just wanted to know how to print the
address of a character array. You just demonstrated that using the
& operator with array2 gives you the WRONG answer, which was my
point originally, so I stand behind my original argument in the
context of the OP's question. I wasn't saying that the & would
never work, just that the OP shouldn't use it to solve this
problem. Your code defends that argument pretty well.
Ambiguity is the mother of many a mis-understanding. After re-
reading your post, I assume when you say "character array" you mean
"char *" and when I see "character array" I think "char []", so I
thought you were saying something different than you actually were.
The rule I was suggesting was that for all non-pointer types, to get
the address use & (that's what its for). For pointer types, no & is
needed. This give consistent results across types, whether you are
doing assignment, comparison, printf, etc.
By the way, the best answer was already given days ago with a
simple printf( "%p\n", var ), which I'm sure worked just fine
without all the pedantic ramblings about the intricacies of & and
why C++ is so evil and such (which I have thoroughly enjoyed). I
sure hope the OP has moved on to bigger and better problems to solve.
For what the OP was trying to do, you are right. I was simply
pointing out that little shortcuts that work with arrays don't
necessarily work with other non-array variables, so I think it is
important to understand at least a little of the "intricacies of &"
and to actually understand what a pointer is and how it differs from
non-pointers.
<snip>
--Dave
P.S. I happen to think C++ is a great language, and I use it in
lots of new projects all the time. I work with several hundred
other people who do the same thing. I've never run into a bug that
was *caused* by a deficiency in C++ that could not have been easily
reproduced in other languages. C++ is just fine for me. This from a
person who has written lots of Java, PHP, Python, and Perl code
(and even a tiny bit of Scheme).
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. This was a surprising
statement considering you have coded in these other languages. You
may not have run into them (which I find hard to believe), but there
are whole classes of bugs that are possible in C/C++ that are not
possible in Java, PHP, Python, Perl, Scheme, etc, etc, etc. You can
call these language characteristics "features" or "deficiencies", it
all depends on your point of view. Improper use of &, buffer
overflows, bad pointer math, data corruption from incorrect casts are
just a few examples of bugs that are possible in C/C++ but not in
other languages. Functions such as sprintf, memset, strcpy, strcat,
etc, all make these bugs possible. And yes, you can avoid them by
using the 'n' versions and doing proper bounds checking, but the fact
still remains that they are possible in C/C++ and not in the other
languages you have mentioned. That being said, C/C++ are excellent
languages in the hands of people who understand the power they give
and are judicious in it's use.
Grant
P.S. To rat Dave out, he actually isn't as fond of C++ as he makes
it seem. In CS 431, he wrote his compiler in *gasp* PHP! :) Shame
on you, Dave!
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