Strings defined in struct

[Andreik]

How should look like a struct in C that contains two strings and this function to work properly?

typedef struct {
   char    *FirstName;
   char    *LastName;
} MyStruct;

extern "C" int __declspec(dllexport) TestFunc (MyStruct &StringPass)
{
    StringPass.FirstName = "This is test#1.";
    StringPass.LastName = "This is test#2.";
    return 1;
}

And call from AutoIt:

#include <Array.au3>

$STRUCT = DllStructCreate("char[16];char[16]")
$RESULT = DllCall("StructTest.dll","int:cdecl","TestFunc","ptr",DllStructGetPtr($STRUCT))
_ArrayDisplay($RESULT)
MsgBox(0,"",DllStructGetData($STRUCT,1))  ;Return HAöXAö
MsgBox(0,"",DllStructGetData($STRUCT,2))

Andreik

[Richard Robertson]

It's really better not to use arbitrarily sized strings. If you are going to pass strings as pointers, make sure you ask for a length so you don't accidentally created a buffer overflow.

You should also change it to a pointer to struct and not a reference.

[Andreik]

Maybe the above example was not the best one about what I`m trying to do. But your answer was good enought I understood something from what you said me and it's ok I can pass the length of my text to function but how can I set the size to string from struct every time with the desired length.

Real example of what I want to do is to pass two strings to JaroWinkler function, to process this strings and get the JW distance.

If I use fixed size then I cannot change the content of strings in function with another string with other length. Error said: cannot convert char[19] to char[255]

In theory I should not change Text1 and Text2 in the function but if I have to do it how should I do?

typedef struct {
   char    Text1[255];
   char    Text2[255];
   double   JaroWinkler;
} JaroWinklerStruct;

extern "C" int __declspec(dllexport) JaroWinkler (JaroWinklerStruct *JWStruct)
{
    JWStruct->Text1 = "Something for text";
    JWStruct->Text2 = "Something for text";
    /* code to get JW distance */
    JWStruct->JaroWinkler = 2.55;
    return 1;
}

PS: I changed from reference to pointer to struct.

EDIT: I changed in this and work good and, I think, I cannot accidentally created a buffer overflow, am I right Richard?

typedef struct {
   char    Text1[255];
   char    Text2[255];
   double  JaroWinkler;
} JaroWinklerStruct;

extern "C" int __declspec(dllexport) JaroWinkler (JaroWinklerStruct *JWStruct)
{
    /* code to get JW distance */
    strcpy_s(JWStruct->Text1,"This is a test#1");
    strcpy_s(JWStruct->Text2,"This is a test#2");
    JWStruct->JaroWinkler = 2.55;
    return 1;
}

Edited July 19, 2011 by Andreik

[Richard Robertson]

Yes.. that code will prevent an overflow, but that wasn't what I meant.

I meant a parameter in the function that says how much buffer space was allocated.

[Andreik]

If is not too much, can you give me an example?

[Richard Robertson]

void example(char *buffer, int length)
{
}

And just don't write longer than "length - 1" characters because you need the null terminator at the end.