Removing spaces from a string in C Memory fault

Question

I'm writing a simple code for removing spaces from a string in C however I get the following message after compiling: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=2, adresss=....). It's coming from the line '*temp = *str' however I don't understand why? How can I fix it?

void removeSpaces(char * str)
{
  char * temp = str;

  while (*str != '\0') {
    if (*str != ' ') {
      *temp = *str;
      temp++;
     }
    str++;
  }
  *temp = '\0';
}

How did you call removeSpaces()? Did you pass it a string literal? — Dmitri
– Dmitri, Commented May 7, 2015 at 8:17

Weather Vane · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-07 08:18:45Z

8

The function works fine when passed a string declared like this

char s[] = "Hallo  World!";

but if you declared the string like this, as a pointer to string literal

char *s = "Hallo  World!";

you are not supposed to modify the string.

answered May 7, 2015 at 8:18

Weather Vane

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1 Comment

Mukesh Adhvaryu Over a year ago

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haccks · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-07 18:48:17Z

2

It seems that you are passing an string literal. temp and str pointing to same string literal. With statement *temp = *str; you are modifying the that literal which should not be modified.

To fix the problem allocate memory for temp

char *temp = malloc(strlen(str) + 1);

edited May 7, 2015 at 18:48

answered May 7, 2015 at 8:12

haccks

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3 Comments

Daniele Over a year ago

He can modify directly the same string

Spikatrix Over a year ago

I suggest mentioning about strdup here. Also, about freeing the allocated memory.

Yu Hao Over a year ago

It's not a problem to modify the same string, in fact, it's better.

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