0

I have this code but it's not working. No matter what I type it prints nothing.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>



char *askFile()
{
    printf("Enter a file: ");
    char *file = malloc(512 * sizeof(char));
    scanf("%s", file);

    return file;
}



int main()
{
    char *file = askFile();
    printf("%s", *file);


    return 0;
}

Why doesn't it work?

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2
  • 1
    *file is the same as file[0]. It's the single first character in the string. Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 10:45
  • @Someprogrammerdude Oops, sorry I forgot about that C feature. Thanks. Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 10:48

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

As @Someprogrammerdude said in the comments the mistake was:

printf("%s", *file);

It was supposed to be:

printf("%s", file);

Since *file points to the first element.

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1 Comment

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0

The key mistake is not using a good compiler with all warnings enabled. A good well-enabled compiler would have warned about the specifier-type mismatch.

char *file =...;
printf("%s", *file); // Warning expected.

Save time. Enable all compiler warnings.

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