C++ Compare char array with string

user_71904 0
Viewed 179596

I'm trying to compare a character array against a string like so:

const char *var1 = " ";
var1 = getenv("myEnvVar");

if(var1 == "dev")
{
   // do stuff
}

This if statement never validates as true... when I output var1 it is "dev", I was thinking maybe it has something to do with a null terminated string, but the strlen of "dev" and var1 are equal... I also thought maybe var1 == "dev" was comparing "dev" against the memory location of var1 instead of the value. *var1 == "dev" results in an error.... tried many things, probably a simple solution for the saavy c++ developer (I havent coded c++ in a looong time).

edit: we've tried

if(strcmp(var1, "dev") == 0)

and 

if(strncmp(var1, "dev", 3) == 0)

Thanks

edit: After testing at home I'm just going to suggest my co-worker changes the datatype to a string. I believe he was comparing a char array of a large size against a string. I put together a program that outputs sizeof, strlen, etc to help us work through it. Thanks to everyone for the help.

string-comparison c++ string
6 Answers

your thinking about this program below 

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int main ()
{
char str[][5] = { "R2D2" , "C3PO" , "R2A6" };
int n;
puts ("Looking for R2 astromech droids...");
for (n=0 ; n<3 ; n++)
if (strncmp (str[n],"R2xx",2) == 0)
{
  printf ("found %s\n",str[n]);
}
return 0;
}
//outputs:
//
//Looking for R2 astromech droids...
//found R2D2
//found R2A6

when you should be thinking about inputting something into an array & then use strcmp functions like the program above ... check out a modified program below 

#include <iostream>
#include<cctype>
#include <string.h>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int Students=2;
int Projects=3, Avg2=0, Sum2=0, SumT2=0, AvgT2=0, i=0, j=0;
int Grades[Students][Projects];

for(int j=0; j<=Projects-1; j++){
  for(int i=0; i<=Students; i++) {
 cout <<"Please give grade of student "<< j <<"in project "<< i  <<  ":";
  cin >> Grades[j][i];

  }
  Sum2 = Sum2 + Grades[i][j];
     Avg2 = Sum2/Students;
}
SumT2 = SumT2 + Avg2;
AvgT2 = SumT2/Projects;
cout << "avg is  : " << AvgT2 << " and sum : " << SumT2 << ":";
return 0;
}

change to string except it only reads 1 input and throws the rest out maybe need two for loops and two pointers 

#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <stdio.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char name[100];
//string userInput[26];
int i=0, n=0, m=0;
cout<<"your name? ";
cin>>name;
cout<<"Hello "<<name<< endl;

char *ptr=name;
for (i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
cout<<i<<" "<<ptr[i]<<" "<<(int)ptr[i]<<endl;
}   
int length = 0;
while(name[length] != '\0')
{
length++;
}
                    for(n=0; n<4; n++)
                {
                            if (strncmp(ptr, "snit", 4) == 0)
                            {
            cout << "you found the snitch "    <<        ptr[i];
                            }
                }
cout<<name <<"is"<<length<<"chars long";
}
user_56211480
Related