Hi
here is a code to check the strlen of some string without any data in it.


#include<stdio.h>

int main() {
char str[20];
prinrf("strlen(str)=%d",strlen(str));
}

result :
strlen(str)=3


Can anyone of u tell me the cause of this ? I think it's either system dependency or the way the linux represents this internally.
thanks in advance for ur interest,
barun

Hi,

I guess strlen function scans for the first appearance of 0 in the string which is the termination char.
Seemsthat the memory is filled with some old data which contains a 0 at str[3].
You can try to check for this by printing the string field by field converted to int.

exman

I agree with exman. You should properly initialise your variable. Otherwise the result may be unexpected.
Also, this issue is not Linux specific. The same can happen on any platform.
When standard C allocates an array, the memory doesn't get null'ed (you need to use "memset" to do that).
So, it can contain any binary value really (depending on whatever the previous program put in that part of memory).

Local variables are created by moving the stack/frame pointer only so local variables are never initialized (and could depend on the previous functions called or the previous return values other that int types)

I'm not an expert in C standards but the usual implementation of compilers is that automatic (global) variables are nulled :they are cells which are already present in your binary file, so it's possible to initialise them.

And strlen is included in string.h, include it otherwise you will end up with problems!

result:

strlen(str)=5strlen(str2)=0

The string contains garbage, because it is uninitliased. Using an uninitialised variable is broken. As timmeke explained, you need to initialise it.

I'll say it again. The code is wrong. Broken. Defective. It has nothing to do with linux or gcc or any other software. It is incorrect use of the C language. So don't do it. Always initialise your variables.

Partly. Initialised global variables are zeroed at compile time and take up space in the binary. Uninitialised globals are zeroed at runtime, space is not allocated in the binary.

Humm lets make it clear..

Its what I said, I just gave more details at what local variable contain and how they are created:

Local variables are created by moving the stack/frame pointer only so local variables are never initialized (and could depend on the previous functions called or the previous return values other that int types)


Wrong. Initialising a variable has never made an increase in binary size!?
I took me 30seconds to make the test (read carefully I said for usual implementation not for C standard)
It doesn't even generate a warning. You have to initialise (compile or runtime) a variable before using it, different.

Regards

Uh, yes you did. Sorry, I just skimmed your post, didn't notice that bit.

I know that.

Perhaps I was unclear. I do that sometimes.

Initialised variable: this is a compile time initialisation and necessarily consumes space in the binary.

Uninitialised variable: i is zeroed at runtime before main is called. No space is consumed in the binary as it's unnecessary (no point bloating the binary with irrelevant zeroes).

In both cases, it is assumed that i is global.

That's all I meant. I was simply responding to your previous statement:

which is true for initialised variables, but uninitialised variables are zeroed at runtime.