Garbage with pointers in a class, C++

Question

I am using Borland Builder C++. I have a memory leak and I know it must be because of this class I created, but I am not sure how to fix it. Please look at my code-- any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Here's the .h file:

#ifndef HeaderH
#define HeaderH
#include <vcl.h>
#include <string>
using std::string;
class Header {

 public:
    //File Header
    char FileTitle[31];
    char OriginatorName[16];

    //Image Header
    char ImageDateTime[15];
    char ImageCordsRep[2];
    char ImageGeoLocation[61];

    NitfHeader(double latitude, double longitude, double altitude, double heading);
    ~NitfHeader();
    void SetHeader(char * date, char * time, double location[4][2]);  


 private:

    void ConvertToDegMinSec (double angle, AnsiString & s, bool IsLongitude);
    AnsiString ImageDate;
    AnsiString ImageTime;
    AnsiString Latitude_d;
    AnsiString Longitude_d;
    double Latitude;
    double Longitude;
    double Heading;
    double Altitude;

};

And here is some of the .cpp file:

void Header::SetHeader(char * date, char * time, double location[4][2]){
    //File Header
strcpy(FileTitle,"Cannon Powershot A640");
strcpy(OperatorName,"Camera Operator");

   //Image Header
//Image Date and Time
   ImageDate = AnsiString(date);
   ImageTime = AnsiString(time);
   AnsiString secstr = AnsiString(ImageTime.SubString(7,2));
   AnsiString rounder = AnsiString(ImageDate.SubString(10,1));
   int seconds = secstr.ToInt();
    //Round off seconds  - will this be necessary with format hh:mm:ss in text file?
   if (rounder.ToInt() > 4) {
     seconds++;
    }
   AnsiString dateTime = ImageDate.SubString(7,4)+ ImageDate.SubString(4,2) + ImageDate.SubString(1,2) + ImageTime.SubString(1,2)
                    + ImageTime.SubString(4,2) + AnsiString(seconds);
   strcpy(ImageDateTime,dateTime.c_str());

   //Image Coordinates Representation
   strcpy(ImageCordsRep,"G");

   //Image Geographic Location
   AnsiString lat;
   AnsiString lon;
   AnsiString locationlat_d;
   AnsiString locationlon_d;
   AnsiString corner;

   for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++){

     ConvertToDegMinSec(location[i][0],lat,false);
     ConvertToDegMinSec(location[i][1],lon,true);

     if(location[i][0] < 0){
        locationlat_d = 'S';
        ConvertToDegMinSec(-location[i][0],lat,false);
      }else if(location[i][0] > 0){
        locationlat_d = 'N';
     }else locationlat_d = ' ';

     if(location[i][1] < 0){
        locationlon_d = 'W';
        ConvertToDegMinSec(-location[i][1],lon,true);
     }else if(location[i][1] > 0){
         locationlon_d = 'E';
     }else locationlon_d = ' ';

     corner += lat + locationlat_d + lon + locationlon_d;

   }
   strcpy(ImageGeoLocation,corner.c_str());

}  

Now when I use the class in main, basically I just create a pointer:

Header * header = new Header;
header->SetHeader(t[5],t[6],corners->location);
char * imageLocation = header->ImageGeoLocation;
//do something with imageLocation
delete header;

Where corners->location is a string from another class, and t[5] and t[6] are both strings. The problem is that imageLocation doesn't contain what is expected, and often just garbage. I have read a lot about memory leaks and pointers, but I am still very new to programming and some of it is quite confusing. Any suggestions would be fabulous!!

Answer 1

I'm afraid there are a number of issues here.

For starters char ImageCordsRep[1]; doesn't work ... a string is always null terminated, so when you do strcpy(ImageCordsRep,"G"); you are overflowing the buffer.

It would also be good practice to terminate all those string buffers with a null in your constructor, so they are always valid strings.

Even better would be to use a string class instead of the char arrays, or at least use 'strncpy' to prevent buffer overruns if the incoming strings are larger than you expect.