Segmentation fault when writing data to a dynamic array

Question

My assignment is to write a file that displays an unknown number of records entered by the user. Each record has the following fields: First Name, Last Name, Address, City, State, Zip Code, and Phone Number.

I assumed the best way to do this would be to define a struct Record with the fields above, then declare an array of Records that would contain as many records as the user entered. To accomplish this I would use a loop to get the inputs for each field per record, then if the user wanted to continue dynamically allocate an extra space in the Record array and continue until the user enters no. I encountered an access violation writing location error at line:

scanf("%s", records[i]->fname);

What's wrong with my code?

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <conio.h>
struct Record;

struct Record
    {
        char fname[51];
        char lname[51];
        char address[51];
        char city[51];
        char state[51];
        int zipcode;
        int phoneNumber;
    };

int main()
{
    FILE *fileWriter;
    const char filename[] = "data.txt";
    char answer = 'y';
    int size = 1;
    int i = 0;
    struct Record **records;
    records = malloc(sizeof(*records)*(size));

    while(answer == 'y' || answer == 'Y')
    {
        printf("First Name: \n");
        scanf("%s", records[i]->fname);

        printf("Last Name: \n");
        scanf("%s", records[i]->lname);

        printf("Address: \n");
        scanf("%s", records[i]->address);

        printf("City: \n");
        scanf("%s", records[i]->city);

        printf("State: \n");
        scanf("%s", records[i]->state);

        printf("Zipcode: \n");
        scanf("%d", records[i]->zipcode);

        printf("Phone Number: \n");
        scanf("%d", records[i]->phoneNumber);
        //stores all record info

        printf("Are there anymore records? [y/n] ");
        answer = getchar();
        if(answer == 'y' || answer == 'Y')
        {
            size++;
            records[i++];
            printf("\n");
        }
        records = realloc(records,sizeof(*records)*(size));
    }

    //open file
    fileWriter = fopen(filename,"wb");

    if(fileWriter != NULL)
    {
        if(fwrite(records,sizeof(*records),size,fileWriter) != 1)
        {
            fprintf(stderr, "Failed to write to %s\n", filename);
            exit(1);
        }
        fclose(fileWriter);
    }
    else
    {
        printf("Error opening file.");
    }
}

EDITED VERSION

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

struct Record
    {
        char fname[51];
        char lname[51];
        char address[51];
        char city[51];
        char state[51];
        int zipcode;
        int phoneNumber;
    };




int main()
{
    FILE *fileWriter;
    const char filename[] = "data.txt";
    char answer = 'y';
    int size = 1;
    int i = 0;
    struct Record *records = NULL;
    struct Record *records_temp;




    while(answer == 'y' || answer == 'Y')
    {
        struct Record *records_temp = realloc(records,(size)*sizeof(*records));

        if(records_temp == NULL)  
        {
            free(records); 

        }
        records = records_temp;
        printf("First Name: \n");
        scanf("%s", records[i].fname);
        printf("Last Name: \n");
        scanf("%s", records[i].lname);

        printf("Address: \n");
        scanf(" %[^\n]", records[i].address);

        printf("City: \n");
        scanf("%s", records[i].city);

        printf("State: \n");
        scanf("%s", records[i].state);

        printf("Zipcode: \n");
        scanf("%d", &records[i].zipcode);

        printf("Phone Number: \n");
        scanf("%d", &records[i].phoneNumber);
        //stores all record info

        printf("Are there anymore records? [y/n] ");
        answer = getchar();
        if(answer == 'y' || answer == 'Y')
        {
            size++;
            records[i++];
            printf("\n");
        }

        //open file

    fileWriter = fopen(filename,"wb");

    if(fileWriter != NULL)
    {
        if(fwrite(records,sizeof(*records),size,fileWriter) != 1)
        {
            fprintf(stderr, "Failed to write to %s\n", filename);
            exit(1);
        }
        fclose(fileWriter);
    }
    else
    {
        printf("Error opening file.");
    }
}
}

Answer 1

Well, you get a segfault because you haven't allocated memory for the first entity in your records.

So to resolve that you need to

records[size-1] = malloc(sizeof(Records));

To put it in this way: You have records that is a pointer to a pointer to Records. When you did

records = malloc(sizeof(*records)*(size));

You actually asked for size pointers to Records. But that is not enough, you need to allocate another memory to store the actual Records so that is why we have to

records[size - 1] = malloc(sizeof(Records));

Note: if size > 1 then you should do:

int i = 0;
for(;i < size; i++) {
    records[i] = malloc(sizeof(Records));
}

In addition to that, why did you go with Records **, as Arjun has already explained, you should use Records * and fix the part of realloc-ing new memory, because if realloc fails, it returns NULL and you end up with memory leak or another segfault in the worst scenario, either way -- it is not good for your program.

Please see Arjun's post