Dynamic string concatenation with strcat in C

Question

I have experienced an issue while using strcat, using realloc however, strcat overwrites destination string

char *splitStr(char *line) {
        char *str_;
        str_ = (char *) malloc(1);
        char *ptr = strtok(line,"\n");
        int a;
        while (ptr != NULL) {
              if (ptr[0] != '$') {
                        printf("oncesi %s\n", str_);
                        a = strlen(ptr) + strlen(str_) + 1;
                        str_ = realloc(str_, a);
                        strcat(str_, ptr);
                        str_[a] = '\0';
                        printf("sontasi:%s\n", str_);
              }
              ptr = strtok(NULL, "\n");
        }
        printf("splitStr %d\n", strlen(str_));
        printf("%s", str_);
        return str_;
}

and my input value is ;

*4
$3
200
$4
4814
$7
SUCCESS
$4
3204

so I want to split this input value via strtok; strtok(line,'\n');

and concat all line without start "$" char to new char. However, this code give following output;

line: *4
oncesi 
sontasi:*4
oncesi *4
200tasi:*4
200esi *4
4814asi:*4
4814si *4
SUCCESS:*4
SUCCESS*4
3204ESS:*4
splitStr 25

seems to overwrite source string. do you have any idea why this issue could be happening ?

Answer 1

the following proposed code:

1. cleanly compiles
2. performs the indicated functionality
3. is slightly reformated for readability of output
4. checks for errors from malloc() and realloc()
5. shows how to initialize the str[] array, which is the problem in the OPs posted code.
6. the function: strlen() returns a size_t, not an int. so the proper output format conversion specifier is: %zu
7. does not use trailing underscores on variable names

and now, the proposed code:

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


char *splitStr( char *line ) 
{
    printf("original line: %s\n", line);

    char *str = malloc(1);
    if( !str )
    {
        perror( "malloc failed" );
        exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
    }

    str[0] = '\0';   // critical statement
    char *token = strtok(line,"\n");


    while( token ) 
    {
        if( token[0] != '$') 
        {
            char* temp = realloc( str, strlen( token ) + strlen( str ) + 1 );
            if( ! temp )
            {
                perror( "realloc failed" );
                free( str );
                exit( EXIT_FAILURE );
            }

            str = temp;   // update pointer

            strcat(str, token);
            printf( "concat result: %s\n", str );
        }
        token = strtok(NULL, "\n");
    }

    printf("splitStr %zu\n", strlen(str));
    return str;
}


int main( void )
{
    char  firstStr[] = "$abcd\n$defg\nhijk\n";
    char *firstNewStr = splitStr( firstStr );
    printf( "returned: %s\n\n\n\n", firstNewStr );
    free( firstNewStr );

    char  secondStr[] = "abcd\ndefg\nhijk\n";
    char *secondNewStr = splitStr( secondStr );
    printf( "returned: %s\n\n\n\n", secondNewStr );
    free( secondNewStr );
}

a run of the proposed code results in:

original line: $abcd
$defg
hijk

concat result: hijk
splitStr 4
returned: hijk



original line: abcd
defg
hijk

concat result: abcd
concat result: abcddefg
concat result: abcddefghijk
splitStr 12
returned: abcddefghijk