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c++arraysstructascii

Strange output when trying to display an array of characters C++


Context

I'm trying to create a Rotor struct that holds arrays of characters in a specific sequence.

Code

Rotor

struct Rotor
{
public:
    char assignedRotor[26];
    void setRotor(int rotor) {
        switch(rotor) {
            case(1):
                assignedRotor = rotor1;
                break;
            case(2):
                assignedRotor = rotor2;
                break;
            case(3):
                assignedRotor = rotor3;
                break;
        };
    }
private:
    char rotor1[26] = {'E', 'K', 'M', 'F', 'L', 'G', 'D', 'Q', 'V', 'Z', 'N', 'T', 'O', 'W', 'Y', 'H', 'X', 'U', 'S', 'P', 'A', 'I', 'B', 'R', 'C', 'J'};
    char rotor2[26] = {'A', 'J', 'D', 'K', 'S', 'I', 'R', 'U', 'X', 'B', 'L', 'H', 'W', 'T', 'M', 'C', 'Q', 'G', 'Z', 'N', 'P', 'Y', 'F', 'V', 'O', 'E'};
    char rotor3[26] = {'B', 'D', 'F', 'H', 'J', 'L', 'C', 'P', 'R', 'T', 'X', 'V', 'Z', 'N', 'Y', 'E', 'I', 'W', 'G', 'A', 'K', 'M', 'U', 'S', 'Q', 'O'};
};

Displaying rotor

int main() {
    Rotor rotor;
    for(int i; i < 26; i++) cout << enig.rotor2.assignedRotor[i]
    return 0;
}

Output

Output

Is my "initialization" or "displaying" incorrect? Or is it both?


Solution

  • In c++ if you are declaring any variable you have to initialize its value otherwise it will be a garbage value. In your case, you are just declaring int i in the loop and variable i will point to some garbage value. Which you can fix by initializing i = 0 in the loop.

    int main()
    {
        Machine enig;
    
        for(int i = 0; i < 26; i++)
        {
            cout << enig.rotor1.assignedRotor[i] << endl;
        };
    
        return 0;
    
    }