Question

C++: Using and returning character arrays from functions, return type or reference?
I’m trying to create a null terminated string outside of a function, then run a function which will assign some data to it. For example, char abc [80] is created in main. input() is then run, which will return user input to abc. I figure the two obvious ways to do this are:

1.
Make the input function return the input to a variable in main, something like:

char input ()
{
    char input [80];
    getline(cin, choice);
    return input;
}

int main ()
{
    char choice [80];
    choice = input ();
    ...
}

2.
Pass a character array to the input function my reference, and then put the data in it from there:

...
void input (&variable)
{
    getline(*variable, cin);
    return;
}
int main ()
{
    char choice [80];
    char* pointer;
    input (pointer);
    ...
}

But, I can’t get either of these ways to work. So, what am I doing wrong and how can I fix it?

Answer 1

Just use standard strings. The insanity of using arrays of constant width has caused at least the company I work four many hundreds of thousands of dollars in development time. The correct answer to you question may be frustrating to you but it really is, “DON’T DO THAT!!!”