Question

I am writing a script which must copy some names into a multidimensional array, print the contents of the array and then deallocate the memory and terminate. The problem I am having is that when I run the script it only prints out the last name entered. Here is what I have done. Any help would be great! Thanks in advance!

#include <iostream>
#include <string.h>

using namespace std;

void createArray(int n);
void addDetail(char*& name, char*& surname);
void printArray();
void clear();

char ***details;
int used;
int size;

int main()
{
    createArray(3);

    char* tmpName = new char[20];
    char* tmpSurName = new char[120];

    strcpy(tmpName, "nameA");
    strcpy(tmpSurName, "surnameA");
    addDetail(tmpName,tmpSurName);

    strcpy(tmpName, "nameB");
    strcpy(tmpSurName, "surnameB");
    addDetail(tmpName,tmpSurName);

    strcpy(tmpName, "nameC");
    strcpy(tmpSurName, "surnameC");
    addDetail(tmpName,tmpSurName);

    clear();
    return 0;
}

void createArray(int n)
{
    details= new char**[n];
    for(int i=0; i<n; i++)
        details[i] = new char*[2];
    size = n;
    used = 0;
}

void addDetail(char*& name, char*& surname)
{
    if(occupation < size)
    {
        details[used][0] = name;
        details[used][1] = surname;
        used++;
    }else{
        cout << "Array Full " << endl;
    }
}

void printArray()
{
    for(int i=0; i<used; i++)
        cout << details[i][0] << " " << details[i][1] << endl;
}

void clear()
{
    for(int i=0; i<size; i++)
    {
        delete [] details[i];
        details[i] = 0;
    }
    delete [] details;
    details=0;
}

Answer 1

You didn’t allocate memory for details[used][0] and details[used][1] so it’s using whatever random address was in those locations.

Since this is C++ you can use string instead perhaps? std::string **details;. This should work with your existing code, except that it will leak memory.

Better still is to use a vector of vectors.

Something like:
std::vector<std::vector<std::string> > details;

Then the createArray function can go away completely and addDetail becomes simpler:

std::vector<string> newName;
newName.push_back(name);
newName.push_back(surname);
details.push_back(newName);