Question

I have written code to reverse a string in c… it works fine but I can’t return the reversed string in the main() function.

#include<stdio.h>

main()
{
  char a[17]="abcdefg";
  reverse(a);
  printf("\n");
  system("PAUSE");
}
int reverse(char *a)
{
   if(*a!='\0')
   {   
     reverse(a+1);
   }
   printf("%c",*a);
}         

it prints the reversed string but I want the reversed string in main(). How can I do this?

Answer 1

You need to modify the string, i.e. the input buffer to reverse(), instead of just printing it.

Doing this recursively seems a bit obnoxious, but should of course be possible.

Basically, I guess the printing becomes an assignment, something like this:

1. Base: The reversal of an empty string is the empty string.
2. Step: The reversal of a string begins by swapping the first and last characters, then recursing over the remainder of the string.