Question

I really need help with this last part of my program. I need to find a string within a larger string and if found return the start location of the substring. From the directions:

Note that your string location starts from 0 and ends at length -1. If the string is not found, a value of -1 will be returned.

I’ve started and the following code compiles, I just want to know if this is actually correct. I don’t want to get in too over my head but I need some feedback from experts. Am I doing this right? Or at least am I going in the right direction?

const int MyString::Find(const MyString& other)
{
    int start(0);
    int counter(0);
    int end = other.Size;
    int count(0);
    int end1 = Size;
    int nfound = -1;

    char* temp;
    temp = new char[other.Size];

    if(other.String[0] != '\0' && other.String[0] != ' ')
    {
             if(other.String[count] == String[counter])
                    {
                            start = counter;

                            for(int i = count; i < end-1;i++)
                            {
                                    for(int j = counter; j < end1 -1; j++)
                                    {


                                            temp[j] = String[j];
                                    }
                            }
                            if(other == temp)
                            {
                                    return start;
                            }
                            else
                                    return nfound;
                    }

            else{
            while(other.String[count] != String[counter])
            {
                    counter++;
                    if(other.String[count] == String[counter])
                    {
                            start = counter;
                            for(int i = count; i < end-1;i++)
                            {
                                    for(int j = counter; j < end1 -1; j++)
                                    {


                                            temp[j] = String[j];
                                    }
                            }
                            if(other == temp)
                            {                 
                                    return start;                               
                            }
                            else
                                    return nfound;
                    }







            }


            }

    }
    else
    {
            return nfound;
    }





  }

Answer 1

This line is all right, though it wants a corresponding delete statement:

temp = new char[data.Size];

However, I doubt that this line does what you want:

temp = data.String;

Assuming that Mystring::String (which were more conventionally named Mystring::string, but let that pass) has the type char *, the latter line copies no characters from data.String into the buffer at temp. Instead, it loses the buffer, after which temp is just a synonym for, and points to the selfsame memory as, data.String.