Question

#include <iostream>  using namespace std;  class Marks { public:     char* name(); };  char* Marks::name() {     char temp[30];     cout<<'Enter a name:'<<endl;     cin.getline(temp,30);     return temp; }  int main () {     char *name;     Marks test1;     name=test1.name();      //cout<<'name:'; //uncomment this line to see the problem     cout<<name<<endl;      return 0; } 

Answer 1

The problem is because the value that name is pointing to has been destroyed. You are returning the address of a local variable from Marks::name(). Most likely a side affect of the first cout is causing the contents of name to be destroyed. You’re probably just getting lucky when the first cout is commented out.

The correct way to do this is to allocate some memory, return that, and then destroy it when you’re done:

char* Marks::name() {     char* temp = new char[30];     cout<<'Enter a name:'<<endl;     cin.getline(temp,30);     return temp; }  int main () {     char *name;     Marks test1;     name=test1.name();      cout<<'name:';     cout<<name<<endl;      delete[] name;      return 0; } 

Don’t forget to use delete[], rather than just delete, since otherwise only the first character would be deallocated.