Question

int main()
{
    char *name = new char[7];
    name = "Dolphin";
    cout << "Your name is : " << name <<endl;
    delete [] name;
}

Why doesn’t the VC++ compiler complain?

Answer 1

You’ve got two questions here:

First, What’s wrong with code? Well …

When you assign “Dolphin” to name you are not copying into the allocated array you are adjusting the pointer to point to a string literal. Later you try to delete what the pointer points to. I’d expect this to crash horribly in some environments.

If you really want a copy of the “Dolphin” characters, have a look at strncpy(), but as already been observed, you need a space for the null too.

Second, why that particular compiler doesn’t warn you that the assignment is potentially: that’s a bit harder. [It’s been observed that other compilers will give a warning.] The question is whether this compiler treats a string literal as a “Pointer to const char” or a “Pointer to char”.

If it was the former case then I’d expect an error. Until about 2004 C++ was consistent with C in treating literals as pointer to char, and hence the assignment would be permitted. So I guess the question for you is to determine what version of the specs you are working against, and that might depend upon the version of VC++ you are using and also any compiler options you have chosen.

A MSDN C++ reference indicates that VC++ treats string literals as non const. I’ll leave it to VC++ gurus to comment further.