Question

This is a task from school, I am supposed to write a recursive function that will convert a given int to a string, I know I’m close but I can’t point the missing thing in my code, hints are welcome.

void intToStr(unsigned int num, char s[])
{
    if (num < 10)
    {   
        s[0] = '0' + num;
    }

    else
    {
        intToStr(num/10, s);
        s[strlen(s)] = '0' + num%10;
    }
}

Edit: my problem is that the function only works for pre initialized arrays, but if I let the function work on an uninitialized function it will not work.

Answer 1

Unless your array is zero-initialized, you are forgetting to append a null terminator when you modify it.

Just add it right after the last character:

void intToStr(unsigned int num, char s[])
{
    if (num < 10)
    {   
        s[0] = '0' + num;
        s[1] = 0;
    }

    else
    {
        intToStr(num/10, s);
        s[strlen(s)+1] = 0; //you have to do this operation here, before you overwrite the null terminator
        s[strlen(s)] = '0' + num%10;
    }
}

Also, your function is assuming that s has enough space to hold all the digits, so you better make sure it does (INT_MAX is 10 digits long I think, so you need at least 11 characters).