Suppose I want to manipulate an array inside a function (say, sort)...
but I do not want the changes to be reflected in the calling function.
How do I do it in C PROGRAMMING? plz. send me the reply ASAP
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if you do not want to make a copy at any stage, then the only way will be to pass array elements by value
when we pass an array, we pass its address and that is why changes are reflected in the original array. If you wish to avoid that, then you will have to restructure your programming logic to pass array elements by value and manipulate them ...
I think this is possible in C++ but not in C
http://www.cs.utah.edu/~ha
aah! This is one of the famous "c interview" questions.. have heard of dis ? many times
passing an array by value.. Infact this ? was recently posted here:
http://mainframeforum.com/
and the solutions goes sumthing like
wrap the array in a struct A struct gets copied when passed by value and so will the array
inside it.
can sum1 explain this?
rgds
not_an_xpert :(
Ok ... thats a smart trick
C treats structs like normal variables ( same rules for pass by value and pass by reference )
e.g.
instead of int i [100];
use
struct temp {
int i [100];
};
struct temp original;
call_function ( original );
this will copy the struct to the call_function ( pass by value ) ... since array is a member of the struct, it will get copied too
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by: sunnycoderPosted on 2003-09-03 at 22:39:03ID: 9285388
if you do not wish the changes to be reflecteed in the calling function, then the only alternative is to pass components of the array by value
a faster and cleaner approach would be to form a copy of the array ( you can use memcpy() so it wont be long and tedious ) and pass this new array to the function ... function can manipulate the copy while your calling function can continue using the original array