need explanation about string in C

while( buffer[i]=malloc(200)
    && fgets(buffer[i],200,fr) != NULL
){
    i++;
}

Suppose I define pointer to string like this :

  char *str;

Then, I can assign it like this :

  str = "this is a string";

Is that assignment also allocating a memory pointed by str?

--> No, it assigns the address of that literal string to the pointer.

I meant, what happen if after that I reassign str with shorter string?

  str = "this";

Reallocated?

--> Not really.  Both litetal strings are in memory, the pointer now points to the second.  However, literal strings can be put in read-only memory.  In order to have a string on the stack, you can write char str[] = "something"; and if you want to allocate it on the heap, you first allocate memory using malloc() and then assign using strcpy() (or you can use strdup() ).

Should I care with allocation of memory?

Because one of my friend said, that before I use pointer to string, I must allocate a memory. But I looked some example C source codes, there is nothing about this. They just assign a value directly without allocating memory.

--> The memory for the strins in your examples was already allocated.  However, what happens if you want to input a string from the user?  In that case, you must allocate the memory explicitly.

I confuse with this, because I need to read a text file to a buffer of string. So I plan to use array of pointer to string :

   char *buffer[500];
   int i = 0;

   fr = fopen("/tmp/text.txt", "rt");
   while(fgets(buffer[i],200,fr) != NULL) {
      i++;
   }
   fclose(fr);

Is this save code? or is there any better way?

--> No, it is not safe, on several accounts:
1) fgets() reads from the file into the memory the pointer buffer[i] points to.  HOwever, it does not point to allocated memory.
If you know that no line will be longer than 199 characters (as your code implies), you could declare your array as buffer[200][500];
2) You have allocated 500 pointers, yet the loop can read more, if the file is longer.  Add "&& i < 500" to your "while".

Ok, I got the picture now. I rewrote my code like this :

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int main() {
   char *s[1000];
   int  i = 0;
   char line[1000];
   FILE *fr;

   for(i=0; i<100; i++) { s[i] = NULL; }

   i = 0;

   fr = fopen("/tmp/text.txt", "rt");
   while(fgets(line,1000,fr) != NULL) {
      s[i] = malloc(strlen(line));
      strcpy(s[i], line);
      i++;
   }
   fclose(fr);

   i = 0;
   while(s[i] != NULL) {
      printf("%s",s[i]); i++;
   }

   printf("total line = %d\n",i);

   // freeing memory
   i = 0;
   while(s[i] != NULL) {
      free(s[i]); i++;
   }
}

it should safe and memory efficient (at least) ??

Because if I define chat s[500][1000] it would not be wise if the text file is small.

Thanks

Except what happens if the file has 1001 lines?

Still some mistakes: 1000 vs 100.
Use #define for that.

Thanks! Great help from you :)

Enjoy!