C string append

Question

I want to append two strings. I used the following command:

new_str = strcat(str1, str2);

This command changes the value of str1

Answer 1

Consider using the great but unknown open_memstream() function.

FILE *open_memstream(char **ptr, size_t *sizeloc);

Example of usage :

// open the stream
FILE *stream;
char *buf;
size_t len;
stream = open_memstream(&buf, &len);

// write what you want with fprintf() into the stream
fprintf(stream, "Hello");
fprintf(stream, " ");
fprintf(stream, "%s\n", "world");

// close the stream, the buffer is allocated and the size is set !
fclose(stream);
printf ("the result is '%s' (%d characters)\n", buf, len);
free(buf);

If you don't know in advance the length of what you want to append, this is convenient and safer than managing buffers yourself.