How Not to Program in C++

Answers 259

But with C++ you must cast to get the correct results in this case:

out_file << static_cast<char>(ch);

Answer 100: The program outputs:

First: second Second: second

The problem is that the

readdir

returns a pointer to static data. This data is

owned by

readdir

and overwritten by subsequent calls.

So what happens is this: We call

scan_dir

and set

first_ptr

to point to the

string

first

. That’s what we want, but the array containing the name is static

and when we call

readdir

again, it uses the same buffer to store the name

second

. So now

first_ptr

points to

second

, which is the cause of our trouble.

Answer 101: In the base class destructor ...