Using of sprintf

I am using sprintf to copy from array a to array b. I get the output as
a: 01 02
b: 30 30

Why are a and b different?
Or am I missing something?
Please help.


#include <stdio.h>
void main()
{
unsigned char a[2]={0x1, 0x2};
unsigned char b[2]={0};
int i;

for(i=0; i<2; i++){
sprintf((b+i), "%02x", *(a+i));
}
printf("\na:");
for(i=0; i<2; i++){
printf("\t %02x\t", *(a+i));
}
printf("\nb:");
for(i=0; i<2; i++){
printf("\t %02x\t", *(b+i));
}

}

read this before you post more code

> Why are a and b different?
Probably because you only have a[2] and b[2], and you're overflowing your buffers.

"%02X" will write 3 chars into your buffer.

> sprintf((b+i), "%02x", *(a+i));
Since i only increments, and each sprintf produces 2 chars, then you're also overwriting previous output.

First, sprintf is not typically used to copy data between arrays; it is used to create formatted strings from data, which is what you are seeing.

0x30 = 48 (decimal), the ASCII code for '0'. The first sprintf writes the characters '0' (0x30), '1' (0x31), and '\0' (0x00). Note: this is already a buffer overflow, since your array only has size 2. The second sprintf writes the characters '0' (0x30), '2' (0x32), and '\0' (0x00) to the array offset by one. Again, this is a buffer overflow.

The end result is:

b[0] = '0' = 0x30
b[1] = '0' = 0x30
b[2] = '2' = 0x32 (overflow)
b[3] = '\0' = 0x00 (overflow)

Keeping all the other replies in mind, you have mis-declared b. a contains two bytes of binary data, whereas you want b to contain two strings of character (ASCII) data. That is what you use sprintf for, to convert binary data into strings.

The declarations should instead be (please note the use of code tags, which you must also learn to use when posting code):

Then you need to correct the rest of your program accordingly (plus a few minor corrections):

Which yields this output:


Of course, if you did not want to create string representations of your binary data but rather wanted to copy the values from a to b, then you should not be using sprintf but rather simple assignment statements.

Thanks a lot for the information.