Hello C Developers! 👋

Let's test our debugging skills today. I’ve written a small piece of code that is supposed to swap two strings using pointers. However, it's not behaving as expected (or it might even crash!).

include

void swap_strings(char **str1, char **str2) {
char *temp = *str1;
*str1 = *str2;
*str2 = temp;
}

int main() {
char *p1 = "Game";
char *p2 = "Changer";

printf("Before Swap: p1 = %s, p2 = %s\n", p1, p2);

// Attempting to swap
swap_strings(&p1, &p2);

printf("After Swap: p1 = %s, p2 = %s\n", p1, p2);

return 0;

}

The Challenge:

Will this code compile and run successfully?

Is there a hidden bug or a potential Segment Fault?

If you had to rewrite this to be safer, what would you change?

I see many beginners and even intermediate coders struggle with char * vs char [] when passing to functions.

Drop your answers in the comments! Let’s see who explains it the best. 🔎