When working with hash tables in C, it's essential to address potential issues related to the existence of elements. Two common problems that can arise are:
- Uninitialized Zone in Array:
- Dangling Pointer:
When using malloc
to allocate memory for the array in the hash table, the allocated zone may not be initialized, leading to unpredictable behavior. To resolve this, switch from malloc
to calloc
to ensure the allocated memory is initialized to NULL
.
mp->arr = calloc(mp->capacity, sizeof(struct node *));
When returning an error message as a pointer to a character array, it's important to ensure that the pointer is not a dangling pointer. A dangling pointer occurs when a pointer points to memory that has been deallocated or is otherwise invalid. To fix this issue, allocate memory for the error message using malloc
or use a string literal.
char *err = "No data found.\n";
return err;
By addressing these issues, you can ensure the proper functioning of your hash table in C and prevent unexpected errors or undefined behavior.