This program is sorting the strings inside the arrays.
The function Sort is stopping after the 3rd time it runs with no compile errors
int main(){
char * arrP1[] = { "father", "mother", NULL };
char * arrP2[] = { "sister", "brother", "grandfather", NULL };
char * arrP3[] = { "grandmother", NULL };
char * arrP4[] = { "uncle", "aunt", NULL };
char ** arrPP[] = { arrP1, arrP2, arrP3, arrP4 , NULL };
printAllStrings(arrPP);
sort(arrPP);
printAllStrings(arrPP);
return 0;
}
void sort(char ** arrPP[]) {
int i, j, n, pi, pj;
int t;
char * temp;
for (n = 0; n < 8; n++) {
pi = 0;
pj = 0;
printf("round %d\n", n);
for (i = 0; i < (sizeof(arrPP)); i++) {
for (j = 0; arrPP[i][j] != NULL; j++) {
t = 0;
if (i == 0 && j == 0)
continue;
while (1) { // checking which word is bigger and switching between them if needed
if (arrPP[pi][pj][t] == arrPP[i][j][t])
continue;
if (arrPP[pi][pj][t] > arrPP[i][j][t]) {
temp = arrPP[pi][pj];
arrPP[pi][pj] = arrPP[i][j];
arrPP[i][j] = temp;
break;
}
else {
break;
}
t++;
}
pi = i;
pj = j;
}
}
}
}
output:
(father, mother)
(sister, brother, grandfather)
(grandmother)
(uncle, aunt)
round 0
round 1
round 2
expected output:
(father, mother)
(sister, brother, grandfather)
(grandmother)
(uncle, aunt)
round 0
round 1
round 2
round 3
round 4
round 5
round 6
round 7
(aunt, brother)
(father, grandfather, grandmother)
(mother)
(siter, uncle)
I run your code in a debugger, I didn't really try to see if it works, I only tried to find why you get a infinite loop. The problem is there :
while (1)
{
if (arrPP[pi][pj][t] == arrPP[i][j][t])
continue;
...
if the result of the comparison is positive you enter a infinite loop. It happens when comparing grandfather with grandmother.