i'm working on a simple doubly linked list implementation in c, i've created my structures as follows.
typdef struct node{
void *data;
struct node *next, *prev;
}node;
typedef struct list{
struct node *head, *tail;
size_t size;
}list;
I'm inserting elements in my linked list using this function and everything seems to work fine. Let's assume i'm filling my list with integers calling the function 4 times to insert {2,4,6,8}. When i execute my print function it correctly returns 2,4,6,8.
void insert_node(list *l, void *elem)
{
node *n = create_node(elem); //here i just create and initialize the new node;
if(l->size == 0){
l->head = n;
l->tail = n;
}else{
l->tail->next = n;
n->prev = l->tail;
l->tail = n;
}
l->size++;
}
The problem rises when i try to test my function with unity, i wrote this simple unit test:
void test_list_insert(){
list *l = list_test(); //this function creates a list and inserts in it {2,4,6,8} as values
TEST_ASSERT_EQUAL_INT(2, *(int*)(get_node_i(l,0))->data);
TEST_ASSERT_EQUAL_INT(4, *(int*)(get_node_i(l,1))->data); //problem seems to be here..
TEST_ASSERT_EQUAL_INT(6, *(int*)(get_node_i(l,2))->data);
TEST_ASSERT_EQUAL_INT(8, *(int*)(get_node_i(l,3))->data);
}
When i execute my unit test i get this output:
test.c:73:test_list_insert:FAIL Expected 4 was 1
At this point the problem seems related to the 'get_node_i' function which is used to retrieve the element in the i-th position of the list... here's the function:
node *get_node_i(list *l, int pos){
if(pos > l->size || pos < 0){
return NULL;
}
node *curr = l->head;
int currPos = 0;
if(pos == 0) return curr;
while(curr != NULL){
if(currPos == pos){
return curr;
}
currPos++;
curr = curr->next;
}
return NULL;
}
I've tried to execute my print function inside the unit test and i discovered that it prints correctly just the first two nodes (2,4) and for the other nodes it prints pointers... That for me is quite strange as if i try to execute the print function in any other part of my code it returns the list correctly..
Here's how i create lists and nodes
//create new node
node* create_node(void * elem){
node *n = (node *)malloc(sizeof (node));
n->data = elem;
n->next = NULL;
n->prev = NULL;
return n;
}
//create an empty list
list *create_list(){
list *l = (list *)malloc(sizeof(list));
l->size = 0;
l->head = NULL;
l->tail = NULL;
return l;
}
Here's the list_test function and the print function,
list* list_test(){
list *l = create_list();
int a = 2;
int b = 4;
int c = 6;
int d = 8;
insert_node(l, &a);
insert_node(l, &b);
insert_node(l, &c);
insert_node(l, &d);
return l;
}
//print the list
void print_list(list *l){
node *tmp = l->head;
while(tmp != NULL){
printf("%d\t" , *(int *)tmp->data);
tmp = tmp->next;
}
}
if something else needs to be clarified, let me know, thanks.
In your function list_test
you insert the address of local variables. So node->data
is assigned the address of a local variable. When the function returns, the data pointed by these address will change.
The function list_test
should be something like the following:
list* list_test(){
list *l = create_list();
int a = 2, *ap = malloc(sizeof(int));
int b = 4, *bp = malloc(sizeof(int));
int c = 6, *cp = malloc(sizeof(int));
int d = 8, *dp = malloc(sizeof(int));
*ap = a;
*bp = b;
*cp = c;
*dp = d;
insert_node(l, ap);
insert_node(l, bp);
insert_node(l, cp);
insert_node(l, dp);
return l;
}