.:: Bots United ::. - strings aaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhh

I am getting nuts of this! Especially because i do the same thing twice, and one works one does not.

Okay, let me explain. I have a string, 80 characters, declared as:

Code:

class cChatEngine

{

public:

 // variables

 tReplyBlock ReplyBlock[MAX_BLOCKS]; // 100 reply blocks reserved in memory  

 float fThinkTimer;        // The chatengine has a 'think timer'.

 char sender[30];

 char sentence[80];



 // functions

 void init();  // initialize database/blocks

 void load();  // load database (loads blocks)

 void think();  // make the chat engine think

 bool cChatEngine::CompareNames(char name[30], char name2[30], int length);

 // add sentence from any player/bot into memory to handle

 void set_sentence(char *sender, char *sentence);

 // handles a sentence, decides to reply on it or not.

 void handle_sentence(); 

};

As you can see above, there is:

char sentence[80];

this one gets initialized:

sentence[0] = '\0';

in init();

So far so good, it gets filled in when a user says something (intercepting SayText, this also works okay (btw, code partially just copied from podbot source as i wont invent the wheel twice):

Code:

void BotClient_CS_SayText(void *p, int bot_index)

{

 static unsigned char ucEntIndex;

 static int state = 0;  // current state machine state

 if (state == 0)

 {

  ucEntIndex = *(unsigned char *)p;

 }

 else if (state == 1)

 {

  cBot *pBot=&bots[bot_index];

  if(ENTINDEX(pBot->pEdict) != ucEntIndex)

  {

   char sentence[80];

   char chSentence[80];

   char netname[30];   

   strcpy(sentence,(char *)p);

   // remove first part of sentence.

   int length = strlen (sentence) - strlen (strstr (sentence, " : "));

   

   int tc=0;

   for (int c=length; c < 80; c++)

   {

        chSentence[tc] = sentence[c];

        tc++;

   }

   //strncpy (chSentence, (char *)sentence[length], 80-length);

   strcpy(netname, STRING(pBot->pEdict->v.netname));

   

   ChatEngine.set_sentence(netname, chSentence);

  }

 }

 state++;

}

Now do not ask me why i use so many different types of 'copying the string'. THis is because my problem will be described soon and i tried multiple manners of copying/reading strings.

Okay, now, the set_sentence function:

Code:

void cChatEngine::set_sentence(char csender[30], char csentence[80])

{

 if (sender[0] == '\0')

 {

  sprintf(sender, "%s", csender);

  sprintf(sentence, "%s", csentence);

 }

 else

  SERVER_PRINT("Tried to set sentence while we did not handle it yet");

}

Works fine as well,

here is the problem!!!:

as soon as i try to read ONE character from the line, it does not work, ie:

Code:

sprintf(msg, "%s", sentence[1]);

this will compile fine, but will CRASH in half-life/steam in this line!. When you try to do this:

Code:

sprintf(msg, "%s", &sentence[1]);

it compiles, and it will simply give me the string starting from 1. This does NOT crash:

Now here is a little code that should check the sentence PER CHARACTER, and then copy characters into words. I know it should work, because i have a function working almost the same way (it reads out the character the same way) and i do not have trouble there.

Code:

   // Scan the message so we know in what block we should be to reply:

   char word[20];

   int c=0;

   for (c=0; c < 20; c++)

        word[c] = '\0';

   c=0;

   int wc=0;

   int length = strlen(sentence);

   if (length == 0 || length > 80)

   {

        SERVER_PRINT("PROBLEM!");

        return;

   }

   int WordBlockScore[MAX_BLOCKS];

   for (int wbs=0; wbs < MAX_BLOCKS; wbs++)

        WordBlockScore[wbs] = -1;

   char chSentence[80];

   sprintf(chSentence, "%s", sentence);

   

   // C   

   while (c < length)

   { 

        // get out

        if (c >= length)

         break;

        if (c < 0)

         break;

        if (sentence[c] == '\0')

        {

         c++;

         SERVER_PRINT("Found weird thingy, breaking out");

         break;

        }

        

//////////// PROOOOBBBBLLEEEEEM

///// here i get tons of messages "this is not a good word". It says word is zero length!

//// It seems like the sentence is read out entirely with empty strings or something? The sentence starts with a letter and still it goes into this IF block (after several checks).

// SOMEHOW I NEED TO READ THE CHARACTER AND I GET NUTS, IT SHOULD BE SIMPLE AND STILL IT DOES NOT WORK , I GET FUCKING NUTS ABOUT THIS. I SPENT THE FREAKING WHOLE DAY ON THIS MINOR PROBLEM AND IT SHOULD JUST WORK ARH. Its getting late. darn.

        if (sentence[c] == ' ');

        {

         // done with this word, find it in one of our blocks and give the block         

         // that score:

         if (strlen(word) <= 0)

         {

          SERVER_PRINT("This is not a good word!\n");

         }

         else

         {

          for (int iB=0; iB < MAX_BLOCKS; iB++)

         {

          if (ReplyBlock[iB].bUsed)

          {

          for (int iBw=0; iBw < 10; iBw++)

          {

           // add score

           if (strcmp(ReplyBlock[iB].word[iBw], word) == 0)

           {

                char msg[80];

                sprintf(msg, "Compared words: %s and %s -> added score to block %d\n", ReplyBlock[iB].word[iBw], word, iB);

                SERVER_PRINT(msg);

                

                WordBlockScore[iB]++;

                

           }

          }

          }

         }

         }

         // new word:

         word[0] = '\0';

         wc=0;

         c++;

         continue;

        }

        // fill in the word:

        word[wc] = sentence[c];

        c++;

        wc++;

   }

   // now loop through all blocks and find the one with the most score:

   int iMaxScore=-1;

   int iTheBlock=-1;

   for (int rB=0; rB < MAX_BLOCKS; rB++)

   {

        if (WordBlockScore[rB] > iMaxScore)

        {

         iMaxScore = WordBlockScore[rB];

         iTheBlock = rB;

        }

   }

   if (iTheBlock > -1)

   {

        char msg[80];

        sprintf(msg, "Choosen to reply from Block %d", iTheBlock);

        SERVER_PRINT(msg);

   }

okay, obvious question:
- does anybody know what is wrong?
- does anybody know why this function does work, but the above not?:

Code:

void

INI_Word (char input[80], char word[25])

{

  int pos = 0;

  int word_pos = -1;

  // clear out entire string

  for (int i = 0; i < 25; i++)

        word[i] = '\0';

  while (pos < 79)

        {

          if (input[pos] == '=')

   {

        word_pos = pos;

        break;

   }

          pos++;

  }

  if (word_pos > -1 && word_pos < 23)

        {

          for (int wc = 0; wc < word_pos; wc++)

 word[wc] = input[wc];

          word[word_pos] = '\0'; // terminate string   

        }

}