Concatenating Multiple char* s (unsolved)

[PickleMan]

I have the following code:

    char* attacks;
    attacks="Choose an attack!\n\n";
    for(i=1;i<=ini.ReadInteger("config","number",0);i++)
    {
    attacks=attacks+(char*)"("+(char*)i+(char*)") "+ini.ReadString((char*)i,(char*)"text",(const char*)"No Text Specified");
    }
    cout<<attacks<<endl;

And of course I get the error:

invalid operands of types `char*' and `char*' to binary `operator+'

Because I can't concatenate multiple char* s with a plus sign.

How would I be able to concatenate multiple char* s? I can't use strcat because it only accepts two arguments, and I don't want to nest strcat s.

Thanks!

[Disch]

char*s are not strings. This is a very common misconception.

You also can't cast an integer to a char* in order to make a formatted string. (char*)i does not print the integer in string form, even though it may compile.

Use std::string and/or std::stringstream for this. There are ways to do with with C style strings, but they're more complicated and more errorprone.

I hope my syntax here is right -- I don't often use stringstream, so I might be off (code might not be copy/pasteable) but you should be able to get the idea:

std::stringstream attacks;
attacks << "Choose an attack!\n\n";
for( ... )
{
  std::stringstream istr;
  istr << i;   // format 'i' to be a string

  attacks << '(' << i << ')' << ini.ReadString( istr.str().c_str(),"text","No Text Specified");
}

cout << attacks.str() << endl;

[PickleMan]

That doesn't work. I get

aggregate `std::stringstream attacks' has incomplete type and cannot be defined

aggregate `std::stringstream istr' has incomplete type and cannot be defined

EDIT:
I added #include <sstream>.
However, It just outputs me the memory location. (0x23FCA4)

EDIT2:
I want it to be a char*. I know they aren't strings, I just like them and are used to them.

[Bazzy]

You can use sprintf
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/clibrary/cstdio/sprintf.html

[Disch]

well you can't be that used to them if you can't do stuff like this with them =P

anyway I'll pre-empt another error here:

char* attacks = "Choose an attack!\n\n";

no good. this will crash or do other bad things if you try to append to this string because you have no buffer, you're just pointing to a static string.

Better:

char attacks[100] = "Choose an attack!\n\n";

But beware that this will still crash if you exceed 100 (or really 99 because there's a null terminator) characters with your string appending. So be sure your buffer is large enough.

[kempofighter]

What are you trying to do? Are you trying to set the world record for the longest line of incomprehensible code? You must not be very "used to" char* because what you are trying to do simply isn't possible with a char*. In fact it would be difficult to accomplish this task with std::string with one line of code. You are going to have to write more lines of code within the for loop, regardless of whether you wish to use char* or std::string.