QT String to char * adds extra characters - qt

Question

I have a qTextEdit that I grab the text from (QString) and convert to a char* with this code:
QString msgQText = ui->textMsg->toPlainText();
size_t textSize = (size_t)msgQText.size();
if (textSize > 139) {
textSize = 139;
}
unsigned char * msgText = (unsigned char *)malloc(textSize);
memcpy(msgText, msgQText.toLocal8Bit().data(), textSize);
msgText[textSize] = '\0';
if (textSize > 0) {
Msg * newTextMsg = new Msg;
newTextMsg->type = 1; // text message type
newTextMsg->bitrate = 0;
newTextMsg->samplerate = 0;
newTextMsg->bufSize = (int)textSize;
newTextMsg->len = 0;
newTextMsg->buf = (char *)malloc(textSize);
memcpy((char *)newTextMsg->buf, (char *)msgText, textSize);
lPushToEnd(sendMsgList, newTextMsg, sizeof(Msg));
ui->sendRecList->addItem((char *)newTextMsg->buf);
ui->textMsg->clear();
}
I put the text into a qListBox, but it shows up like
However, the character array, if I print it out, does not have the extra characters.
I have tried checking the "compile using UTF-8" option, but it doesn't make a difference.
Also, I send the text using RS232, and the receiver side also displays the extra characters.
The receiver code is here:
m_serial->waitForReadyRead(200);
const QByteArray data = m_serial->readAll();
if (data.size() > 0) {
qDebug() << "New serial data: " << data;
QString str = QString(data);
if (str.contains("0x6F8C32E90A")) {
qDebug() << "TEST SUCCESSFUL!";
}
return data.data();
} else {
return NULL;
}

Answer 1

There is a difference between the size of a QString and the size of the QByteArray returned by toLocal8Bit(). A QString contains unicode text stored as UTF-16, while a QByteArray is "just" a char[].
A QByteArray is null-terminated, so you do not need to add it manually.
As #GM pointed out: msgText[textSize] = '\0'; is undefined behavior. You are writing to the textSize + 1 position of the msgText array.
This position may be owned by something else and may be overwritten, so you end up with a non null terminated string.
This should work:
QByteArray bytes = msgQText.toLocal8Bit();
size_t textSize = (size_t)bytes.size() + 1; // Add 1 for the final '\0'
unsigned char * msgText = (unsigned char *) malloc(textSize);
memcpy(msgText, bytes.constData(), textSize);
Additional tips:
Prefer using const functions on Qt types that are copy-on-write, e.g. use QBytearray::constData() instead of QByteArray::data(). The non-const functions can cause a deep-copy of the object.
Do not use malloc() and other C-style functions if possible. Here you could do:
unsigned char * msgText = new unsigned char[textSize]; and later delete[] msgText;.
Prefer using C++ casts (static_cast, reinterpret_cast, etc.) instead of C-style casts.
You are making 2 copies of the text (2 calls to memcpy), given your code only 1 seem to be enough.