Pushing values to a Vector of pointers has garbage values - pointers

Question

I am a C++ noob and I have written a method to get text file names including full-paths from a given directory. It gives a garbage value on the vector<wchar_t*> names. I used VS2010 debugger and analysed values. It looks like pointers are going out of scope. On the official C++ reference it says that push_back() copies values and seems like as I am pushing a pointer and it just copies pointers value.
static std::vector<wchar_t*> getFileNames(wchar_t* folder) // ex: c:\\textfiles\\My
{
using namespace std;
vector<wchar_t*> names;
wchar_t search_path[200];
swprintf(search_path, L"%s\\*.txt", folder); // ex: c:\\textfiles\\My\\*.txt
WIN32_FIND_DATA fd;
HANDLE hFind = FindFirstFile((wchar_t*)search_path, &fd);
if(hFind != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
do
{
if(! (fd.dwFileAttributes == FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) )
{
std::wstring fullPath(folder);
fullPath += L"\\";
fullPath += std::wstring(fd.cFileName); // cFilename has something like Info.txt
names.push_back((wchar_t*)fullPath.c_str());
}
}while(FindNextFile(hFind, &fd)); //goes out of scope and values become garbage
FindClose(hFind);
}
return names; //vector with garbage values
}
Is it possible to get wchar_t* pushed in to the vector someway, a better work around rather than dynamically allocating memory or using heap variables?
Can I get compiler warning for mistakes like this on VS2010 or any VS version(Now I only get casting warning and errors)?

Answer 1

swprintf might overflow the buffer.
(wchar_t*)search_path is a superfluous cast.
Never break out the big guns if you don't need them.
if(! (fd.dwFileAttributes == FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) ) means you only ignore directories without interesting attributes.
fullPath += std::wstring(fd.cFileName); another superfluous cast.
names.push_back((wchar_t*)fullPath.c_str()); pushes a pointer to the internal buffer of fullpath into names, even though it will be destroyed at the end of the block.
What you should do is change the signature to
static std::vector<std::wstring> getFileNames(std::wstring folder)
Or at least
static std::vector<std::unique_ptr<wchar_t>> getFileNames(wchar_t* folder)
to take advantage of RAII and reduce the chance for errors.
In any case, you should rewrite the function, and should take advantage of the standard-library internally.
As an example, with the proper prototype:
static std::vector<std::wstring> getFileNames(std::wstring folder) {
std::vector<std::wstring> names;
WIN32_FIND_DATA fd;
HANDLE hFind = FindFirstFile((folder+L"\\*.txt").c_str(), &fd);
if(hFind == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
return names;
auto lam = [](HANDLE* p){FindClose(*p);}
std::unique_ptr<HANDLE, decltype(lam)> guard(&hFind, lam);
folder += L"\\";
do {
if(! (fd.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) )
names.push_back(folder+fd.cFileName);
} while(FindNextFile(hFind, &fd));
return names;
}

Answer 2

Ideally, you should store class objects in your vector, instead of character pointers (or wchar_t pointers). You can do it, but it requires some extra work. That's the part that you're missing.
The issue you're seeing is exactly what you describe: the character arrays that are owned by the wstring objects are being destroyed when the wstring goes out of scope. By using wstring::c_str(), you are not creating an independent copy of the character array, you're just looking at the one that it already has created for its own use.
So you need a way to keep a character array around longer. Either you could use the wstring, or you need to copy the character array into one of your own.
The minimal change would be something like this:
std::wstring fullPath(folder);
fullPath += L"\\";
fullPath += std::wstring(fd.cFileName); // cFilename has something like Info.txt
wchar_t *wsz = new wchar_t[fullPath.size() + 1];
wcsncpy(wsz, fullPath.c_str(), fullPath.size());
names.push_back(wsz);
That's enough to get your strings into the vector, but because you're using character pointers, it's also your responsibility to clean them up. So when you are done using the vector, you will need to iterate through and delete each one of them before you let the vector be destroyed.
As I mention in a comment below, it's much simpler to use a std::vector. There are libraries that can help you with the memory management parts, if you must use wchar_t*. You caould take a look at the Boost Smart Pointer library, for example.

Answer 3

The variable fullPath is a local variable.
It goes out of scope.
That is the reason the pointers are becoming junk.
Allocate a dynamic memory as
vector<wstring*> names;// instead of vector<wchar_t*> names;
std::wstring *fullPath = new wstring(folder);
Never store references of objects into a list if you are not aware of their scope.