Converting string to char*

[karthik.naig@gmail.com]

Hi,

This was the routine I wrote earlier to convert a C++ string to a
char array.

But I found that the char* array consisted only of junk after returning
from the below function.

int convertStringTo Char(string& str, char* data)
{
data = (char*)malloc(s tr.length() * sizeof(char));
memset((void*)d ata,0,sizeof(da ta));
strcpy(data,str .c_str());
return 0;
}

However, I replaced it with the following function and it worked just
fine.

int convertStringTo Char(string& str, char** data)
{
*data = (char*)malloc(s tr.length() * sizeof(char));
memset((void*)* data,0,sizeof(d ata));
strcpy(*data,st r.c_str());
return 0;
}

1. Can you tell me the reason?
2. Is the second routine defect free? Note that I'm not terminating the
char* array with a "\0" anywhere.

FYI, the compiler being used is gcc 2.96.

Thanks and Regards,
Karthik.