Stack Smashing Detected C++ in Card game

Question

So im programming a poker game (because im bored) and just setting out the classes and testing it works as i go along and its working perfectly BUT suddenly i add some new code to have an actual deck instead of infinite random cards and i just get this error

*** stack smashing detected ***: <unknown> terminated
Aborted (core dumped)

This is from a g++ compiler on mint 19.3 cinnamon

I looked at other questions that are similar to mine but they seem to be about large amounts of data and i dont really see how thats in my program.

If someone could help out or at least explain the error message that would be great

-thanks

/ my code /

#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>

using namespace std;


class Card{
public:
    static Card* deck;
    static int current;
    char house;
    char value;

    void setTo(Card c){
        house = c.house;
        value = c.value;
    }

    void random(){
        setTo(*(deck + current));
        current++;
    }

    void print(){

        switch (value){
            case 11:
                cout << "jack";
                break;
            case 12:
                cout << "queen";
                break;
            case 13:
                cout << "king";
                break;
            case 14:
                cout << "ace";
                break;
            default:
                cout << (int)value;
                break;
        }

        cout << " of ";
        switch (house){
            case 0:
                cout << "spades";
                break;
            case 1:
                cout << "clubs";
                break;
            case 2:
                cout << "hearts";
                break;
            case 3:
                cout << "diamonds";
                break;
            default:
                cout << "there has been an error, the house is invalid";
                break;
        }
        cout << endl;
    }

    static void CreateDeck(){
        Card cs[52];
        deck = &cs[0];

        int k;
        for(int i = 0;i<4;i++){
            for(int j = 0;j<14;j++){
                k =  (i*13) + j;
                deck[k].house = i;
                deck[k].value = (j+1);
            }
        }
    }

    static void ShuffleDeck()
        int j,k;
        Card t;
        for(int i = 0;i<52;i++){
            j = rand() % 52;
            k = rand() % 52;
            t.setTo(*(deck+j));
            (*(deck+j)).setTo(*(deck+k));
            (*(deck+k)).setTo(t);
        }
    }
};

class Player{
    public:
        int chips;
        Card* hand;
        string pName;

        void initialize(string n){
            chips = 1000;
            pName = n;
            Card cs[2];
            hand = &cs[0];
        }

        void print(){
            cout << "player: " << pName << endl;
            cout << "    ";
            (*hand).print();
            cout << "    ";
            (*(hand +1)).print();
            cout << "    " << chips << " chips" << endl;
            cout << endl;
        }

        void deal(){
            (*hand).random();
            (*(hand+1)).random();
        }

};

class Game{
    public:
        int pot;
        Card* deck;

        void initialize(){
            pot = 0;
            Card c[5];
            deck = &c[0];
        }
};

Card* Card::deck = NULL;
int Card::current = 0;

int main()
{

    srand (time(NULL));
    Card::CreateDeck();
    Card::ShuffleDeck();
    Card b[2];
    b[0].random();
    b[1].random();

    b[0].print();
    b[1].print();
    cout << endl;
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

Your problem is here in createDeck:

    Card cs[52];
    deck = &cs[0];

You have deck point to a local variable in the function. When the function exits the variable goes out of scope, so attempting to dereference deck invokes undefined behavior.

The simplest fix is to dynamically allocate an array using new:

deck = new Card[52];

And have a cleanup routine to delete [] the memory.

A better way would be to define it as a std::vector:

class Card{
public:
    static std::vector<Card> deck;

...

std::vector<Card> Card::deck(52);

This gives you better control over the memory. You will however need to change any explicit pointer arithmetic and derefernce to array subscript notation (i.e *(deck + x) --> deck[x] since std::vector doesn't support these operators.

Also in createDesk, you're going off the end of the array/vector here:

for(int j = 0;j<14;j++){

You want one less:

for(int j = 0;j<13;j++){