Modifying a C string: access violation

Question

Possible Duplicates:
Why does simple C code receive segmentation fault?
Modifying C string constants?

Why does this code generate an access violation?

int main()
{
 char* myString = "5";
 *myString = 'e'; // Crash
 return 0;
}

Answer 1

*mystring is apparently pointing at read-only static memory. C compilers may allocate string literals in read-only storage, which may not be written to at run time.

Answer 2

String literals are considered constant.

Answer 3

The correct way of writing your code is:

const char* myString = "5";
*myString = 'e'; // Crash
return 0;

You should always consider adding 'const' in such cases, so it's clear that changing this string may cause unspecified behavior.