Well, you've already done so by correcting sojodude's first example. If you insist, I have to ask you to compile and run (on any OS , any good compiler) it, it is guaranteed to work. Here it is: #include int main() { char *p, *q, *st; st = p = "abcde"; q = "pqrst"; while(*p++=*q++); printf("%s", st); return 0; }