The crux of your problem is that a is a pointer to char, but it doesn't point to anything. You don't have a place to store your data when you read it in.

Your scanf statement is also very dangerous. It will allow any size string to be read. You need to make sure that your string will fit in the buffer that you allocate.

We are supposed to say "int main()" these days. And, if you're going to return from main, pass a return code. It will become your exit code.

You really should have a \n at the end of your last printf. Your code is legal without it, but you may not be able to see the output because your prompt may overwrite it. That is a hard bug to find.

Here is a legal program that is closest to your code:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
       char a[32];
       printf("please input your name -");
       scanf("%31s", a);
       printf("\n");
       printf("%s\n", a);
       return 0;
}