# passing strings between tasks **URL:** \ **Category:** Kernel\ **Created:** [December 10, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://forums.freertos.org/t/passing-strings-between-tasks/804 "2008-12-10T01:27:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://d2v6vdsk2p900z.cloudfront.net/original/1X/7fc8fdb729c645aab5b20282bbe34e57cb407be6.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.freertos.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://forums.freertos.org/t/passing-strings-between-tasks/804/1 "2008-12-10T01:27:45Z")
**[daverm](https://sourceforge.net/u/daverm/)** wrote on [Wednesday, December 10, 2008](https://sourceforge.net/p/freertos/discussion/382005/thread/2086c2df/#5f08): What’s the best way to pass strings between tasks? 1. xQueueCreate( maxstringlength, sizeof( char ) ); 2. xQueueCreate( 1, maxstringlength ); //inefficient because it copies MAX string length instead of actual string length 3. xQueueCreate( 1, sizeof( char\* ) ); //also requires semaphores 4. semaphores around a global string? Thx, Dave ---
**Author:** ![system](https://d2v6vdsk2p900z.cloudfront.net/original/1X/7fc8fdb729c645aab5b20282bbe34e57cb407be6.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.freertos.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://forums.freertos.org/t/passing-strings-between-tasks/804/2 "2008-12-10T02:12:57Z")
**[spacewrench](https://sourceforge.net/u/spacewrench/)** wrote on [Wednesday, December 10, 2008](https://sourceforge.net/p/freertos/discussion/382005/thread/2086c2df/#5f08/185b): Depends whether the receiving task needs to modify the string, and whether the sending task needs its own copy, or needs to release the memory or whatever.  For strings that are const after sending (no task needs to modify or delete them), I’d go with 3.  If you’re really trying to pass a buffer of data from a producer to a consumer (for example), and have the producer generate more data after the consumer is finished, then I’d go with 4: semaphores around a global buffer. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://d2v6vdsk2p900z.cloudfront.net/original/1X/7fc8fdb729c645aab5b20282bbe34e57cb407be6.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.freertos.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 3:57pm UTC](https://forums.freertos.org/t/passing-strings-between-tasks/804/3 "2008-12-10T15:57:48Z")
**[daverm](https://sourceforge.net/u/daverm/)** wrote on [Wednesday, December 10, 2008](https://sourceforge.net/p/freertos/discussion/382005/thread/2086c2df/#5f08/6cd6): Thx Dave. 4 it is. The producer is generating variable sized non-const ‘debug’ strings that are output to a port by the consumer. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://d2v6vdsk2p900z.cloudfront.net/original/1X/7fc8fdb729c645aab5b20282bbe34e57cb407be6.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.freertos.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://forums.freertos.org/t/passing-strings-between-tasks/804/4 "2008-12-10T16:27:23Z")
**[spacewrench](https://sourceforge.net/u/spacewrench/)** wrote on [Wednesday, December 10, 2008](https://sourceforge.net/p/freertos/discussion/382005/thread/2086c2df/#5f08/3079): Oh yeah, totally.  That’s a great way to handle debugging output (everything spews into a common circular buffer, and some low-priority task prints it out when it has a chance).  It can get pretty complex if you’re doing timestamping and making sure messages interleave on a line-by-line basis, plus the buffer has to be pretty big if you have a lot of high-priority output, but a robust debug/error reporting scheme makes development MUCH easier.