Scribd
Upload
18 views

Strings

A string in C is a sequence of characters, including a null terminator. Strings are stored as character arrays and represented as string literals between double quotes. Common string functions allow getting a string's length, copying strings, comparing strings, and concatenating strings. These functions are useful for tasks like reading input, comparing values, and manipulating strings.

Uploaded by

Atharv Gupta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
18 views

Strings

A string in C is a sequence of characters, including a null terminator. Strings are stored as character arrays and represented as string literals between double quotes. Common string functions allow getting a string's length, copying strings, comparing strings, and concatenating strings. These functions are useful for tasks like reading input, comparing values, and manipulating strings.

Uploaded by

Atharv Gupta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 21

STRINGS

• A string is a sequence of characters treated as a group


• We have already used some string literals:
• “filename”
• “output string”
• Strings are important in many programming contexts:
• names
• other objects (numbers, identifiers, etc.)
STRINGS IN C

• No explicit type, instead strings are maintained as arrays of characters


• Representing strings in C
• stored in arrays of characters
• array can be of any length
• end of string is indicated by a delimiter, the zero character ‘\0’
STRING LITERALS

• String literal values are represented by sequences of


characters between double quotes (“)
• Examples
• “” - empty string
• “hello”
• “a” versus ‘a’
• ‘a’ is a single character value (stored in 1 byte) as the ASCII value
for a
• “a” is an array with two characters, the first is a, the second is
the character value \0
REFERRING TO STRING LITERALS

• String literal is an array, can refer to a single character


from the literal as a character
• Example:
printf(“%c”,”hello”[1]);
outputs the character ‘e’
• During compilation, C creates space for each string
literal (# of characters in the literal + 1)
• referring to the literal refers to that space (as if it is an
array)
DUPLICATE STRING LITERALS

• Each string literal in a C program is stored at a


different location
• So even if the string literals contain the same string,
they are not equal (in the == sense)
• Example:
• char string1[6] = “hello”;
• char string2[6] = “hello”;
• but string1 does not equal string2 (they are stored at
different locations)
STRING VARIABLES

• Allocate an array of a size large enough to hold the


string (plus 1 extra value for the delimiter)
• Examples (with initialization):
char str1[6] = “Hello”;
char str2[] = “Hello”;
char *str3 = “Hello”;
char str4[6] = {‘H’,’e’,’l’,’l’,’o’,’\0’};
• Note, each variable is considered a constant in that
the space it is connected to cannot be changed
str1 = str2; /* not allowable, but we can copy the contents
of str2 to str1 (more later) */
CHANGING STRING VARIABLES

• Cannot change space string variables connected to,


but can use pointer variables that can be changed
• Example:
char *str1 = “hello”; /* str1 unchangeable */
char *str2 = “goodbye”; /* str2 unchangeable */
char *str3; /* Not tied to space */
str3 = str1; /* str3 points to same space s1 connected to */
str3 = str2;
CHANGING STRING VARIABLES
(CONT)
• Can change parts of a string variable
char str1[6] = “hello”;
str1[0] = ‘y’;
/* str1 is now “yello” */
str1[4] = ‘\0’;
/* str1 is now “yell” */
• Important to retain delimiter (replacing str1[5] in
the original string with something other than ‘\0’
makes a string that does not end)
• Have to stay within limits of array
STRING INPUT

• Use %s field specification in scanf to read string


• ignores leading white space
• reads characters until next white space encountered
• C stores null (\0) char after last non-white space char
• Reads into array (no & before name, array is a pointer)
• Example:
char Name[11];
scanf(“%s”,Name);
• Problem: no limit on number of characters read
(need one for delimiter), if too many characters
for array, problems may occur
INPUT/OUTPUT EXAMPLE

#include <stdio.h>

void main() {

char LastName[11];

char FirstName[11];

printf("Enter your name (last , first): ");

scanf("%10s%*[^,],%10s",LastName,FirstName);

printf("Nice to meet you %s %s\n",

FirstName,LastName);

}
ARRAY OF STRINGS

• Sometimes useful to have an array of string values


• Each string could be of different length (producing a ragged
string array)
• Example:
char *MonthNames[13]; /* an array of 13 strings */
MonthNames[1] = “January”; /* String with 8 chars */
MonthNames[2] = “February”; /* String with 9 chars */
MonthNames[3] = “March”; /* String with 6 chars */
etc.
ARRAY OF STRINGS EXAMPLE

#include <stdio.h>

void main() {

char *days[7];

char TheDay[10];

int day;

days[0] = "Sunday";

days[1] = "Monday";

days[2] = "Tuesday";

days[3] = "Wednesday";

days[4] = "Thursday";

days[5] = "Friday";

days[6] = "Saturday";
ARRAY OF STRINGS EXAMPLE

printf("Please enter a day: ");

scanf("%9s",TheDay);

day = 0;

while ((day < 7) && (!samestring(TheDay,days[day])))

day++;

if (day < 7)

printf("%s is day %d.\n",TheDay,day);

else

printf("No day %s!\n",TheDay);

}
ARRAY OF STRINGS EXAMPLE

int samestring(char *s1, char *s2) {

int i;

/* Not same if not of same length */

if (strlen(s1) != strlen(s2))

return 0;

/* look at each character in turn */

for (i = 0; i < strlen(s1); i++)

/* if a character differs, string not same */

if (s1[i] != s2[i]) return 0;

return 1;

}
STRING FUNCTIONS

• C provides a wide range of string functions for


performing different string tasks
• Examples
strlen(str) - calculate string length
strcpy(dst,src) - copy string at src to dst
strcmp(str1,str2) - compare str1 to str2
• Functions come from the utility library string.h
• #include <string.h> to use
STRING LENGTH

Syntax: int strlen(char *str)


returns the length (integer) of the string argument
counts the number of characters until an \0
encountered
does not count \0 char
Example:
char str1 = “hello”;
strlen(str1) would return 5
COPYING A STRING

Syntax:
char *strcpy(char *dst, char *src)
copies the characters (including the \0) from the source string (src) to the
destination string (dst)
dst should have enough space to receive entire string (if not, other data
may get written over)
if the two strings overlap (e.g., copying a string onto itself) the results are
unpredictable
return value is the destination string (dst)
char *strncpy(char *dst, char *src, int n)
similar to strcpy, but the copy stops after n characters
if n non-null (not \0) characters are copied, then no \0 is copied
STRING COMPARISON

Syntax:
int strcmp(char *str1, char *str2)
compares str1 to str2, returns a value based on the first character
they differ at:
less than 0
if ASCII value of the character they differ at is smaller for str1
or if str1 starts the same as str2 (and str2 is longer)
greater than 0
if ASCII value of the character they differ at is larger for str1
or if str2 starts the same as str1 (and str1 is longer)
0 if the two strings do not differ
STRING COMPARISON (CONT)

strcmp examples:
strcmp(“hello”,”hello”) -- returns 0
strcmp(“yello”,”hello”) -- returns value > 0
strcmp(“Hello”,”hello”) -- returns value < 0
strcmp(“hello”,”hello there”) -- returns value < 0
strcmp(“some diff”,”some dift”) -- returns value < 0
expression for determining if two strings s1,s2 hold the
same string value:
!strcmp(s1,s2)
STRCPY/STRCMP EXAMPLE

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

void main() {
char fname[81];
char prevline[101] = "";
char buffer[101];
FILE *instream;

printf("Check which file: ");


scanf("%80s",fname);

if ((instream = fopen(fname,"r")) == NULL) {


printf("Unable to open file %s\n",fname);
exit(-1);
}
• Other functions: STRCAT

You might also like