Character strings Bala Chap 8 pages 229-262

• Array of characters terminated by null character ‘\0’.

• No built-in data type for strings → uses array of characters → char
• Allows string constants and variables
“PHYSICS” “123456789”
• Internal representation of a string has a null character ( ‘\0’ ) at the end
→ physical storage required is one more than the number of characters
• Distinguish between 2 ‘2’ “2”
• Strings are generally used to manipulate text

Common operations performed on strings are

• Reading and writing
• Getting length of strings
• Combining strings together – concatenation - appending
• Copying one string to another
• Comparing strings for equality
• etc
Declaration and initialization of string variables.
• No separate data type for stings → array of characters → char ‘a’ ‘b’ ‘c’ ‘d’ ‘e’ ‘\0’
char s[6] =; “abcde”;
s[0] s[1] s[2] s[3] s[4] s[5]
• Character variables can store only one character, String variables can store any number of characters.
char subject[12] = “ELECTRONICS”;
11 character, but it has to be declared with 12 characters, to include ‘\0’ at the end.
char dept[12] = {‘E’, ’L’, ’E’, ’C’, ’T’, ’R’, ’O’, ’N’, ’I’, ’C’, ’S’, ’\0’};
char str[10] = “Hello” → ‘H’, ’e’, ‘l’, ‘l’, ‘o’, ‘\0’, ‘\0’, ‘\0’, \0’, ‘\0’ Excess locations will be filled with ‘\0’

• Initialization with lower size is illegal.

char str[3] = “good”; → compiler error
• Do not allow assignment operations on strings except in declaration.
char str1[15] = “Gujarat”, str2[15];
str2 = “abc”; not allowed
str2 = str1; not allowed
Reading a string
char str[10] ;
scanf(“%s ”, str);
• Use %s
• No & sign before string variables
• scanf() function will automatically terminates when white space is read.

• scanf(“%s”, str); Gujarat University.

Gujarat_University or GujaratUniversity
scanf(“%s %s”, str1, str2);

Writing strings:
printf(“%s”, name);
Formatted printing
%10s, %-10s, %10.4s, %*.*s, %*.3s, %10.*s
printf(“%*.*s”, i, j, name);
/*P1 Reading a line of text */
line
#include <stdio.h> a b c d \n
#include <conio.h>
[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
#include <ctype.h>
main()
{ char line[10], ch ; ch i

int i = 0; a 01
--
printf("Enter the text, press ENTER key at the end : \n"); ab cd\n
do
{ ch = getchar();
line[i] = ch; /* line[i++] = ch; not [++i] */
i++;
} while(ch != '\n');
line[i-1] = '\0'; To read/ write individual character
printf("\n%s", line); • getchar(); • gets(name);
getch(); • putchar(ch); • puts(name);
}
Declaration, initialization, reading and writing
char x1[ ] = "Hello“;
char x2[ ] = {'B','y','e','\0'};
char x3[ ] = "Thank You";
char x4[20], x5[20];
scanf("%s", x4);
gets(x5);
printf("%s %10s %-10s %10.5s", x1, x2, x3, x4);
puts(w5);
Length of a string
str1
All strings are terminated in NULL. This feature can
‘a’ ‘b’ ‘c’ ‘d’ ‘e’ ‘\0’
be used to manipulate strings
[0] [1] [2] 3] [4] [5]
For finding out length of a string → use a for loop
and keep on incrementing a counter till \0 is reached.

/* P2 Length of string */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
main()
{ char str[20];
int i;
printf("Enter the string - one word: ");
scanf("%s", str);
for (i=0; str[i] != '\0'; i++);
printf("\nNo. of characters in '%s' is %d", str, i);
getch();
}
Copy a string s1
= cannot be used for copying a string ‘a’ ‘b’ ‘c’ ‘\0’
S1[0] s1[1] S1[2] s1[3]
Copy character by character till the null character
and assign a NULL as the last character of new string. s2

/* P3 copy a string */ S2[0] s2[1] S2[2] s2[3]

#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
main()
{ char str1[20], str2[20];
int i;
printf("Enter the string : ");
gets(str1);
for (i=0; str1[i] != '\0'; i++)
str2[i] = str1[i];
str2[i] = '\0’;
printf("\nstr1 = %s\nstr2 = %s\n", str1, str2);
getch();
}
/*P4 Program to append two strings - concatenation */ s1
#include <stdio.h> ‘a’ ‘b’ ‘c’ ‘\0’
#include <conio.h> 0 1 2 3
main() s2
{ char s1[20], s2[20], s3[40]; ‘x’ ‘y’ ‘z’ ‘\0’
int i, j;
0 1 2 3
printf("Enter first string : ");
s3
gets(s1);
‘a’ ‘b’ ‘c’ ‘x’ ‘y’ ‘z’ ‘ \0’
printf("Enter second string : ");
gets(s2); 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
for (i=0; s1[i] != '\0'; i++)
s3[i] = s1[i]; Attaching s2 on s1 itself
for (j=0; s2[j] != '\0'; j++)
s3[i+j] = s2[j]; for (i=0; str1[i] != '\0'; i++);
s3[i+j] = '\0'; for (j=0; str2[j] != '\0'; j++)
printf("\n%s\t%s\t%s", s1, s2, s3); str1[i+j] = str2[j];
printf("\nLength of strings - %d %d %d\n", i, j, i+j); str1[i+j] = '\0';
getch();
} Size of s1 should be large enough
/*P5 Program to compare two strings */
main()
{ char x[40], y[40];
int i;
printf("\nEnter two strings - one word each: ");
scanf("%s%s", x, y);
for (i=0; x[i] == y[i] && x[i] != '\0' && y[i] != '\0'; i++);
if (x[i] == y[i])
printf("\nStrings are same\n");
else
printf("\nStrings are not same\n");
getch();
}
* If only the first condition is given, and if strings are same, then loop will go out of range.
* Condition to come out of loop are (i) any mismatch in characters
(ii) character become null for any of the string.
* Instead of for loop, while loop may be used
/*P6. Program to read a line of text, encrypt the text by replacing each
alphabet by the next alphabet. z should be replaced by a */ k b n f t
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h> j a m e s
#include <string.h>
main()
s1
{ char s1[80], s2[80];
int i; a z a d \0
S1[0] S1[1] S1[2] S1[3] s1[4]
printf("Enter the string : ");
gets(s1); s2
for (i=0; s1[i] != '\0'; i++) b a b e \0
{ if (s1[i] == 'z') S2[0] S2[1] S2[2] S2[3] s2[4]
s2[i] = 'a';
else if (s1[i] == 'Z')
s2[i] = ‘A';
else
s2[i] = s1[i]+1;
}
s2[i] = '\0';
printf(“\nOriginal string %s\nEncripted string %s", s1, s2);
getch();
}
 char city[30] = “Mumbai”;
String handling functions: strlen(city) → 6
#include <string.h> strlen(“Mumbai”) → 6
strlen(“city”) → 4
strlen() → finds length of string excluding null. strlen(“N Delhi”) → 7
n = strlen(str);
argument – variable or constant
char s1[10], s2[10] = “Gujarat”;
strcpy() → copies one string to another strcpy(s1, s2);
strcpy(s1, s2); s2 will be copied to s1 strcpy(s1, “Mumbai”);
s1 should be variable, s2 can be a variable or constant
char part1[ ] = “mile”, part2[ ] = “stone”;
strcat() → concatenate (append) two strings strcat(part1,part2);
strcat(s1, s2); s2 will be appended on s1 part1 → milestone
s1 should be variable, s2 can be a variable or constant part2 → stone

strcmp() → compares two strings char state[10] = “Gujarat”,

strcmp(s1, s2); return difference of first mismatch strcmp(state, “Gujarat”);
0 if s1 = s2 strcmp(“ROM”, “RAM”);
< 0 if s1 < s2 s1-s2 negative strcmp(“TEST”, “test” );
> 0 if s1 > s2 strcmpi(“Test”, “test”);
/*P7 Reverse a string and check for palindrome. * malayalam, madam, radar, peep,
A word which spell same forward and backward*/ * i selects characters from first to middle,
#include <string.h> A B C D E F \0 j selects them from last to middle.
main()
Loop stops when i >= j
{ int i, j, n; char temp;
char s[20], o[20]; * If swapping is not stopped at middle →
printf("\nEnter the string : "); result into the same string.
gets(s);
strcpy(o, s); * Reversing using a 2nd variable
n = strlen(s); for (i=0; i<n; i++)
for (i=0, j=n-1; i<j; i++, j--) s2[i] = s1[n-1-i];
{ temp = s[i]; s2[i] = '\0’
s[i] = s[j]; * Another logic
s[j] = temp; for (i=0; i<n/2; i++)
} { temp = s[i];
printf(“\n%s spelled backward is %s", o, s); s[i] = s[n-1-i];
if (strcmp(o, s) == 0) s[n-1-i] = temp;
printf(“\n%s is a palindrome”, s); }
else
printf(“\n%s is not a palindrome”, s);
getch();
}
/* P8 Write a program to read a string and rewrite it in alphabetical order */
#include <stdio.h> string → ginrst
#include <conio.h>
#include <string.h>
main()
{ char s[20], os[20], temp; printf("\nOriginal string : %s “, os);
int i, j, len; printf(“\nString in alphabetical order : %s“, s);
printf("\nEnter the string : "); getch();
gets(s); }
strcpy(os, s);
len = strlen(s);
for (i=0; i<len-1; i++)
{ for (j=0; j<len-1-i; j++)
{ if (s[j] > s[j+1])
{ temp = s[j];
s[j] = s[j+1];
s[j+1] = temp;
} } }
Table of strings:
S[4][7]
A list of names can be treated as table of strings or array of strings. ‘\0’
S[0] ‘a’ ‘b’ ‘c’ ‘d’
Two-dimensional character array, first index specifies number of S[1] ‘X’ ‘Y’ ‘Z’ ‘\0’
strings and second index specifies maximum length of each string. S[2] ‘1’ ‘2’ ‘3’ ‘4’ ‘5’ ‘6’ ‘\0’
e.g. char student [4][7]; S[3] ‘a’ ‘a’ ‘b’ ‘b’ ‘\0’

Once array is declared as two dimensional, it can be treated just as

array of strings for further manipulations .

To access an individual string, simply specify the left index only.

student [0] → name of first student
student [3] → name of 4th student
To print first character of all names
To print all names
for (i=0; i<4; i++) for (i=0; i<4; i++)
printf(“%s\n”, student[i]); printf(“%c\n”, student[i][0]);
/* P9 Program to sort a list of names in alphabetical order */
#include <stdio.h>
printf("\nSorted series\n");
#include <conio.h>
for (i=0; i<items; i++)
#include <string.h>
printf("%s\n", string[i]);
#define items 5 getch();
main() }
{ char string[items][20], dummy[20];
int i, j;
printf("\nEnter %d strings\n", items);
• Bubble sorting.
for (i=0; i<items; i++)
scanf("%s", string[i]); • Two-dimensional array is used to store list of
for (i=0; i<items-1; i++) strings, first index represents number of items
and second one size of individual array.
{ for (j=0; j<items-1-i; j++)
{ if (strcmp(string[j], string[j+1]) > 0) • scanf() function with %s format is used to read
{ strcpy(dummy, string[j]); strings inside a loop - Only one word.
strcpy(string[j], string[j+1]); • strcmp() function compares strings and returns a
strcpy(string[j+1], dummy); positive value if first string is alphabetically higher.
} } } * Dummy should be declared as a string of same size.
Home work - Strings

Q1. Write a program to read a line of text, generate a new string by removing all vowels
from the string. Print both strings

Q2. Write a program to read string containing number of words, print it one word per line.