Programming Fundamentals using C

Module G-Strings

Slots 22 & 23: Theory and Demo.

Slot 24: Exercise
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Objectives

• String is a common-used data type  The

way is used to store a string of characters in C.
• How to declare/initialize a string in C?
• How to access a character in a string?
• What are operations on strings
– Input/output (stdio.h)
– Some common used functions in the library
string.h
• How to manage an array of strings?
Strings 2
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Content
• Null-String/C-String
• To Declare/Initialize a string
• Gap: A safe method for string content.
• Data stored in a string
• Output a String
• Input a string
• May Operators Applied to String?
• Other String Functions
• Array of strings

Strings 3
 Programming Fundamentals using C

1- Null-String/ C-String
• A string is a group of characters  It is similar to an array of
characters.
• A NULL byte (value of 0 – escape sequence ‘\0’) is inserted to
the end of a string.  It is called NULL-string or C-string.
• A string is similar to an array of characters. The difference
between them is at the end of a string, a NULL byte is inserted to
locate the last meaningful element in a string.
 If a string with the length n is needed, declare it with the length
n+1.

Strings 4
 Programming Fundamentals using C

2- Declare/ Initialize a String

• Static strings: stored in data segment or stack
segment  Compiler can determine the
location for storing strings.
char s1[21]; /* for a string of 20 characters*/
Initialize a string: NULL byte is automatically
inserted.
char name[31] = “I am a student”;
char name2[31] = {‘H’, ‘e ‘, ‘l’, ‘l’, ‘o’, ‘\0’ };
• Dynamic strings: Stored in the heap
char* S;
S = (char*) malloc( lengthOfString+1);
S = (char*) calloc( lengthOfString+1, sizeof(char));

Strings 5
 Programming Fundamentals using C
3- Gap:
A safe method for string content.
• Some compilers use a gap between variables
to make a safety for strings. 2293612 10
Safe
gap
28 bytes
Hello
2293584
2293580 9

If a so-long string
is accepted, this
string can
overflow into the
memory of the
variable n
Strings 6
 Programming Fundamentals using C

4- Data Stored in a strings

• Each character in a string is stored as it’s ASCII code.

S1[i]: The character at

the position i in the
string S1

Strings 7
 Programming Fundamentals using C

5- Output Strings – Test yourself

Observe the
prompt symbol
on the result
screen .

Strings 8
 Programming Fundamentals using C

6- Input Strings

• Library: stdio.h
• Function scanf() with type conversion %s
• Function gets(string)
• Each function has it’s own advantages and
weaknesses.

Strings 9
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Input Strings: scanf(…)

The %s conversion specifier
• reads all characters until the first whitespace
character,
• stores the characters read in memory locations
starting with the address passed to scanf,
• Automatically stores the null byte in the memory
byte following the last character accepted and
• leaves the delimiting whitespace plus any subsequent
characters in the input buffer  ignores any leading
whitespace characters (default).
• Option specifiers are used to change default
characteristics of the function scanf on strings.

Strings 10
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Input Strings: scanf(…)

char name[31];
Default
scanf("%s", name );
Enter: My name is Arnold

char name[31];
scanf(“%10s", name );
Enter: Schwartzenegger

Strings 11
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Input Strings: scanf(…)

How to accept blanks in a input string?
%[^\n] conversion specifier

• reads all characters until the newline ('\n'),

• stores the characters read in memory locations
starting with the address passed to scanf,
• stores the null byte in the byte following that where
scanf stored the last character and
• leaves the delimiting character (here, '\n') in the input
buffer.

Strings 12
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Input Strings: scanf(…)

How to accept blanks in a input string?

%[^\n] conversion specifier.

Strings 13
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Input Strings: scanf(…) - Test

Why?
Replace:
Why? scanf(“%s”, S)  scanf(“%10[^\n]”, S)

Strings 14
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Input Strings: scanf(…)

Some character specifiers used in the function
scanf(): Set of character are or not accepted.
Specifier Description

%[abcd] Searches the input field for any of the characters a, b, c, and d
%[^abcd] Searches the input field for any characters except a, b, c, and d
%[0-9] To catch all decimal digits

%[A-Z] Catches all uppercase letters

%[0-9A-Za-z] Catches all decimal digits and all letters
%[A-FT-Z] Catches all uppercase letters from A to F and from T to Z

Strings 15
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Input Strings: gets(…)

gets is a standard library function (stdio.h) that
– accepts an empty string
– uses the '\n' as the delimiter
– throws away the delimiter after accepting the string
– Automatically appends the null byte to the end of the
set stored
The prototype for gets is
char* gets(char [ ]);
(gets is dangerous. It can fill beyond the
memory that allocated for the string)

Strings 16
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Input Strings: gets(…)

2293612 n1: 10 Overflow

2293608 n2: 33

s
2293584
2293580 12

Strings 17
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Input Strings:
Do yourself a function for input s string

Strings 18
 Programming Fundamentals using C

7- May Operators Applied to String?

• C operators act on basic data type only.

 They can not be applied to static arrays and
static strings.

We need functions for processing

arrays and string

Strings 19
 Programming Fundamentals using C

7- May Operators Applied to String?

• The assign operator can act on pointers to

dynamic array. 4
3
2
1
H 4030000 0
E 13
A 11
P 9
7
5
3
4010000 1

a1 4030000
Stack a2 4010000

Assign Pointer: OK
Strings 20
 Programming Fundamentals using C

7- Others String Functions: string.h

Purpose Function
Get the length of a string int strlen (char s[])
Copy source string to destination string char* strcpy(char dest[], char src[])
Compare two strings int strcmp( char s1[], char s2[])  -1, 0, 1
Concatenate string src to the end of dest char* strcat(char dest[], char src[])
Convert a string to uppercase char* strupr(char s[])
Convert a string to lowercase char* strlwr(char s[])
Find the address of a substring char* strstr (char src[], char subStr[])
 NULL if subStr does not exist in the src.

Strings 21
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Others String Functions: string.h

HOA ANH DAOhoa A

2293584 2293596

strstr()  NULL if the substring doesn’t exist.

Strings 22
 Programming Fundamentals using C

8- Some User-Defined String Functions

Purpose Prototype
Trim blanks at the beginning of a char* lTrim(char s[])
string: “ Hello”  “Hello”

Trim blanks at the end of a char* rTrim(char s[])

string: “Hello ”  “Hello”

Trim extra blanks in a string: char* trim (char s[])

“ I am a student “
 “I am a student”
Convert a string to a name: char* nameStr( char s[])
“ hoang thi hoa “
 “Hoang Thi Hoa”

Strings 23
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
H o a NULL
i=0 1 2 3

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
H o a NULL o a NULL

Strings 24
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
H o a NULL
2 3 4 i=5

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
H o a NULL NULL

Strings 25
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

“ Hoa anh dao “ “Hoa anh dao“
“Hoa anh dao“
lTrim “Hoa anh dao“
“Hoa anh dao “ “Hoa anh dao“
rTrim “Hoa anh dao“
“Hoa anh dao“ “Hoa anh dao“

Strings 26
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

“ hOA anH dAo nO “
trim()
“hOA anH dAo nO“ h o a a n h d a o n o
strlwr() 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1
“hoa anh dao no“ 0 1 2 3

“Hoa Anh Dao No“

Strings 27
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

Strings 28
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

Suppose that only the blank character is used to separate words in a sentence.
Implement a function for counting number of words in a sentence.

T n u n a n u n o n g t
i 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

count 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Counting words
Criteria for increasing count:
in a string - s[i] is not a blank and (i==0 or s[i-1] is a blank)

Do Yourself

Strings 29
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

Counting integers in a string

1 2 n u a 7 n a 9 d f 1 2 3 4 5 9 P 7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
i 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

count 0 1 2 3 4 5

Do Yourself Criteria for increasing count:

- s[i] is a digit and (i==0 or s[i-1] is not a digit)

Strings 30
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

Replace all existences of a sub-string (subStr) in a string (source) by another (repStr)

source ptr= strstr(source, subStr)

subStr: “coc”, subL=3
repStr: “bo”, repL=2 c o n c o c t r o n g h a n g

strcpy(ptr, ptr+subL)
The function strcpy will c o n t r o n g h a n g
copy char-by-char from
the left to the right of strcpy(temp, ptr)
the source to the t r o n g h a n g
destination. So, it will
work properly when a strcpy(ptr+repL, temp)
sub-string is shifted up c o n t t r o n g h a n g
only.

A temporary string is repStr b o \0

used when a sub-string
for (i=0; i<repL, i++) *(ptr+i) = repStr[i];
is shifted down.
Strings 31
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

Replace all existences of a sub-string (subStr) in a string (source) by another (repStr)

Strings 32
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Some user-defined String Functions

Replace all existences of a sub-string (subStr) in a string (source) by another (repStr)

Strings 33
 Programming Fundamentals using C

5- Array of Strings
Declaration: char identifier [numberOfString][number_byte_per_string];

Initialization:

Dinh Tien Hoang

Le Dai Hanh
Ly Cong Uan
Le Loi
Tran Nguyen Han
Le Thanh Tong
Nguyen Hue
Strings 34
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Array of Strings…
Parameter in a function

Strings 35
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Demo: Array of Names

Write a C program that will accept 10 names, print out the list,
sort the list using ascending order, print out the result.

Strings 36
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Demo: Array of Names

Strings 37
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Summary
• String in C is terminated by the NULL character
(‘\0’)
• A string is similar to an array of characters.
• All input functions for string will automatically
add the NULL character after the content of the
string.
• C-operators will operate on simple data types
 Function on arrays, strings are implemented
to operate on arrays and strings
• If dynamic arrays or strings (using pointers), the
assignment can be used on these pointers.
Strings 38
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Summary
String Input
– scanf
– gets
– Do yourself using getchar()
String Functions and Arrays of Strings
• Functions
– strlen
– strcpy
– strcmp
– strcat
Q&A
– strstr
• Arrays of Strings
– Input and Output
– Passing to Functions
– Sorting an Array of Names

Strings 39
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Slot 24- Exercise

Write a C-program that helps user managing

a list of 100 student names using the
following menu:
1- Add a student
2- Remove a student
3- Search a student
4- Print the list in ascending order
5- Quit

Strings 40
 Programming Fundamentals using C

Thank You

Strings 41