Chapter 5
Exploring Strings
Strings
• A string is defined as null terminated character array.
• A string must be terminated by a null – means that we need one
byte extra for holding null character.
• A string constant is null-terminated by the compiler automatically.
• Each character takes one byte in string.
Read Strings from Keyboard
• There are several ways-
• Using scanf() function-
• for string C use “%s” format specifier
• String - input form KB - scanf – 1
• string - input from KB - scanf – 2
• Most common is: gets()
gets()
• C’s standard library function
• uses the STDIO.H header file
• To use – call it using the name of a character array without
any index.
char str[100];
gets(str);
• get() function reads character until we press ENTER
• The ENTER key (carriage return - \r) is not stored, but is
replaced by a null, which terminates the string.
gets() …
page 145
Here null is false
to control the loop
that output the string
gets() - Be aware!
• The get() function performs no bounds checking.
• It is possible to enter more characters than the array
receiving them can hold – unwanted result!
• For example, if we call gets() with an array that is 20
characters long, there is no mechanism to stop us from
entering more than 20 character.
puts()
• C’s standard library function
• uses the STDIO.H header file
• To use – call it using the name of a character array without
any index.
char str[100] = “This is it”;
puts(str);
puts()
Example
Initialize String
Example
STRING.H
• The four most string related library functions are
1. strcpy() – for copy
2. strcat() – for concatenation
3. strcmp() – for compare two strings
4. strlen() – for finding length of a string
strcpy()
strcpy (to, from);
• It copies the contents of from to to.
strcpy()
String – strcpy 1
strcpy()
String – strcpy 2
strcat()
strcat (to, from);
• adds the contents of one string (from) to another (to).
strcat()
strcat()
strcmp()
strcmp(s1,s2);
• It returns zero – if s1 and s2 same (s1 = s2)
• It returns less than zero – if s1 less than s2 (s1 < s2)
• It returns greater than zero – if s1 greater than s2 (s1 > s2)
strcmp()
Example 1
Example 2
strlen()
strlen (str);
• returns the length, in characters of a string.
• It does not count the null terminator
strlen()
Example
strrev()
strrev (str);
• returns the string in revers order.
• It does not count the null terminator
• Example
