C Strings
Strings
Strings are used for storing text/characters.
For example, "Hello World" is a string of characters.
Unlike many other programming languages, C does not have a String type
to easily create string variables. Instead, you must use the char type and create
an array of characters to make a string in C:
char greetings[] = "Hello World!";
Note that you have to use double quotes ("").
To output the string, you can use the printf() function together with the format specifier %s to tell C that we are now working with strings:
Access Strings
Since strings are actually arrays in C, you can access a string by referring to its index number inside square brackets [].
This example prints the first character (0) in greetings:
Note that we have to use the %c format specifier to print a
single character.
Modify Strings
To change the value of a specific character in a string, refer to the index number, and use single quotes:
Example
char greetings[] = "Hello World!";
greetings[0] = 'J';
printf("%s", greetings);
// Outputs Jello World! instead of Hello
World!
Try it Yourself »
Loop Through a String
You can also loop through the characters of a string,
using a for
loop:
Example
char carName[] = "Volvo";
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 5; ++i) {
printf("%c\n", carName[i]);
}
Try it Yourself »
And like we specified in the arrays chapter, you can also use the sizeof formula (instead of manually
write the size of the array in the loop condition (i
< 5)) to make the loop more sustainable:
Example
char carName[] = "Volvo";
int length = sizeof(carName) /
sizeof(carName[0]);
int i;
for (i = 0; i < length; ++i) {
printf("%c\n", carName[i]);
}
Try it Yourself »
Another Way Of Creating Strings
In the examples above, we used a "string literal" to create a string variable. This is the easiest way to create a string in C.
You should also note that you can create a string with a set of characters. This example will produce the same result as the example in the beginning of this page:
Example
char greetings[] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', ' ', 'W', 'o', 'r', 'l', 'd',
'!', '\0'};
printf("%s", greetings);
Try it Yourself »
Why do we include the \0 character at the end? This is
known as the "null terminating character", and must be included when creating
strings using this method. It tells C that this is the end of the string.
Differences
The difference between the two ways of creating strings, is that the first method is easier
to write, and you do not have to include the \0 character, as C will do it for
you.
You should
note that the size of both arrays is the same: They both have 13 characters
(space also counts as a character by the way), including the \0 character:
Example
char greetings[] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', ' ', 'W', 'o', 'r', 'l', 'd',
'!', '\0'};
char greetings2[] = "Hello World!";
printf("%lu\n",
sizeof(greetings)); // Outputs 13
printf("%lu\n",
sizeof(greetings2)); // Outputs 13
Try it Yourself »
Real-Life Example
Use strings to create a simple welcome message:
Example
char message[] = "Good to see you,";
char fname[] = "John";
printf("%s
%s!", message, fname);
Try it Yourself »