• An array is a collection of fixed number of values of a single type.
For example: if you want to
store 100 integers in sequence, you can create an array for it.
int data[100];
• The size and type of arrays cannot be changed after its declaration.
• Arrays are of two types:
o One-dimensional arrays
o Multidimensional arrays
How to declare arrays?
data_type array_name[array_size];
For example, float mark[5];
Here, we declared an array, mark, of floating-point type and size 5. Meaning, it can hold 5 floating-point
values.
Elements of an Array and How to access them?
You can access elements of an array by indices.
Suppose you declared an array mark as above. The first element is mark[0], second element
is mark[1] and so on.
Few key notes:
• Arrays have 0 as the first index not 1. In this example, mark[0]
• If the size of an array is n, to access the last element, (n-1) index is used. In this
example, mark[4]
• Suppose the starting address of mark[0] is 2120d. Then, the next address, a[1], will be 2124d,
address of a[2] will be 2128d and so on. It's because the size of a float is 4 bytes.
How to initialize an array?
It's possible to initialize an array during declaration. For example,
int mark[5] = {19, 10, 8, 17, 9};
Another method to initialize array during declaration:
int mark[] = {19, 10, 8, 17, 9};
Here,
mark[0] is equal to 19
mark[1] is equal to 10
mark[2] is equal to 8
mark[3] is equal to 17
mark[4] is equal to 9
How to insert and print array elements?
int mark[5] = {19, 10, 8, 17, 9}
// insert different value to third element
mark[3] = 9;
// take input from the user and insert in third element
scanf("%d", &mark[2]);
// take input from the user and insert in (i+1)th element
scanf("%d", &mark[i]);
// print first element of an array
printf("%d", mark[0]);
// print ith element of an array
printf("%d", mark[i-1]);
Example: C Arrays
// Program to find the average of n (n < 10) numbers using arrays
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int marks[10], i, n, sum = 0, average;
printf("Enter n: ");
scanf("%d", &n);
for(i=0; i<n; ++i)
{
printf("Enter number%d: ",i+1);
scanf("%d", &marks[i]);
sum += marks[i];
}
average = sum/n;
printf("Average = %d", average);
return 0;
}
Output
Enter n: 5
Enter number1: 45
Enter number2: 35
Enter number3: 38
Enter number4: 31
Enter number5: 49
Average = 39
Important thing to remember when working with C arrays
• Suppose you declared an array of 10 elements. Let's say,
int testArray[10];
• You can use the array members from testArray[0] to testArray[9].
• If you try to access array elements outside of its bound, let's say testArray[12], the compiler
may not show any error. However, this may cause unexpected output (undefined behavior).
Multidimensional Arrays
In C programming, you can create array of an array known as multidimensional array. For
example,
float x[3][4];
Here, x is a two-dimensional (2d) array. The array can hold 12 elements. You can think the
array as table with 3 row and each row has 4 column.
Similarly, you can declare a three-dimensional (3d) array. For example,
float y[2][4][3];
Here,The array y can hold 24 elements.
You can think this example as: Each 2 elements have 4 elements, which makes 8 elements and
each 8 elements can have 3 elements. Hence, the total number of elements is 24.
How to initialize a multidimensional array?
There is more than one way to initialize a multidimensional array.
Initialization of a two dimensional array
// Different ways to initialize two dimensional array
int c[2][3] = {{1, 3, 0}, {-1, 5, 9}};
int c[][3] = {{1, 3, 0}, {-1, 5, 9}};
int c[2][3] = {1, 3, 0, -1, 5, 9};
Above code are three different ways to initialize a two dimensional arrays.
Initialization of a three dimensional array.
You can initialize a three dimensional array in a similar way like a two dimensional array. Here's
an example,
int test[2][3][4] = {
{ {3, 4, 2, 3}, {0, -3, 9, 11}, {23, 12, 23, 2} },
{ {13, 4, 56, 3}, {5, 9, 3, 5}, {3, 1, 4, 9} }
};
Example 1: Two Dimensional Array to store and print values
// C program to store temperature of two cities for a week and display it.
#include <stdio.h>
const int CITY = 2;
const int WEEK = 7;
int main()
{
int temperature[CITY][WEEK];
for (int i = 0; i < CITY; ++i) {
for(int j = 0; j < WEEK; ++j) {
printf("City %d, Day %d: ", i+1, j+1);
scanf("%d", &temperature[i][j]);
}
}
printf("\nDisplaying values: \n\n");
for (int i = 0; i < CITY; ++i) {
for(int j = 0; j < WEEK; ++j)
{
printf("City %d, Day %d = %d\n", i+1, j+1, temperature[i][j]);
}
}
return 0;
}
Output
City 1, Day 1: 33
City 1, Day 2: 34
City 1, Day 3: 35
City 1, Day 4: 33
City 1, Day 5: 32
City 1, Day 6: 31
City 1, Day 7: 30
City 2, Day 1: 23
City 2, Day 2: 22
City 2, Day 3: 21
City 2, Day 4: 24
City 2, Day 5: 22
City 2, Day 6: 25
City 2, Day 7: 26
Displaying values:
City 1, Day 1 = 33
City 1, Day 2 = 34
City 1, Day 3 = 35
City 1, Day 4 = 33
City 1, Day 5 = 32
City 1, Day 6 = 31
City 1, Day 7 = 30
City 2, Day 1 = 23
City 2, Day 2 = 22
City 2, Day 3 = 21
City 2, Day 4 = 24
City 2, Day 5 = 22
City 2, Day 6 = 25
City 2, Day 7 = 26
Example 2: Sum of two matrices using Two dimensional arrays
// C program to find the sum of two matrices of order 2*2
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
float a[2][2], b[2][2], c[2][2];
int i, j;
// Taking input using nested for loop
printf("Enter elements of 1st matrix\n");
for(i=0; i<2; ++i)
for(j=0; j<2; ++j)
{
printf("Enter a%d%d: ", i+1, j+1);
scanf("%f", &a[i][j]);
}
// Taking input using nested for loop
printf("Enter elements of 2nd matrix\n");
for(i=0; i<2; ++i)
for(j=0; j<2; ++j)
{
printf("Enter b%d%d: ", i+1, j+1);
scanf("%f", &b[i][j]);
}
// adding corresponding elements of two arrays
for(i=0; i<2; ++i)
for(j=0; j<2; ++j)
{
c[i][j] = a[i][j] + b[i][j];
}
// Displaying the sum
printf("\nSum Of Matrix:");
for(i=0; i<2; ++i)
for(j=0; j<2; ++j)
{
printf("%.1f\t", c[i][j]);
if(j==1)
printf("\n");
}
return 0;
}
Ouput
Enter elements of 1st matrix
Enter a11: 2;
Enter a12: 0.5;
Enter a21: -1.1;
Enter a22: 2;
Enter elements of 2nd matrix
Enter b11: 0.2;
Enter b12: 0;
Enter b21: 0.23;
Enter b22: 23;
Sum Of Matrix:
2.2 0.5
-0.9 25.0
STRINGS IN C
Read String from the user
• You can use the scanf() function to read a string.
• The scanf() function reads the sequence of characters until it encounters a whitespace (space,
newline, tab etc.).
Example 1: scanf() to read a string
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char name[20];
printf("Enter name: ");
scanf("%s", name);
printf("Your name is %s.", name);
return 0;
}
Output
Enter name: Dennis Ritchie
Your name is Dennis.
Even though Dennis Ritchie was entered in the above program, only "Ritchie" was stored in the name
string. It's because there was a space after Ritche.
How to read a line of text?
You can use gets() function to read a line of string. And, you can use puts() to display the string.
Example 2: gets() and puts()
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char name[30];
printf("Enter name: ");
gets(name); // read string
printf("Name: ");
puts(name); // display string
return 0;
}
When you run the program, the output will be:
Enter name: Tom Hanks
Name: Tom Hanks
Main String Functions:
Discussed are following four functions included in string.h header file.
1. The strlen() function calculates the length of a given string. The strlen() function
is defined in <string.h> header file.
Example: C strlen() function
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main()
{
char a[20]="Program";
char b[20]={'P','r','o','g','r','a','m','\0'};
char c[20];
printf("Enter string: ");
gets(c);
printf("Length of string a = %d \n",strlen(a));
//calculates the length of string before null charcter.
printf("Length of string b = %d \n",strlen(b));
printf("Length of string c = %d \n",strlen(c));
return 0;
}
Output
Enter string: String
Length of string a = 7
Length of string b = 7
Length of string c = 6
2. strcat() concatenates (joins) two strings.
It takes two arguments, i.e, two strings or character arrays, and stores the resultant
concatenated string in the first string specified in the argument.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main()
{
char str1[] = "This is ", str2[] = "programiz.com";
//concatenates str1 and str2 and resultant string is
stored in str1.
strcat(str1,str2);
puts(str1);
puts(str2);
return 0;
}
Output
This is programiz.com
programiz.com
3. The strcmp() function compares two strings and returns 0 if both strings are identical.
The strcmp() function takes two strings and return an integer.
The strcmp() compares two strings character by character. If the first character of two strings are equal,
next character of two strings are compared. This continues until the corresponding characters of two
strings are different or a null character '\0' is reached.
Return Value from strcmp()
Return Value Remarks
0 if both strings are identical (equal)
negative if the ASCII value of first unmatched character is less than second.
positive integer if the ASCII value of first unmatched character is greater than second.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main()
{
char str1[] = "abcd", str2[] = "abCd", str3[] = "abcd";
int result;
// comparing strings str1 and str2
result = strcmp(str1, str2);
printf("strcmp(str1, str2) = %d\n", result);
// comparing strings str1 and str3
result = strcmp(str1, str3);
printf("strcmp(str1, str3) = %d\n", result);
return 0;
}
Output
strcmp(str1, str2) = 32
strcmp(str1, str3) = 0
The first unmatched character between string str1 and str2 is third character. The ASCII value
of 'c' is 99 and the ASCII value of 'C' is 67. Hence, when strings str1 and str2 are compared, the
return value is 32.
When strings str1 and str3 are compared, the result is 0 because both strings are identical.
4. The strcpy() function copies the string pointed by source (including the null character) to the
character array destination.
This function returns character array destination.
The strcpy() function is defined in string.h header file.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main()
{
char str1[10]= "awesome";
char str2[10];
char str3[10];
strcpy(str2, str1);
strcpy(str3, "well");
puts(str2);
puts(str3);
return 0;
}
Output
awesome
well
It is important to note that, the destination array should be large enough otherwise it may result in
undefined behavior.
