CSE101-Lec#23

Strings

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 Outline
• Introduction to string
– Declaration
– Initialization
• Reading and writing strings
– functions of the standard input/output library (stdio.h)
• Processing of strings.
• String Manipulation Functions from the String Handling Library
• Comparing strings
• Determining the length of string
• All string operations without inbuilt functions
• Other programs related to strings

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 Fundamentals of strings
• Strings
– Array of characters treated as a single unit called
string:
• Can include letters, digits and special characters (*, /,
$)
– String literal (string constant) - written in double
quotes
• “Lovely Professional University."

©LPU CSE101 C Programming

 What is a String??
• String is a collection of characters terminated by
null character
• Strings are arrays of characters
– String is a pointer to first character (like array)
– Value of string is the address of first character
• Each element of the string is stored in a
contiguous memory locations.
• Terminated by a null character(‘\0’) which is
automatically inserted by the compiler to indicate
the end of string.

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 String Definition
• They are defined as
char array_name[size];
e.g. char carname[30];
or char *carname;
• It defines an array name and reserves 30 bytes for
storing characters and single character consumes
1 bytes each.
• Since the last byte is used for storing null
character so total number of character specified
by the user cannot exceed 29.

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 String Initialization
• String Initialization
– Two ways:
– Define as a character array or a variable of type
char *
char color[] = "blue"; //char array
Or char color[] = { 'b', 'l', 'u', 'e', '\0' };
char *colorPtr = "blue"; //pointer variable
– Remember that strings represented as character
arrays end with '\0'
b •l color has
u 5 elements
e \0 b l u e \0
color Temporary

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*colorPtr
 String Input/Output
• Inputting strings
– Use scanf.
scanf("%s", word);
• Copies input into word[]
• Do not need & (because a string is a pointer)
– Remember to leave last place in the array for '\0‘.
– Because array knows no bounds the string written
beyond char array size will overwrite the data in
memory.
• Displaying strings
– Use printf.
printf("%s", word);

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#include <stdio.h>
int main()
Program to read
{ and display
char carname[20]; //string char array
printf(“Enter the name of your car: ");
string
scanf("%s", carname);// to display the input
printf(“\nName of car is %s”, carname);
} //end main

Enter the name of your car: XUV500

Name of car is XUV500
Output

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 How?
• The last program will print only a single word
not the sentences with white spaces?
• That is if input is
Lovely Professional University
• Output will be: use gets and puts
Lovely
• So how to print:
Lovely Professional University

©LPU CSE101 C Programming

 Standard I/O Library Functions
• List of functions in #include<stdio.h>
• Used for string input/output functions.
Function Description
gets( char *s ); Inputs characters from the standard input into the
array s until a newline or end-of-file character is
encountered. A terminating null character is
appended to the array.
puts( const char *s ); Prints the string s followed by a newline
character.

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#include <stdio.h>
int main()
Program to print
{ strings with
char name[100]; //string char array
puts(“\nEnter a string:”);
white spaces
gets(name); //to input string with space using library
printf(“\nString is:”)
puts(name); //to output const string functions
}//end main

Enter a string:
Lovely Professional University
Output
String is:
Lovely Professional University
©LPU CSE101 C Programming
 Drawback of gets():
gets() has been removed from c11. So it might give you a
warning when implemented.
We see here that it doesn’t bother about the size of the array.
So, there is a chance of Buffer Overflow.

Alternative of gets():
To overcome the above limitation, we can use fgets as :
Syntax : char *fgets(char *str, int size, FILE *stream)
Example : fgets(str, 20, stdin); as here, 20 is MAX_LIMIT
according to declaration.
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX_LIMIT 20
int main()
{
char str[MAX_LIMIT];
fgets(str, MAX_LIMIT, stdin);
printf("%s", str);
return 0;
}

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 Multiple words input using scanf():
1)
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char str[20];
scanf("%[^\n]%*c", str);
printf("%s", str);
return 0;
}
Here, [] is the scanset character. ^\n tells to take input until newline
doesn’t get encountered. Then, with this %*c, it reads newline
character and here used * indicates that this newline character is
discarded.
2)
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
char str[100];
scanf("%[^\n]s",str);
printf("%s",str);
return 0;
}

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#include <stdio.h>
int main()
Program to print
{ strings character
char name[]=“Hello”; //string char array
int i=0;
by character
while(name[i]!='\0') //untill null character using loop.
{
printf("%c",name[i]);
i++;
}//end while
}//end main

Hello
Output

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 String Handling Library
• Functions defined in #include<string.h>
• String handling library provides many useful
functions:
– Manipulate string data(copy and concatenate)
– Comparing strings
– Determine string length

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 String Manipulation Functions(or Functions in string library)

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 More functions in string library

• strlen()-It is used to find the length of string

without counting the null character
• strrev()-It is used to display the reverse of a
string
• strlwr()-Converting a string from upper to
lower case
• strupr()-Converting a string from lower to
upper case

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 strcpy() and strncpy()

• strcpy() copies the entire second argument string into first

argument.
strcpy( s1, s2);
• strncpy() copies the first n characters of second string
argument into first string argument.
strncpy( s1, s2, 4);
– A null character ('\0') is appended explicitly to first
argument, because the call to strncpy in the program does
not write a terminating null character.
– The third argument is less than the string length of the
second argument.

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 Examples
//strcpy() function //strncpy()
#include<stdio.h> #include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h> #include<string.h>
int main() int main()
{ {
//strcpy function char str1[15],str2[15];
char ori[20],dup[20]; int n;
char *z; printf("\nEnter Source String:");
printf("\n Enter your name:"); gets(str1);
gets(ori); printf("\nEnter Destination String:");
z=strcpy(dup,ori); gets(str2);
printf("Original String is: printf("Enter number of characters to
%s",ori); copy in destination string:");
printf("\nDuplicate String is: scanf("%d",&n);
%s",dup); strncpy(str2,str1,n);
printf("\n Value of z is:%s",z); printf("Source string is:%s",str1);
return 0; printf("\nDestination String is:
} %s",str2);
return 0;
}

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 strcat()
• Function strcat appends its second argument
string to its first argument string.
strcat( s1, s2);
• The array used to store the first string should be large
enough to store
– the first string
– the second string and
– the terminating null character copied from the second
string.

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 strncat()
• Function strncat appends a specified number of
characters from the second string to the first
string.
strncat( s1, s2, 6)
• A terminating null character is automatically
appended to the result.

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 Examples
//strcat //strncat
#include<stdio.h> #include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h> #include<string.h>
int main() int main()
{ {
char str1[20],str2[10]; char str1[20],str2[10];
printf("\n Enter first string:");
int n;
gets(str1);
printf("\n Enter second string:");
printf("\n Enter first string:");
gets(str2); gets(str1);
strcat(str1,str2); printf("\n Enter second string:");
printf("\n String after concatenation: gets(str2);
%s",str1); printf("\n Enter number of
return 0; characters you want to combine:");
} scanf("%d",&n);
strncat(str1,str2,n);
printf("\n String after
concatenation:%s",str1);
return 0;
}

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 Comparison Functions of the String
Handling Library
• Comparing strings
– Computer compares numeric ASCII codes of
characters in string
– strcmp() Compares its first string argument with its
second string argument, character by character.
– Function strncmp() does not compare characters
following a null character in a string.

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 strcmp()
int strcmp( const char *s1, const char *s2 );
– Compares string s1 to s2
– Returns
• a negative number if s1 < s2,
• zero if s1 == s2
• a positive number if s1 > s2

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 strncmp()
int strncmp( const char *s1, const char *s2, int n);
– Compares up to n characters of string s1 to s2
• a negative number if s1 < s2,
• zero if s1 == s2
• a positive number if s1 > s2

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 Examples // strncmp
//strcmp #include<stdio.h>
#include<stdio.h> #include<string.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
int main()
{
{
char str1[20],str2[10];
char str1[20],str2[10];
int x,n;
int x;
printf("\n Enter first string:");
printf("\n Enter first string:");
gets(str1); gets(str1);
printf("\n Enter second string:"); printf("\n Enter second string:");
gets(str2); gets(str2);
x=strcmp(str1,str2); printf("\n Enter no. of characters to compare:");
if(x==0) scanf("%d",&n);
{ x=strncmp(str1,str2,n);
printf("\n Strings are equal"); if(x==0)
} {
else if(x>0) printf("\n Strings are equal");
{ }
printf("\n First string is greater else if(x>0)
than second string(strings are not equal)"); {
} printf("\n First string is greater than
else second string(strings are not equal)");
{ }
printf("\n First string is less than else
second string(strings are not equal)");
{
}
printf("\n First string is less than
return 0; second string(strings are not equal)");
}
}
return 0;
©LPU CSE101 C Programming }
 stricmp()[Ignore case], stricmp will ignore the case

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char str1[20],str2[10];
int x;
printf("\n Enter first string:");
gets(str1);
printf("\n Enter second string:");
gets(str2);
x=stricmp(str1,str2);
if(x==0)
{
printf("\n Strings are equal");
}
else if(x>0)
{
printf("\n First string is greater than second string(strings are not equal)");
}
else
{
printf("\n First string is less than second string(strings are not equal)");
}
return 0;
}
//consider str1(HELLO) and str2(hello) and if we apply stricmp on these strings, then 0 will be returned, as
strings are equal

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 Determining the length of string
strlen()
• Function strlen in #include<string.h>
• Function strlen() takes a string as an
argument and returns the number of
characters in the string
– the terminating null character is not included in
the length

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 Example
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char str[]="Hello";
printf("\n Length of the given string is:%d",strlen(str));
return 0;
}

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 strrev()-Example
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char s[100]="Hello";
printf("%s",strrev(s));
return 0;
}

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 strlwr(),strupr()-Examples
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char s[]="hello";
strupr(s);
puts(s);
strlwr(s);
puts(s);
return 0;
}

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 All string operations without inbuilt functions

• Copying one string to another

• Finding length of a string
• Concatenation(or Combining) of two strings
• Comparing two strings
• Displaying reverse of a number
• Checking whether a given string is palindrome or not
• Converting all characters of a given string from
lowercase to uppercase
• Converting all characters of a given string from
uppercase to lowercase

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WAP to copy one string to another without using strcpy()/or
inbuilt function
#include<stdio.h>
int main() {
char s1[100], s2[100];
int i;
printf("\nEnter the string :");
gets(s1);//Hello
i = 0;
while (s1[i] != '\0') {
s2[i] = s1[i];
i++;
}
s2[i] = '\0';
printf("\nCopied String is %s ", s2);
return (0);
}

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WAP to find the length of a string without using strlen()/ or
inbuilt function
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char x[100];
int i=0;
printf("\n Enter String:");
gets(x);
while(x[i]!='\0')
{
i++;
}
printf("\n Length of the string is:%d",i);
return 0;
}

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 WAP to concatenate(or combine) two strings without using
strcat/ or inbuilt function
#include<stdio.h> while(str2[i]!='\0')
int main() {
{ str3[j]=str2[i];
char i++;
str1[100],str2[100],str3[200]; j++;
int i=0,j=0; }
printf("\n Enter the first str3[j]='\0';
string:"); printf("\n The concatenated
gets(str1); string is:");
printf("\n Enter the second puts(str3);
string:"); return 0;
gets(str2); }
while(str1[i]!='\0')
{
str3[j]=str1[i];
i++;
j++;
}
i=0;

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WAP to compare two strings without using strcmp()/ or inbuilt
#include <stdio.h> function while (i<length)
#include<string.h> {
int main () if( str1 [i] == str2 [i])
{
{
i++;
// declare variables
continue;
char str1 [30], str2 [30]; }
int i = 0, flag=0 ,length1, length2, length; if( str1 [i] < str2 [i])
// take two string input {
printf ("Enter string1:"); flag = -1;
gets (str1); break;
printf ("\nEnter string2:"); }
gets (str2); if( str1 [i] > str2 [i])
//length of both string {
length1 = strlen (str1);
flag = 1;
break;
length2 = strlen (str2);
}
if(length1>length2)
}
length=length1; if (flag == 0)
else printf ("\nBoth strings are equal ");
length=length2; if(flag == -1)
printf ("\nstring1 is less than string2 ");
• if( flag == 1)
printf ("\nstring1 is greater than string2 ");
return 0;
}

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 Dry running

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WAP to display the reverse of a given string without
strrev()/ or inbuilt function
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main() {
char str[100], temp;
int i, j;
printf("\nEnter the string :");
gets(str);
i = 0;
j = strlen(str) - 1;
while (i < j) {
temp = str[i];
str[i] = str[j];
str[j] = temp;
i++;
j--;
}
printf("\nReverse string is :%s", str);
return (0);
}

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 Dry running

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 WAP to check whether the given string is palindrome or
not(without using strrev())
#include<stdio.h> if(strcmp(str1,str)==0)
#include<string.h> {
int main() { printf("\n Given String is Palindrome");
char str[100], temp; }
char str1[100]; else
int i, j; {
printf("\nEnter the string :"); printf("\n Not a Palindrome");
gets(str); }
i = 0; return (0);
j = strlen(str) - 1; }
strcpy(str1,str);
while (i < j)
{
temp = str[i];
str[i] = str[j];
str[j] = temp;
i++;
j--;
}

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WAP to convert all characters of a given string into uppercase
without using strupr()/or inbuilt function
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char str1[10];
int i,len;
printf("Enter any string \t");
gets(str1);
len=strlen(str1);
for(i=0;i<len;i++)
{
if(str1[i]>='a' && str1[i]<='z')

str1[i]=str1[i]-32;
}
puts("string in upper is");
puts(str1);
return 0;
}

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WAP to convert all characters of a given string into lowercase without
using strlwr()/or inbuilt function
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char str1[10];
int i,len;
printf("Enter any string \t");
gets(str1);
len=strlen(str1);
for(i=0;i<len;i++)
{

if(str1[i]>='A' && str1[i]<='Z')

str1[i]=str1[i]+32;
}
puts("string in lower is");
puts(str1);
return 0;
}

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 More programs on strings

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 WAP to sort the characters of a given string into ascending
order
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char s[10],t;
int n,i,j;
printf("\n Enter String:");
gets(s);
n=strlen(s);
for(i=0;i<n-1;i++)
{
for(j=0;j<n-i-1;j++)
{
if(s[j]>s[j+1])
{
t=s[j];
s[j]=s[j+1];
s[j+1]=t;
}
}
}
printf("%s",s);
}

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 WAP to count vowels in a given string
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{

char x[100];
int i=0,count=0;
printf("\n Enter the string:");
gets(x);
while(x[i]!='\0')
{
if(x[i]=='a'||x[i]=='e'||x[i]=='i'||x[i]=='o'||x[i]=='u'||x[i]=='A'||x[i]=='E'||x[i]=='I'||
x[i]=='O'||x[i]=='U')
{
count++;
}
i++;
}
printf("\n Number of vowels in the string are:%d",count);
return 0;
}

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WAP to traverse all characters of a given string using pointer to character

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char *g="C Programming";
int length=0,i=0;
while(*g!='\0')
{
printf("%c",*g);//Value at address
g++;//Pointer is incremented by 1 after each iteration
length++;//Variable for counting length
}
printf("\nLength of the string is:%d",length);
return 0;
}

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 WAP to count total no. of characters and words in a given string

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char x[100];
int i=0,length=0,c=0,w=1;
printf("\n Enter String:");
gets(x);
while(x[i]!='\0')
{
if(x[i]==' ' && x[i+1]!=' ')
{
w++;
}
c++;
i++;
}
printf("\n Total number of characters are:%d, and no. of words are:%d",c,w);
return 0;
}

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 WAP to demonstrate array of strings in C
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char names[5][10];
int i,n;
printf("\n Enter the number of students:");
scanf("%d",&n);
fflush(stdin);
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
printf("\n Enter the name of student %d: ",i+1);
gets(names[i]);
}
printf("\n Names of the students are:\n");
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
puts(names[i]);
return 0;
}

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 WAP to traverse a string character by character

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char name[]="Hello World"; //string char array
int i=0;
while(name[i]!='\0') //untill null character
{
printf("%c\n", name[i]);
i++;
}//end while
}//

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WAP to replace all spaces in a given string with ‘$’[Example for character
replacement]
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char x[100];
int i=0;
printf("\n Enter the string:");
gets(x);
while(x[i]!='\0')
{
if(x[i]==' ')
{
x[i]='$';//Character replacement
}
i++;
}
printf("\n String after character replacement is:%s",x);
return 0;
}

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 Output-1??
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char str[]="Practice MCQ";
printf("\n%d",sizeof(str));
return 0;
}
A. 13
B. 12
C. 11
D. 1

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 Output-2??
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char str[]="Program";
printf("%c",str[7]);
return 0;
}
A. m
B. Program
C. Compile time error
D. Nothing will be visible

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 Output-3??
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char str1[]="Good";
char str2[5];
str2=str1;
printf("%s",str2);
return 0;
}
A. Good
B. Garbage value
C. Compile time error
D. Nothing will be visible

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 Output-4??

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
char str1[]="Good";
char *str2;
str2=str1;
puts(str2);
return 0;
}
A. Good
B. Garbage value
C. Compile time error
D. Nothing will be visible

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 Output-5??
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char str[20]="Example";
printf("%d %d",sizeof(str),strlen(str));
return 0;
}
A. 7 7
B. 20 20
C. 20 7
D. 20 8

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 Output-6??
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char str1[20]="Example";
char str2[30]="Exam";
if(strncmp(str1,str2,4))
printf("\nHello");
else
printf("\nWorld");
return 0;
}
A. Hello
B. World
C. Nothing will be printed
D. Compile time error

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 Output-7??
What will be the output of the program ?
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char str1[20] = "Hello", str2[20] = " World";
printf("%s\n", strcpy(str2, strcat(str1, str2)));
return 0;
}
A. Hello
B. World
C. Hello World
D. WorldHello

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 Output-8??
In below program, what would you put in place of “?” to print
“Quiz”?
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char arr[] = "HelloQuiz";
printf("%s", ?);
return 0;
}
A. arr
B. (arr+5)
C. (arr+4)
D. Not possible

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 Question-9

Which of the following C code snippet is not valid?

(A) char* p = “string1”; printf(“%c”, *++p);

(B) char q[] = “string1”; printf(“%c”, *++q);

(C) char* r = “string1”; printf(“%c”, r[1]);

(D) None of the above

 Output-10 ??

#include<stdio.h>

int main()

printf(8+"C Programming\n");

return 0;

A. mming

B. ming

C. amming

D. gramming
 Output-11 ??

//Assume unsigned integer takes 4 bytes

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char *str1 = "Hello";
char str2[] = "Hello";
printf("sizeof(str1) = %d, sizeof(str2) = %d",sizeof(str1), sizeof(str2));
return 0;
}
A. sizeof(str1) = 8, sizeof(str2) = 6
B. sizeof(str1) = 4, sizeof(str2) = 6
C. sizeof(str1) = 4, sizeof(str2) = 4
D. sizeof(str1) = 6, sizeof(str2) = 4
 Output-12 ??

Predict the output of the following program:

#include <stdio.h>

int main()

char str[] = "%d %c", arr[] = "HelloWorld";

printf(str, 0[arr], 2[arr + 3]);

return 0;

A. 72 W

B. H W

C. W H

D. Compile-time error
 Output-13??
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char *str="WORLD";
while(*++str)
{
printf("%c",*str);
}
return 0;
}
A. ORLD
B. WORLD
C. RLD
D. Compile time error