Lecture 7: String

Harbin Institute of Technology （ Shenzhen ）

School of Computer Science and Technology
Zhang Meishan ([email protected])
Copyright ： Harbin Institute of Technology ， Su Xiaohong ， [email protected]
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 Overview

C-strings

C-string input and output

C-string functions

C++ strings

Character classification

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 7.1 C-strings

C-string ： a string is an array of characters (elements of type char) with
the null character '\0' in the last element of the array

string literal
• A sequence of characters enclosed
in double quotation marks
• It is not necessary to specify the
number of characters
The string literal "Hello“
actually contains 6, • The compiler automatically inserts
rather than the null character '\0' after the last
5,characters. character of a string literal

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 7.1 C-strings

If specify the size of the array and the string is shorter than this size, the
remaining elements of the array are initialized with the null character '\
0'.


To include a double quote inside a string precede the quote with a back
slash (\).

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 7.1 C-strings

The newline ('\n') escape sequence can be used in place of endl to
advance to a new line.


If a string is too long to fit onto a single program line, it can be broken
up into smaller segments.

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 7.2 C-string input and
output

Remember that the number of elements in the char array must be one
more than the number of characters in the string.

Program Example: a simple demonstration of C-string input and output.

• The extraction operator >> read the

characters up to ( but not including)
the space character after John.
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 7.2 C-string input and
output

If the user does types in more than 10 characters, what will
happen?

The array first_name will overflow, the excess characters will
overwrite other areas of memory, and the program will probably
malfunction.

getline() function

To allow for this possibility and also to allow for whitespace
characters in the input.

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 7.2 C-string input and
output

Program Example getline()
• reads characters from cin until
either the user presses the key '\n' or
10 characters have been read
• '\n' is called the delimiter, when the
delimiter is omitted, it is assumed to
be '\n‘.
• '\0' is automatically added to the end
of a string

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 7.2 C-string input and
output

Program Example

This line seems to be skipped and no

name is read in. Why?
• Line 13 stops reading into the
numeric variable student_number as
soon as a non-numeric character is
read.
• Enter key is pressed after typing
12345 is left in the input stream,
High-Level Language Programming ( 高级语言程序设计 ) which is then read by getline() on line
 7.2 C-string input and
output

Program Example: How to correctly read data into student_name
Solution
Solution
2: 1:
discard
Read ortheignore
newline
all
characters
characterin'\n‘
theinto
input
a ‘dummy’
stream up to
andcharacter
including the
newline
variable.
character '\
n'.However, if an
extra space is
entered after the
student number,
the space is read
into the variable
dummy, and '\n' is
left in the input
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stream.
 7.2 C-string input and
output

Program Example: display each character of the string "Hello" on
separate lines
Solution:
• Each character of a C-
string can be accessed
using an index

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 7.3 C-string functions

C++ has inherited a library of C-string functions

How to use these functions?


Finding the length of a C-string
strlen(): returns the number of characters in a C-string, excluding the
null character '\0'.

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 7.3 C-string functions

Copying a C-string

strcpy( destination, source )

copies the contents of a C-string source to another C-string destination.

Remark:
•A '\0' must be at the end
of the string.
•‘destination’ string is
assumed big enough to
hold the string being
copied to it.

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 7.3 C-string functions

C-string concatenation

strcat( str1, str2 )

concatenates a C-string str2 to the end of the C-string str1


Both str1 and str2 must be null-terminated

Enough memory must be allocated to str1 to hold the result of the
concatenation

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 7.3 C-string functions

Comparing C-strings

strcmp( str1, str2 )

compares two null-terminated C-strings str1 and str2.

This function returns:

a negative value, if str1 < str2,

0 , if str1 == str2,

a positive value, if str1 > str2.

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 7.3 C-string functions

Program Example

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 7.3 C-string functions

strncat( str1, str2, n )

Appends the first n characters of the C-string str2 to the C-string
str1.

strncmp( str1, str2, n )

Identical to strcmp( str1, str2 ), except that at most, n characters are
compared.

strncpy( str1, str2, n )

Copies the first n characters of str2 into str1.

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 7.3 C-string functions

Converting numeric C-strings to numbers

The storage of a numeric C-string: in the ASCII representation

"123“


The storage of an integer value: in binary

123

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 7.3 C-string functions

atoi() : C-string to an integer

atol() : C-string to a long integer

atof() : C-string to a double float.
Remark:
• Ignore any leading whitespace
characters
• Stop converting when a character
that cannot be part of the number
is reached.
• atoi() will stop when it reaches a
decimal point
• atof() will accept a decimal point,
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because it can be part of a decimal
 7.3 C-string functions
Function Remark

strlen(str) Finding the length of a C-string str

strcpy(str1, str2) copies the contents of a C-string str2 to str1

strcat( str1, str2 ) concatenates a C-string str2 to the end of the C-string str1

strcmp( str1, str2 ) compares two null-terminated C-strings str1 and str2.

strncat( str1, str2, n ) Appends the first n characters of the C-string str2 to str1.

strncmp( str1, str2, n ) Identical to strcmp, except that at most n characters are compared.

strncpy( str1, str2, n ) Copies the first n characters of str2 into str1.
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 7.4 C++ strings

Common errors in C-strings:

Attempting to access elements outside the array bounds

Not using the function strcpy() to one C-string to another

Not using strcmp() to compare two C-strings.

…

C++ strings

The string data type is not built into C++

In C++, the string data type is defined by a class
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 7.4 C++ strings

Program Example
Remark:
• C++ strings are compared using
==, <, >,etc instead of
strcmp() in C-strings.
• C++ has many useful string
member functions.

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 7.4 C++ strings

string initialization and assignment • str2 shows how to
assign a C++ string
with a number of
identical characters
• The string that is
being assigned can
be on two or more
lines.
• str5 is called an
empty string.

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 7.4 C++ strings

string initialization and assignment

line33 assign(): assign part of str1 to str5.

• str1 is the string to assign from
• 1 is the starting position
• 3 is the number of characters to assign

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 7.4 C++ strings

string swap

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 7.4 C++ strings

string concatenation

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 7.4 C++ strings

string length, string indexing and sub-strings
• Change the first and last
characters
• Check the index value to
ensure it is not out of range by
at().

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 7.4 C++ strings

• substr() can extract

part of a C++ string.
• The 1st argument is a
starting position
• 2nd argument is the
number of characters
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 7.4 C++ strings

string replace, erase, insert and empty strings

• Character at position 0 is the

first character.
• Replace 3 characters from str1
starting at the 2nd character
position with 4 characters from
str2, starting at the 3rd
character position.

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 7.4 C++ strings

string replace, erase, insert and empty strings

• Erase from the 10th character position to the

end of str1.

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 7.4 C++ strings
• Erase 2
characters
starting at the
5th character
• position.
Erase the
entire string.

• Judge
whether str1
is empty?
• Starting at
the 2nd
character of
str2, insert 6
characters at
the 5th
character
High-Level Language Programming ( 高级语言程序设计 ) position of
 7.4 C++ strings

string searching
• Hold the position of the first
occurrence of "CDE" in str1. If
"CDE" is not in str1, p = -1.

• Reverse find the last occurrence

of "CDE".

• Find the first occurrence of any

one of a number of characters.

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 7.4 C++ strings

string searching
• Find the last occurrence of any
one of a number of characters.

• Find the first occurrence of any

character that is not one of a
number of characters.

• Find the last occurrence of any

character that is not one of a
number of characters.

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 7.4 C++ strings

string comparisons
• C++ strings can be
compared with the
standard comparison
operators : ==, !=, <=,
>= < and >
• result is < 0 if the first
differing character in str1
is less than the character
in the same position in
str2.
• result is 0 if all the
characters of str1 and
str2 are equal and the
two strings are the same
length.
High-Level Language Programming ( 高级语言程序设计 ) • Otherwise result is > 0.
 7.4 C++ strings

string comparisons
• Compares a 3-
character substring
of str1 starting at
the second
character with all
the characters of
str2.

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 7.4 C++ strings

Just like any other data
type, arrays of C-strings
and arrays of C++ strings
can be defined. Arrays of
C++ strings are much
easier to work with.

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 7.5 Character
classification

There are a number of C++ functions that can be used to test the value
of a single character. These functions return a true (non-zero integer)
value or a false (zero integer) value depending on whether or not the
character belongs to a particular set of characters.

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 7.5 Character
classification

C++ has also two further functions that are used to covert the
case of a character: tolower and toupper.

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 7.5 Character
classification
A sample run of this program:

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 
Q&A
ZhangMei
Shan

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 Homework

1. What is the output from the following program
segment?

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 Homework

2. Modify exercise 1 to use C++ strings rather than C-
strings.

3. Given the following:
char c_str1[18] ;
char c_str2[6] = ＂ abcde ＂ ;

what is in c_str1 after each of the following?

(a ) strcpy( c_str1, ＂ A string ＂ ) ;
(b) strcat( c_str1, ＂ of text. ＂ ) ;
(c) strncpy( c_str1, c_str2, 1 ) ;
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 Homework

4. Write a program to input a C-string from the keyboard
and replace each space in the string with the character '_'.

5. What is the output from the following program
segment?

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 Homework

6. Write a program to input a string. If every character in
the string is a digit ('0' to '9'), then convert the string to an
integer, add 1 to it, and display the result. If any one of the
characters in the string is not a digit, display an error
message.

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