COMPUTER METHODS 1

LECTURE 8

Strings

1 / 20 Computer Methods 1 Lecture 8: Strings

 Strings

A string can be defined as an array of characters

Used to store text
Some initializations on strings:
char name[]= ”fred”;
char title[] = ”Mr”;
char programme[] = ”Exact”;

2 / 20 Computer Methods 1 Lecture 8: Strings

 Internal Representation of Strings

Strings terminate with NULL character, signed

by ’\0’ (ascii code 0)
This is a convention used to know where the
string ends
It means that in order to hold a string of n chars
we need an array of length n + 1
So the previous initialization is equivalent to:
char name[]= {’f’,’r’,’e’,’d’,’\0’};
char title[3] = {’M’,’r’,’\0’};
char Answer[9] = {’E’,’x’,’a’,’c’,’t’,’\0’};

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 Manipulation of NULL character
/************************************
* cm11_8_1.c -- This program *
* shows the effect of inserting \0 *
* at different parts of the *
* string *
************************************/
#include <stdio.h>
When the program is executed the re-
int main(void)
sult is:
{
char str[]="I’m a full string"; I’m a full string
printf("%s\n", str); I’m a fool string
str[7]=’o’; I’m a fool
str[8]=’o’; I’m a fool string
printf("%s\n", str);
str[11]=’\0’;
printf("%s\n", str);
str[11] = ’s’;
printf("%s\n", str);

return 0;
}

4 / 20 Computer Methods 1 Lecture 8: Strings

 Reading-in strings

There are several ways of accepting strings as input from the

user
The obvious way to go is read character by character using
getchar()
getchar() - get a byte from a stdin stream

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 Example
/************************************************
* cm11_8_2.c - This program gets a string from *
* the keyboard and prints it on the screen *
************************************************/
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX_LENGTH 10
int main(void) {

char s[MAX_LENGTH+1]; /* We need one more */

char c; /* place for the ’\0’ */
int i;

printf("Please enter a string:\n");

for (i=0; i<MAX_LENGTH; i++) {

c = getchar();
if (c==’\n’) break;
s[i] = c;
}
s[i] = ’\0’; /* Terminate the string */
printf("The string you entered is - %s\n", s);

return 0;
}
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 Reading-in strings(cont’d)

A simpler way to read in a string is to use scanf

To read in a string to a variable str, write
scanf(”%s”, str);
Notice that there is no & sign

scanf reads in letters until a space or newline

(’\n’) is encountered
The maximum length can be stated in the
parentheses:
scanf(”%10s”, str);
This will read in 10 letters, plus the ’\0’ sign (so str should
have place for 11 characters)

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 Reading-in strings with scanf: Example

/***********************************************
* cm11_8_3.c - This program gets a string from*
* the keyboard and prints it on the screen *
* using scanf *
************************************************/
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX_LENGTH 10
int main(void) {

char s[MAX_LENGTH+1]; /* We need one more */

printf("Please enter a string:\n");

scanf("%10s",s); /* Note there if & */
printf("The string you entered is - %s\n", s);

return 0;
}

The following is the result of an execution of the program:

Please enter a string:

Machine-Learning
The string you entered is - Machine-Le

8 / 20 Computer Methods 1 Lecture 8: Strings

 Exercise 1

1 Write a function getLine that reads a sequence of characters,

stores them in a given array (string).
2 Write another function reverse that reverses a string
3 Write a main program that uses getLine and reverse to
read a string from the keyboard, reverses it and displays the
result on the screen.

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 Solution: getLine

/************************************************************
* function that reads a sequence of characters and stores *
* it in a given array *
************************************************************/

void getLine(char s[],int Strlen)

{
char c;
int i;
for (i=0; i<Strlen; i++) {
c = getchar();
if (c==’\n’) break;
s[i] = c;
}
s[i] = ’\0’; /* Terminate the string */
}

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 Solution: reverse

/* Find the length of a string */

int StrLen(char s[])
{
int i, len = 0;
for( i = 0; s[i]!=’\0’;i++) len++;
return len;
}

/* this function reverses a string */

void reverse(char st []) {
char c;
int i =0, len = StrLen(st);
while(i<(len/2)) {
c= st[i];
st[i]=st[len-i-1];
st[len-i-1]=c;
i++;
}
}

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 Solution : main program
/************************************************
* cm11_8_4.c - This program gets a string from *
* the keyboard, reverses it and *
* prints the result on the screen *
************************************************/
#include <stdio.h>

#define ArraySize 80
void reverse(char str[]);
void getLine(char Str[], int Strlen );

int main() {
char Str[ArraySize];
printf("\nEnter the string to be reversed ");
getLine(Str, ArraySize);

printf("\nThe string is: %s", Str);

reverse(Str);
printf("\nReversed string is: %s", Str);
getch();
return 0;
}

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 Comparing strings

We cannot just compare strings contents by ==

If we have the following declarations:
char A[6] = "World";
char B[6] = "World";
A and B are addresses of A[0] and B[0]
respectively.
A == B if and only if A and B are the same
string in memory
In order to compare their contents we must scan
them char by char

13 / 20 Computer Methods 1 Lecture 8: Strings

 Example
Example: Read in 2 strings and check if they are equal
/***************************************************
* cm11_8_5.c -- Compare 2 strings *
***************************************************/
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
int i;
char A[101];
char B[101];

printf("Enter first string\n");

scanf("%100s",A);
printf("Enter second string\n");
scanf("%100s",B);

for(i=0; A[i]!=’\0’ || B[i]!=’\0’; i++)

if(A[i]!=B[i]) {
printf("A is different from B!\n");
return 0;
}

printf("A and B are the same!\n");

return 0;
}
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 String library

Like in the case of stdio.h and math.h, we have a special

library for handling strings
We should insert the line #include <string.h>
Some functions:
strlen(s) - returns the length of s
strcmp(s1, s2) - compares s1 with s2
strcpy(s1, s2) - copies to contents of s2 to s1

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 Exercise 2

Problem: Write a program that:

gets an input string from the user (up to 100 chars, no white
spaces)
gets 2 characters from the user
replaces each occurrence of the first character in the string by
the second character, and prints the result.
Test:
input: ”papa”, ’p’, ’m’
output: ”mama”

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 Exercise 3

Problem: rite a function: void UpperToLower(char str[]);

The function receives an arbitrary string and converts all its
letters to lower-case letters
Demonstrate the use of your function by some example that
prints the input and output on the screen
Test:
input : ”DoMIniQue21”
output: ”dominique21”

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 Solution: UpperToLower

/* funtion that converts Upper case

letter into lower case
*/
void UpperToLower(char str[])
{
int i;
for(i=0; str[i]!=’\0’; i++)
str[i] = ((str[i] >= ’A’ && str[i] <= ’Z’)
?str[i]-’A’+’a’: str[i]);
}

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 Solution : main program(test)

/***********************************
* cm11_8_7.c -- Replacement of *
* Upper Case by Lower Case *
**********************************/
#include <stdio.h>
The following is the result of an exe-
void UpperToLower(char str[]);
cution of the program:
int main(void) {
int i; Enter the string
char Str[81]; KwaZulu-Natal
printf("Enter the string\n"); Input = KwaZulu-Natal
scanf("%80s",Str);
printf("\nInput = %s\n", Str); Output = kwazulu-natal
UpperToLower(Str);
printf("\nOutput = %s\n", Str);
return 0;
}

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 Your To Do work

1 Read your lecture 8

2 Complete practical 5

20 / 20 Computer Methods 1 Lecture 8: Strings