C Strings

Definition of Strings
Generally speaking, a string is a sequence

of characters
c string
c++ string class
Examples: hello, high school, H2O.
Typical desirable operations on strings are:
Concatenation:
high+school=highschool
Comparisons: high<school //
alphabetical
Finding/retrieving/modifying/deleting/ins
Strings in C
In C, a string can be a specially terminated
char array or char pointer
a char array, such as char str[ ]=high;
a char pointer, such as char *p = high;
If a char array, the last element of the array
must be equal to \0, signaling the end
For example, the above str[] is really of length
5:
str[0]=h str[1]=i str[2]=g str[3]=h
str[4]=\0
The same array couldve been declared as:
char str[5] = {h,i, g,h,\0};
If you write char str[4] = {h,i, g,h};, then
str is an array of chars but not a string.
In char *p=high; the system allocates
memory of 5 characters long, stores high in
the first 4, and \0 in the 5th.
The string Class in C++
C++ has a <string> library
Include it in your programs when you wish
to use strings: #include <string>
In this library, a class string is defined and
implemented
It is very convenient and makes string
processing easier than in C
Declaration of strings
The following instructions are all
equivalent. They declare x to be an object
of type string, and assign the string high
school to it:
std::string x;
using namespace std;
string x(high school);
string x= high school;
string x; x=high school;
Operations on strings
(Concatenation)
Let x and y be two strings
To concatenate x and y, write: x+y
string x= high;
string y= school;
string z;
Output:
z=x+y;
z=highschool
cout<<z=<<z<<endl;
z =z+ was fun;
z= highschool was fun
cout<<z=<<z<<endl;
Concatenation of Mixed-Style
Strings
In s= u + v + w where s is of type string,
u can be
A string object, or
a C-style string (a char array or a char pointer),
a C-style char
or a double-quoted string,
or a single-quoted character.
Same with v and w.
At least u or v or w must be a string object
Example of Mixed-Style
Concat
string x= high;
char y[]= school;
char z[]= {w,a,s,\0};
char *p = good;
string s= x+y+ +z+ very+ +p+!;
cout<<s=<<s<<endl;
cout<<s=+s<<endl;
Output:
s=highschool was very good!
s=highschool was very good!
More Examples of
Concatenation
// The + operator can be used with any combination
of
// C++ strings, C strings and characters ...
strL = strA + strB;
strM = "Boo" + strB;
strN = strB + "Boo";
strO = '*' + strB;
strP = strB + '*';
The concat-assign Operator +=
Assume x is a string object.
The statement
x += y;
is equivalent to
x=x+y;
where y can be a string object, a C-style
string variable, a char variable, a double-
quoted string, or a single-quoted char.
+= Examples
strH += strA;
strJ += "Hello";
strK += 'X';
Comparison Operators for string
Objects
We can compare two strings x and y
using the following operators: ==, !=,
<, <=, >, >=
The comparison is alphabetical
The outcome of each comparison is:
true or false
The comparison works as long as at
least x or y is a string object. The other
string can be a string object, a C-style
Example of String
Comparisons
string x= high;
char y[]= school;
char *p = good;
If (x<y) Output:
cout<<x<y<<endl; x<y
If (x<tree) x<tree
cout<<x<tree<,endl; low != x
If (low != x) p>x
cout<<low != x<<endl;
if( (p>x)
cout<<p>x<<endl;
Else
cout<<p<=x<<endl;
More Comparison Examples
string strA = "hello";
string strB = "a";
if ( strA == "hello" )
cout << "got it" << endl;
if ( "hello" == strA )
cout << "got it again" << endl;
if ( strB != strA )
cout << "not equal works!" << endl;
if ( strA > "Hello" )
cout << "Caps are less" << endl;
The Index Operator []
These allow C++ strings to be used like
arrays of characters
If x is a string object, and you wish to
obtain the value of the k-th character in the
string, you write: x[k];
string x= high;
char c=x[0]; // c is h
c=x[1]; // c is i
c=x[2]; // c is g
<< and >>
This >> function gets a string value from the
input stream is, and assigns it to str.
istream& operator>>( istream& is, string& str);
This << function writes the value of str to the
output stream os
ostream& operator<<( ostream& os, const
string& str);
getline inputs a string value. Input stops at end of
line by default
Input and Output Examples
string strA = "hello boys and girls";

cout << strA << endl;
cin >> strA;
getline(cin,strA);
Getting a string Object Length &
Checking for Emptiness
To obtain the length of a string object x,
call the method length() or size():
int len=x.length( );
--or--
int len=x.size( );
To check of x is empty (that is, has no

characters in it):
bool x.empty();
Example: using length() in a for
loop
string strA = "hello";

printCstring(strA.c_str());
for ( int i = 0; i < strA.length(); i++ )
cout << strA.data()[i];
cout << endl;
Obtaining Substrings of
Strings
A substring of a string x is a subsequence of
consecutive characters in x
For example, rod is a substring of product
substr returns a substring without modifying the string
to which the function was applied.
Define the substring as index position up to length
The default value for position is 0
The default value of the length is x.length(
int pos = 4;
int len = 12;
string y = x.substr(pos); //x[pos..end-1]
string y = x.substr(pos,len);
substr Examples
string strA = "123456789";

strB = strA.substr(2,3); // value is "345"
strC = strA.substr(2); // value is "3456789"
Inserting a String Inside Another
Suppose x is a string object, and let y be
another string to be inserted at position
pos of the string of x
To insert y, do:
The argument y can be: ax.insert(pos,y);
string object, a
C-style string variable, or a double-quoted
string
Replacing a Substring by
Another
Suppose x is a string object, and suppose you
want to replace the characters in the range
[pos,pos+len) in x by a string y.
To do so, write:
The argument y can be: a string object, a C-
style string variable, or a double-quoted string
x.replace(pos,len,y);
Replace Example
strE = "12345";
strE.replace(1,2,3,'B'); // value is "1BBB45"
Deleting (Erasing) a Substring of
a string Object
Suppose x is a string object, and suppose
you want to delete/erase the characters in
the range [pos,pos+len) in x.
To do so, write: x.erase(pos,len);
The default value of len is the x.length( )
x.erase(pos); // erases x[pos..end-1]
The default value for pos is 0
To erase the whole string of x, do: x.clear( );
Examples of erase
string strD = "123456789";
strD.erase(3,5); // value
is "1239"
strD.erase(2); // value is
"12"
strD.erase(); // value is
""
Searching for (and Finding) Patterns
in Strings
Suppose x is a string object, and suppose
you want to search for a string y in x.
To do so, write: int startLoc = x.find(y);
This method returns the starting index of
the leftmost occurrence of y in x, if any
occurrence exists; otherwise, the method
returns the length of x (string::npos).
To search starting from a position pos, do
int startLoc = x.find(y, pos);

Searching for Patterns (Contd.)
To search for the rightmost occurrence of y
in x, do startLoc = x.rfind(y); // or
startLoc = x.rfind(y, pos);
In all the versions of find and rfind, the

argument y can be a string object, a C-
style string variable, double-quoted string,
a char variable, or a single-quoted char.
An Example
string x=FROM:ayoussef@gwu.edu;
int colonPos=x.find(:);
string prefix=x.substr(0,colonPos); //=FROM
string suffix = x. substr(colonPos+1);
cout<<-This message is from <<suffix<<endl;
Output:
-This message is from ayoussef@gwu.edu
What if You Want to Use C-Style
Strings
You can!
C has a library <strings.h> which
provides several string processing
functions
Some of the more commonly used
functions in that library are presented in
the next two slides
In those functions, most of the
arguments are of type char *str. That
C Library <strings.h> for String
Operations
char *strcpy(char *dst, char *src);
Copies the string src to string dest
char *strncpy(char *dst, char *src, int n);
Copies the first n characters of src to dest
char * strcat(*dst, char *src);
Concatenate src to the end of dst.
char * strcat(*dst, char *src, int n);
Concatenate first n chars of src to end of
dst.
References
www.seas.gwu.edu/~ayoussef/cs103/lecture5.
ppt
nepsweb.co.uk/pgtcpp/string.htm

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Definition of Strings

Generally speaking, a string is a sequence

string strA = "hello boys and girls";

To check of x is empty (that is, has no

string strA = "hello";

string strA = "123456789";

int startLoc = x.find(y, pos);

In all the versions of find and rfind, the

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