Chapter 13: Strings

Chapter 13

Strings

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Chapter 13: Strings

Introduction
• This chapter covers both string constants (or
literals, as they’re called in the C standard) and
string variables.
• Strings are arrays of characters in which a special
character—the null character—marks the end.
• The C library provides a collection of functions
for working with strings.

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Chapter 13: Strings

String Literals
• A string literal is a sequence of characters enclosed within
double quotes, " " :
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
• String literals may contain escape sequences.
• Character escapes often appear in printf and scanf format
strings.
• For example, each \n character in the string
"Candy\nIs dandy\nBut liquor\nIs quicker.\n --Ogden Nash\n"
causes the cursor to advance to the next line:
Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.
--Ogden Nash

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Chapter 13: Strings

Continuing a String Literal

• The backslash character (\) can be used to
continue a string literal from one line to the next:
printf("When you come to a fork in the road, take it. \
--Yogi Berra");

• In general, the \ character can be used to join two

or more lines of a program into a single line.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Continuing a String Literal

• There’s a better way to deal with long string
literals.
• When two or more string literals are adjacent, the
compiler will join them into a single string.
• This rule allows us to split a string literal over two
or more lines:
printf("When you come to a fork in the road, take it. "
"--Yogi Berra");

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Chapter 13: Strings

How String Literals Are Stored

• When a C compiler encounters a string literal of
length n in a program, it sets aside n + 1 bytes of
memory for the string.
• This memory will contain the characters in the
string, plus one extra character—the null
character—to mark the end of the string.
• The null character is a byte whose bits are all zero,
so it’s represented by the \0 escape sequence.

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Chapter 13: Strings

How String Literals Are Stored

• The string literal "abc" is stored as an array of
four characters:

• The string "" is stored as a single null character:

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Chapter 13: Strings

How String Literals Are Stored

• Since a string literal is stored as an array, the
compiler treats it as a pointer of type char *.
• Both printf and scanf expect a value of type
char * as their first argument.
• The following call of printf passes the address
of "abc" (a pointer to where the letter a is stored
in memory):
printf("abc");

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Chapter 13: Strings

Operations on String Literals

• We can use a string literal wherever C allows a
char * pointer:
char *p;
p = "abc";
• This assignment makes p point to the first
character of the string.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Operations on String Literals

• String literals can be subscripted:
char ch;
ch = "abc"[1];
The new value of ch will be the letter b.
• A function that converts a number between 0 and
15 into the equivalent hex digit:
char digit_to_hex_char(int digit)
{
return "0123456789ABCDEF"[digit];
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

Operations on String Literals

• Attempting to modify a string literal causes
undefined behavior:
char *p = "abc";
*p = 'd'; /*** WRONG ***/
• A program that tries to change a string literal
may crash or behave erratically.

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Chapter 13: Strings

String Literals versus Character Constants

• A string literal containing a single character isn’t
the same as a character constant.
– "a" is represented by a pointer.
– 'a' is represented by an integer.
• A legal call of printf:
printf("\n");
• An illegal call:
printf('\n'); /*** WRONG ***/

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Chapter 13: Strings

String Variables
• Any one-dimensional array of characters can be
used to store a string.
• A string must be terminated by a null character.
• Difficulties with this approach:
– It can be hard to tell whether an array of characters is
being used as a string.
– String-handling functions must be careful to deal
properly with the null character.
– Finding the length of a string requires searching for the
null character.

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Chapter 13: Strings

String Variables
• If a string variable needs to hold 80 characters, it
must be declared to have length 81:
#define STR_LEN 80
…
char str[STR_LEN+1];
• Adding 1 to the desired length allows room for the
null character at the end of the string.
• Defining a macro that represents 80 and then
adding 1 separately is a common practice.

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Chapter 13: Strings

String Variables
• Be sure to leave room for the null character when
declaring a string variable.
• Failing to do so may cause unpredictable results
when the program is executed.
• The actual length of a string depends on the
position of the terminating null character.
• An array of STR_LEN + 1 characters can hold
strings with lengths between 0 and STR_LEN.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Initializing a String Variable

• A string variable can be initialized at the same time
it’s declared:
char date1[8] = "June 14";
• The compiler will automatically add a null character
so that date1 can be used as a string:

• "June 14" is not a string literal in this context.

• Instead, C views it as an abbreviation for an
array initializer.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Initializing a String Variable

• If the initializer is too short to fill the string
variable, the compiler adds extra null characters:
char date2[9] = "June 14";
Appearance of date2:

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Chapter 13: Strings

Initializing a String Variable

• An initializer for a string variable can’t be longer
than the variable, but it can be the same length:
char date3[7] = "June 14";
• There’s no room for the null character, so the
compiler makes no attempt to store one:

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Chapter 13: Strings

Initializing a String Variable

• The declaration of a string variable may omit its
length, in which case the compiler computes it:
char date4[] = "June 14";
• The compiler sets aside eight characters for
date4, enough to store the characters in "June
14" plus a null character.
• Omitting the length of a string variable is
especially useful if the initializer is long, since
computing the length by hand is error-prone.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Character Arrays versus Character Pointers

• The declaration
char date[] = "June 14";
declares date to be an array,
• The similar-looking
char *date = "June 14";
declares date to be a pointer.
• Thanks to the close relationship between arrays
and pointers, either version can be used as a string.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Character Arrays versus Character Pointers

• However, there are significant differences between
the two versions of date.
– In the array version, the characters stored in date can
be modified. In the pointer version, date points to a
string literal that shouldn’t be modified.
– In the array version, date is an array name. In the
pointer version, date is a variable that can point to
other strings.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Character Arrays versus Character Pointers

• The declaration
char *p;
does not allocate space for a string.
• Before we can use p as a string, it must point to an
array of characters.
• One possibility is to make p point to a string variable:
char str[STR_LEN+1], *p;
p = str;
• Another possibility is to make p point to a
dynamically allocated string.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Character Arrays versus Character Pointers

• Using an uninitialized pointer variable as a string
is a serious error.
• An attempt at building the string "abc":
char *p;
p[0] = 'a'; /*** WRONG ***/
p[1] = 'b'; /*** WRONG ***/
p[2] = 'c'; /*** WRONG ***/
p[3] = '\0'; /*** WRONG ***/
• Since p hasn’t been initialized, this causes
undefined behavior.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading and Writing Strings

• Writing (output) a string is easy using either
printf or puts.
• Reading a string is a bit harder, because the input
may be longer than the string variable into which
it’s being stored.
• To read a string in a single step, we can use either
scanf or gets.
• As an alternative, we can read strings one
character at a time.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Writing Strings Using printf and puts

• The %s conversion specification allows printf
to write a string:
char str[] = "Are we having fun yet?";
printf("%s\n", str);
The output will be
Are we having fun yet?
• printf writes the characters in a string one by
one until it encounters a null character.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Writing Strings Using printf and puts

• To print part of a string, use the conversion
specification %.ps.
• p is the number of characters to be displayed.
• The statement
printf("%.6s\n", str);
will print
Are we

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Chapter 13: Strings

Writing Strings Using printf and puts

• The %ms conversion will display a string in a field
of size m.
• If the string has fewer than m characters, it will be
right-justified within the field.
• To force left justification instead, we can put a
minus sign (-) in front of m.
• The m and p values can be used in combination.
• A conversion specification of the form %m.ps
causes the first p characters of a string to be
displayed in a field of size m.
27 Copyright © 2008 W. W. Norton & Company.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Writing Strings Using printf and puts

• printf isn’t the only function that can write
strings.
• The C library also provides puts:
puts(str);
• After writing a string, puts always writes an
additional new-line character.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading Strings Using scanf and gets

• The %s conversion specification allows scanf to
read a string into a character array:
scanf("%s", str);
• str is treated as a pointer, so there’s no need to
put the & operator in front of str.
• When scanf is called, it skips white space, then
reads characters and stores them in str until it
encounters a white-space character.
• scanf always stores a null character at the end of
the string.
29 Copyright © 2008 W. W. Norton & Company.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading Strings Using scanf and gets

• scanf won’t usually read a full line of input.
• A new-line character will cause scanf to stop
reading, but so will a space or tab character.
• To read an entire line of input, we can use gets.
• Properties of gets:
– Doesn’t skip white space before starting to read input.
– Reads until it finds a new-line character.
– Discards the new-line character instead of storing it; the
null character takes its place.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading Strings Using scanf and gets

• Consider the following program fragment:
char sentence[SENT_LEN+1];
printf("Enter a sentence:\n");
scanf("%s", sentence);
• Suppose that after the prompt
Enter a sentence:
the user enters the line
To C, or not to C: that is the question.
• scanf will store the string "To" in sentence.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading Strings Using scanf and gets

• Suppose that we replace scanf by gets:
gets(sentence);
• When the user enters the same input as before,
gets will store the string
" To C, or not to C: that is the question."
in sentence.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading Strings Using scanf and gets

• As they read characters into an array, scanf and
gets have no way to detect when it’s full.
• Consequently, they may store characters past the
end of the array, causing undefined behavior.
• scanf can be made safer by using the conversion
specification %ns instead of %s.
• n is an integer indicating the maximum number of
characters to be stored.
• gets is inherently unsafe; fgets is a much
better alternative.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading Strings Character by Character

• Programmers often write their own input
functions.
• Issues to consider:
– Should the function skip white space before beginning
to store the string?
– What character causes the function to stop reading: a
new-line character, any white-space character, or some
other character? Is this character stored in the string or
discarded?
– What should the function do if the input string is too
long to store: discard the extra characters or leave them
for the next input operation?
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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading Strings Character by Character

• Suppose we need a function that (1) doesn’t skip
white-space characters, (2) stops reading at the first
new-line character (which isn’t stored in the string),
and (3) discards extra characters.
• A prototype for the function:
int read_line(char str[], int n);
• If the input line contains more than n characters,
read_line will discard the additional characters.
• read_line will return the number of characters it
stores in str.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading Strings Character by Character

• read_line consists primarily of a loop that calls
getchar to read a character and then stores the character
in str, provided that there’s room left:
int read_line(char str[], int n)
{
int ch, i = 0;
while ((ch = getchar()) != '\n')
if (i < n)
str[i++] = ch;
str[i] = '\0'; /* terminates string */
return i; /* number of characters stored */
}
• ch has int type rather than char type because
getchar returns an int value.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Reading Strings Character by Character

• Before returning, read_line puts a null
character at the end of the string.
• Standard functions such as scanf and gets
automatically put a null character at the end of an
input string.
• If we’re writing our own input function, we must
take on that responsibility.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Accessing the Characters in a String

• Since strings are stored as arrays, we can use
subscripting to access the characters in a string.
• To process every character in a string s, we can
set up a loop that increments a counter i and
selects characters via the expression s[i].

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Chapter 13: Strings

Accessing the Characters in a String

• A function that counts the number of spaces in a
string:
int count_spaces(const char s[])
{
int count = 0, i;
for (i = 0; s[i] != '\0'; i++)
if (s[i] == ' ')count++;
return count;
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

Accessing the Characters in a String

• A version that uses pointer arithmetic instead of
array subscripting :
int count_spaces(const char *s)
{
int count = 0;
for (; *s != '\0'; s++)
if (*s == ' ')count++;
return count;
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

Accessing the Characters in a String

• Questions raised by the count_spaces
example:
– Is it better to use array operations or pointer
operations to access the characters in a string? We can
use either or both. Traditionally, C programmers lean
toward using pointer operations.
– Should a string parameter be declared as an array or
as a pointer? There’s no difference between the two.
– Does the form of the parameter (s[] or *s) affect
what can be supplied as an argument? No.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Using the C String Library

• Some programming languages provide operators
that can copy strings, compare strings, concatenate
strings, select substrings, and the like.
• C’s operators, in contrast, are essentially useless
for working with strings.
• Strings are treated as arrays in C, so they’re
restricted in the same ways as arrays.
• In particular, they can’t be copied or compared
using operators.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Using the C String Library

• Direct attempts to copy or compare strings will fail.
• Copying a string into a character array using the =
operator is not possible:
char str1[10], str2[10];
…
str1 = "abc"; /*** WRONG ***/
str2 = str1; /*** WRONG ***/
Using an array name as the left operand of = is illegal.
• Initializing a character array using = is legal, though:
char str1[10] = "abc";
In this context, = is not the assignment operator.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Using the C String Library

• Attempting to compare strings using a relational
or equality operator is legal but won’t produce the
desired result:
if (str1 == str2) … /*** WRONG ***/
• This statement compares str1 and str2 as
pointers.
• Since str1 and str2 have different addresses,
the expression str1 == str2 must have the
value 0.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Using the C String Library

• The C library provides a rich set of functions for
performing operations on strings.
• Programs that need string operations should
contain the following line:
#include <string.h>
• In subsequent examples, assume that str1 and
str2 are character arrays used as strings.

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strcpy (String Copy) Function

• Prototype for the strcpy function:
char *strcpy(char *s1, const char *s2);
• strcpy copies the string s2 into the string s1.
– To be precise, we should say “strcpy copies the
string pointed to by s2 into the array pointed to by
s1.”
• strcpy returns s1 (a pointer to the destination
string).

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strcpy (String Copy) Function

• A call of strcpy that stores the string "abcd"
in str2:
strcpy(str2, "abcd");
/* str2 now contains "abcd" */
• A call that copies the contents of str2 into
str1:
strcpy(str1, str2);
/* str1 now contains "abcd" */

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strcpy (String Copy) Function

• In the call strcpy(str1, str2), strcpy has
no way to check that the str2 string will fit in the
array pointed to by str1.
• If it doesn’t, undefined behavior occurs.

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strcpy (String Copy) Function

• Calling the strncpy function is a safer, albeit
slower, way to copy a string.
• strncpy has a third argument that limits the
number of characters that will be copied.
• A call of strncpy that copies str2 into str1:
strncpy(str1, str2, sizeof(str1));

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strcpy (String Copy) Function

• strncpy will leave str1 without a terminating
null character if the length of str2 is greater than
or equal to the size of the str1 array.
• A safer way to use strncpy:
strncpy(str1, str2, sizeof(str1) - 1);
str1[sizeof(str1)-1] = '\0';
• The second statement guarantees that str1 is
always null-terminated.

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strlen (String Length) Function

• Prototype for the strlen function:
size_t strlen(const char *s);
• size_t is a typedef name that represents one
of C’s unsigned integer types.

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strlen (String Length) Function

• strlen returns the length of a string s, not
including the null character.
• Examples:
int len;
len = strlen("abc"); /* len is now 3 */
len = strlen(""); /* len is now 0 */
strcpy(str1, "abc");
len = strlen(str1); /* len is now 3 */

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 Chapter 13: Strings

The strcat (String Concatenation) Function

• Prototype for the strcat function:
char *strcat(char *s1, const char *s2);
• strcat appends the contents of the string s2 to the end of
the string s1.
• It returns s1 (a pointer to the resulting string).
• strcat examples:
strcpy(str1, "abc");
strcat(str1, "def");
/* str1 now contains "abcdef" */
strcpy(str1, "abc");
strcpy(str2, "def");
strcat(str1, str2);
/* str1 now contains "abcdef" */
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 Chapter 13: Strings

The strcat (String Concatenation) Function

• As with strcpy, the value returned by strcat
is normally discarded.
• The following example shows how the return
value might be used:
strcpy(str1, "abc");
strcpy(str2, "def");
strcat(str1, strcat(str2, "ghi"));
/* str1 now contains "abcdefghi";
str2 contains "defghi" */

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 Chapter 13: Strings

The strcat (String Concatenation) Function

• strcat(str1, str2) causes undefined
behavior if the str1 array isn’t long enough to
accommodate the characters from str2.
• Example:
char str1[6] = "abc";
strcat(str1, "def"); /*** WRONG ***/
• str1 is limited to six characters, causing
strcat to write past the end of the array.

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 Chapter 13: Strings

The strcat (String Concatenation) Function

• The strncat function is a safer but slower
version of strcat.
• Like strncpy, it has a third argument that limits
the number of characters it will copy.
• A call of strncat:
strncat(str1, str2, sizeof(str1) - strlen(str1) - 1);
• strncat will terminate str1 with a null
character, which isn’t included in the third
argument.

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strcmp (String Comparison) Function

• Prototype for the strcmp function:
int strcmp(const char *s1, const char *s2);
• strcmp compares the strings s1 and s2,
returning a value less than, equal to, or greater
than 0, depending on whether s1 is less than,
equal to, or greater than s2.

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strcmp (String Comparison) Function

• Testing whether str1 is less than str2:
if (strcmp(str1, str2) < 0) /* is str1 < str2? */
…
• Testing whether str1 is less than or equal to
str2:
if (strcmp(str1, str2) <= 0) /* is str1 <= str2? */
…
• By choosing the proper operator (<, <=, >, >=,
==, !=), we can test any possible relationship
between str1 and str2.

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strcmp (String Comparison) Function

• strcmp considers s1 to be less than s2 if either
one of the following conditions is satisfied:
– The first i characters of s1 and s2 match, but the
(i+1)st character of s1 is less than the (i+1)st character
of s2.
– All characters of s1 match s2, but s1 is shorter than
s2.

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Chapter 13: Strings

The strcmp (String Comparison) Function

• As it compares two strings, strcmp looks at the
numerical codes for the characters in the strings.
• Some knowledge of the underlying character set is
helpful to predict what strcmp will do.
• Important properties of ASCII:
– A–Z, a–z, and 0–9 have consecutive codes.
– All upper-case letters are less than all lower-case
letters.
– Digits are less than letters.
– Spaces are less than all printing characters.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Program: Printing a One-Month Reminder

List
• The remind.c program prints a one-month list
of daily reminders.
• The user will enter a series of reminders, with
each prefixed by a day of the month.
• When the user enters 0 instead of a valid day, the
program will print a list of all reminders entered,
sorted by day.
• The next slide shows a session with the program.

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 Chapter 13: Strings

Program: Printing a One-Month Reminder

List
Enter day and reminder: 24 Susan's birthday
Enter day and reminder: 5 6:00 - Dinner with Marge and Russ
Enter day and reminder: 26 Movie - "Chinatown"
Enter day and reminder: 7 10:30 - Dental appointment
Enter day and reminder: 12 Movie - "Dazed and Confused"
Enter day and reminder: 5 Saturday class
Enter day and reminder: 12 Saturday class
Enter day and reminder: 0

Day Reminder
5 Saturday class
5 6:00 - Dinner with Marge and Russ
7 10:30 - Dental appointment
12 Saturday class
12 Movie - "Dazed and Confused“
24 Susan's birthday
26 Movie - "Chinatown"

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Chapter 13: Strings

Program: Printing a One-Month Reminder

List
• Overall strategy:
– Read a series of day-and-reminder combinations.
– Store them in order (sorted by day).
– Display them.
• scanf will be used to read the days.
• read_line will be used to read the reminders.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Program: Printing a One-Month Reminder

List
• The strings will be stored in a two-dimensional
array of characters.
• Each row of the array contains one string.
• Actions taken after the program reads a day and its
associated reminder:
– Search the array to determine where the day belongs,
using strcmp to do comparisons.
– Use strcpy to move all strings below that point down
one position.
– Copy the day into the array and call strcat to append
the reminder to the day.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Program: Printing a One-Month Reminder

List
• One complication: how to right-justify the days in
a two-character field.
• A solution: use scanf to read the day into an
integer variable, than call sprintf to convert the
day back into string form.
• sprintf is similar to printf, except that it
writes output into a string.
• The call
sprintf(day_str, "%2d", day);
writes the value of day into day_str.
65 Copyright © 2008 W. W. Norton & Company.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Program: Printing a One-Month Reminder

List
• The following call of scanf ensures that the user
doesn’t enter more than two digits:
scanf("%2d", &day);

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 Chapter 13: Strings

remind.c
/* Prints a one-month reminder list */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define MAX_REMIND 50 /* maximum number of reminders */
#define MSG_LEN 60 /* max length of reminder message
*/
int read_line(char str[], int n);
int main(void)
{
char reminders[MAX_REMIND][MSG_LEN+3];
char day_str[3], msg_str[MSG_LEN+1];
int day, i, j, num_remind = 0;
for (;;) {
if (num_remind == MAX_REMIND) {
printf("-- No space left --\n");
break;
}
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 Chapter 13: Strings

printf("Enter day and reminder: ");

scanf("%2d", &day);
if (day == 0)
break;
sprintf(day_str, "%2d", day);
read_line(msg_str, MSG_LEN);
for (i = 0; i < num_remind; i++)
if (strcmp(day_str, reminders[i]) < 0)
break;
for (j = num_remind; j > i; j--)
strcpy(reminders[j], reminders[j-1]);
strcpy(reminders[i], day_str);
strcat(reminders[i], msg_str);
num_remind++;
}
printf("\nDay Reminder\n");
for (i = 0; i < num_remind; i++)
printf(" %s\n", reminders[i]);
return 0;
}
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 Chapter 13: Strings

int read_line(char str[], int n)

{
int ch, i = 0;
while ((ch = getchar()) != '\n')
if (i < n)
str[i++] = ch;
str[i] = '\0';
return i;
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

String Idioms
• Functions that manipulate strings are a rich source
of idioms.
• We’ll explore some of the most famous idioms by
using them to write the strlen and strcat
functions.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Searching for the End of a String

• A version of strlen that searches for the end of
a string, using a variable to keep track of the
string’s length:
size_t strlen(const char *s)
{
size_t n;
for (n = 0; *s != '\0'; s++)
n++;
return n;
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

Searching for the End of a String

• To condense the function, we can move the
initialization of n to its declaration:
size_t strlen(const char *s)
{
size_t n = 0;
for (; *s != '\0'; s++)
n++;
return n;
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

Searching for the End of a String

• The condition *s != '\0' is the same as *s != 0,
which in turn is the same as *s.
• A version of strlen that uses these observations:
size_t strlen(const char *s)
{
size_t n = 0;
for (; *s; s++)
n++;
return n;
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

Searching for the End of a String

• The next version increments s and tests *s in the
same expression:
size_t strlen(const char *s)
{
size_t n = 0;
for (; *s++;)
n++;
return n;
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

Searching for the End of a String

• Replacing the for statement with a while
statement gives the following version of strlen:
size_t strlen(const char *s)
{
size_t n = 0;
while (*s++)
n++;
return n;
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

Searching for the End of a String

• Although we’ve condensed strlen quite a bit,
it’s likely that we haven’t increased its speed.
• A version that does run faster, at least with some
compilers:
size_t strlen(const char *s)
{
const char *p = s;
while (*s)
s++;
return s - p;
}
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Chapter 13: Strings

Searching for the End of a String

• Idioms for “search for the null character at the end
of a string”:
while (*s) while (*s++)
s++; ;
• The first version leaves s pointing to the null
character.
• The second version is more concise, but leaves s
pointing just past the null character.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Copying a String
• Copying a string is another common operation.
• To introduce C’s “string copy” idiom, we’ll
develop two versions of the strcat function.
• The first version of strcat (next slide) uses a
two-step algorithm:
– Locate the null character at the end of the string s1 and
make p point to it.
– Copy characters one by one from s2 to where p is
pointing.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Copying a String
char *strcat(char *s1, const char *s2)
{
char *p = s1;
while (*p != '\0')
p++;
while (*s2 != '\0') {
*p = *s2;
p++;
s2++;
}
*p = '\0';
return s1;
}
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Chapter 13: Strings

Copying a String
• p initially points to the first character in the s1
string:

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Chapter 13: Strings

Copying a String
• The first while statement locates the null
character at the end of s1 and makes p point to it:

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Chapter 13: Strings

Copying a String
• The second while statement repeatedly copies
one character from where s2 points to where p
points, then increments both p and s2.
• Assume that s2 originally points to the string
"def".
• The strings after the first loop iteration:

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Chapter 13: Strings

Copying a String
• The loop terminates when s2 points to the null
character:

• After putting a null character where p is pointing,

strcat returns.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Copying a String
• Condensed version of strcat:
char *strcat(char *s1, const char *s2)
{
char *p = s1;

while (*p)
p++;
while (*p++ = *s2++)
;
return s1;
}

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Chapter 13: Strings

Copying a String
• The heart of the streamlined strcat function is the
“string copy” idiom:
while (*p++ = *s2++)
;
• Ignoring the two ++ operators, the expression inside
the parentheses is an assignment:
*p = *s2
• After the assignment, p and s2 are incremented.
• Repeatedly evaluating this expression copies
characters from where s2 points to where p points.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Copying a String
• But what causes the loop to terminate?
• The while statement tests the character that was
copied by the assignment *p = *s2.
• All characters except the null character test true.
• The loop terminates after the assignment, so the
null character will be copied.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Arrays of Strings
• There is more than one way to store an array of
strings.
• One option is to use a two-dimensional array of
characters, with one string per row:
char planets[][8] = {"Mercury", "Venus", "Earth",
"Mars", "Jupiter", "Saturn",
"Uranus", "Neptune", "Pluto"};
• The number of rows in the array can be omitted,
but we must specify the number of columns.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Arrays of Strings
• Unfortunately, the planets array contains a fair
bit of wasted space (extra null characters):

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Chapter 13: Strings

Arrays of Strings
• Most collections of strings will have a mixture of
long strings and short strings.
• What we need is a ragged array, whose rows can
have different lengths.
• We can simulate a ragged array in C by creating
an array whose elements are pointers to strings:
char *planets[] = {"Mercury", "Venus", "Earth",
"Mars", "Jupiter", "Saturn",
"Uranus", "Neptune", "Pluto"};

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Chapter 13: Strings

Arrays of Strings
• This small change has a dramatic effect on how
planets is stored:

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Chapter 13: Strings

Arrays of Strings
• To access one of the planet names, all we need do
is subscript the planets array.
• Accessing a character in a planet name is done in
the same way as accessing an element of a two-
dimensional array.
• A loop that searches the planets array for
strings beginning with the letter M:
for (i = 0; i < 9; i++)
if (planets[i][0] == 'M')
printf("%s begins with M\n", planets[i]);

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Chapter 13: Strings

Command-Line Arguments
• When we run a program, we’ll often need to
supply it with information.
• This may include a file name or a switch that
modifies the program’s behavior.
• Examples of the UNIX ls command:
ls
ls –l
ls -l remind.c

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Chapter 13: Strings

Command-Line Arguments
• Command-line information is available to all
programs, not just operating system commands.
• To obtain access to command-line arguments,
main must have two parameters:
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
…
}
• Command-line arguments are called program
parameters in the C standard.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Command-Line Arguments
• argc (“argument count”) is the number of
command-line arguments.
• argv (“argument vector”) is an array of pointers
to the command-line arguments (stored as strings).
• argv[0] points to the name of the program,
while argv[1] through argv[argc-1] point
to the remaining command-line arguments.
• argv[argc] is always a null pointer—a special
pointer that points to nothing.
– The macro NULL represents a null pointer.

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Chapter 13: Strings

Command-Line Arguments
• If the user enters the command line
ls -l remind.c
then argc will be 3, and argv will have the
following appearance:

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Chapter 13: Strings

Command-Line Arguments
• Since argv is an array of pointers, accessing
command-line arguments is easy.
• Typically, a program that expects command-line
arguments will set up a loop that examines each
argument in turn.
• One way to write such a loop is to use an integer
variable as an index into the argv array:
int i;
for (i = 1; i < argc; i++)
printf("%s\n", argv[i]);
96 Copyright © 2008 W. W. Norton & Company.
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Chapter 13: Strings

Command-Line Arguments
• Another technique is to set up a pointer to
argv[1], then increment the pointer repeatedly:
char **p;
for (p = &argv[1]; *p != NULL; p++)
printf("%s\n", *p);

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Chapter 13: Strings

Program: Checking Planet Names

• The planet.c program illustrates how to access
command-line arguments.
• The program is designed to check a series of strings to
see which ones are names of planets.
• The strings are put on the command line:
planet Jupiter venus Earth fred
• The program will indicate whether each string is a planet
name and, if it is, display the planet’s number:
Jupiter is planet 5
venus is not a planet
Earth is planet 3
fred is not a planet
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Chapter 13: Strings

planet.c
/* Checks planet names */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define NUM_PLANETS 9

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{
char *planets[] = {"Mercury", "Venus", "Earth",
"Mars", "Jupiter", "Saturn",
"Uranus", "Neptune", "Pluto"};
int i, j;

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Chapter 13: Strings

for (i = 1; i < argc; i++) {

for (j = 0; j < NUM_PLANETS; j++)
if (strcmp(argv[i], planets[j]) == 0) {
printf("%s is planet %d\n", argv[i], j + 1);
break;
}
if (j == NUM_PLANETS)
printf("%s is not a planet\n", argv[i]);
}

return 0;
}

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