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| From | Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | comp.lang.c |
| Subject | Re: Character Array vs String |
| Date | 2011-11-09 07:39 -0500 |
| Organization | A noiseless patient Spider |
| Message-ID | <j9dsbn$hlp$1@dont-email.me> (permalink) |
| References | <bb3e536d-ddae-4dab-ab1c-bbb2967da95d@j36g2000prh.googlegroups.com> |
On 11/9/2011 6:09 AM, Sheky wrote:
> Could anybody please mention difference between character array and
> string in C?
A character array is an array whose individual elements are
characters: `char this[42]', for example. (The term "character"
is ambiguous, since C has four types that could claim the name:
`char', `signed char', `unsigned char', and `wchar_t'. In informal
use "character" usually means `char', but be aware that the term
is not quite so specific and misunderstanding may occur.) Anyhow:
A character array is an array of "character" elements, just as an
`int' array is an array of `int' elements.
A string is a particular data structure that can be stored in
a character array. It consists of some sequence of "payload"
characters plus a special "sentinel" character to mark the end of
the string. The sentinel character has the numeric value zero, and
no payload character has that value. It is possible to have no payload
characters at all (the sentinel will be in the array's first position),
and this represents the empty string. (Note: The terms "payload" and
"sentinel" are not formally defined by C; they're just my attempt to
name and explain the parts of a string.)
Example:
char message[10];
strcpy(message, "Hello");
`message' is a character array: A ten-element array where each element
is a character. After strcpy(), a string of six characters (five
payload and one sentinel) inhabits the first six positions of the
array. The remaining four characters are still part of the array,
but are not part of the string.
<---------------------- array ------------------------------>
[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
message: | 'H' | 'e' | 'l' | 'l' | 'o' | 0 | ? | ? | ? | ? |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
sen-
<---------- payload ----------> ti-
nel
<------------- string ------------->
--
Eric Sosman
esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid
Back to comp.lang.c | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread
Character Array vs String Sheky <shekhar07.nitdgp@gmail.com> - 2011-11-09 03:09 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2011-11-09 03:28 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2011-11-09 06:52 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String Quentin Carbonneaux <qcarbonn@invalid.com> - 2011-11-09 12:01 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String 88888 Dihedral <dihedral88888@googlemail.com> - 2011-11-09 04:48 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-11-09 05:53 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String "osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2011-11-09 09:44 -0600
Re: Character Array vs String Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-11-10 00:57 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String "osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2011-11-10 08:56 -0600
Re: Character Array vs String Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-11-10 08:16 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String "Joachim Schmitz" <nospam.jojo@schmitz-digital.de> - 2011-11-10 18:34 +0100
Re: Character Array vs String Kenneth Brody <kenbrody@spamcop.net> - 2011-11-10 14:08 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-11-10 20:52 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-11-11 01:29 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Lowell Gilbert <lgusenet@be-well.ilk.org> - 2011-11-10 12:29 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String lawrence.jones@siemens.com - 2011-11-10 12:32 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-11-10 12:41 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2011-11-11 13:12 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String David Thompson <dave.thompson2@verizon.net> - 2011-11-21 02:39 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String Kenneth Brody <kenbrody@spamcop.net> - 2011-11-23 11:39 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2011-11-23 17:15 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2011-11-23 18:48 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> - 2011-11-23 10:58 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Patrick Scheible <kkt@zipcon.net> - 2011-11-27 20:21 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String David Thompson <dave.thompson2@verizon.net> - 2012-01-19 02:43 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2011-11-09 07:48 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2011-11-09 11:06 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> - 2011-11-09 16:24 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2011-11-09 11:30 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2011-11-09 16:53 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> - 2011-11-09 17:05 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2011-11-09 08:54 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Tobias Blass <tobiasblass@gmx.net> - 2011-11-09 21:01 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2011-11-09 21:26 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-11-10 01:11 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String David Thompson <dave.thompson2@verizon.net> - 2011-11-21 02:39 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-11-21 00:15 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-11-09 14:06 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2011-11-09 19:32 -0600
Re: Character Array vs String Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-11-10 03:21 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2011-11-10 11:00 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-11-10 03:26 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-11-10 12:04 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String Lew Pitcher <lpitcher@teksavvy.com> - 2011-11-21 12:02 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Kenneth Brody <kenbrody@spamcop.net> - 2011-11-23 11:42 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String Uno <merrilljensen@q.com> - 2011-11-27 22:46 -0700
Re: Character Array vs String Lew Pitcher <lpitcher@teksavvy.com> - 2011-11-27 23:30 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-11-28 00:22 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-11-09 13:59 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2011-11-09 08:36 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String Quentin Carbonneaux <qcarbonn@invalid.com> - 2011-11-09 14:06 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2011-11-09 05:38 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-11-09 13:52 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-11-09 07:39 -0500
Re: Character Array vs String "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2011-11-09 13:51 +0000
Re: Character Array vs String John Bode <jfbode1029@gmail.com> - 2011-11-23 19:32 -0800
Re: Character Array vs String James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2011-11-24 11:49 -0500
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