計算機程式設計

Computer Programming

Strings

Instructor: 林英嘉
2024/11/25
W12 Slido: #3517219 GitHub repo
Outline

• Introduction to characters and strings

• Input characters and strings
• Array of strings
• Practical Questions

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[Definition] Characters and Strings

• 字元：character
• 字串：string

'a' // this is a character `a`

"a" // this is a string `a`
"Sweet home" // this is a string `Sweet home`

Be careful!
• We should use single quotes (' ) for a character.
• We should use double quotes (") for a string.

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[Declaration & Definition] Characters

Example:

char a_char = 'Y';

• char: abbreviation from the rst four letters of “character”

• a char variable takes 1 byte for storage (8 bits).
• The value range of a char variable is -128 to 127.

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資料類型比較

⼤⼩
Speci er 數值範圍
(Byte)*
int 4 %d -2,147,483,648 到 2,147,483,647 (範圍2的32次⽅)

char 1 %c -128 到 127 或 0 到 255 （取決於是否有符號）

float 4 %f 約 1.2E-38 到 3.4E+38，精度約 6 位⼗進制之⼩數

double 8 %lf 約 2.2E-308 到 1.7E+308，精度約 15-16 位⼗進制之⼩數

*In a 64-bit system

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[Declaration] String
C-course-materials/07-Strings/declaration.c

Strings are arrays of characters in which a special character—the null character—marks the end.

Example:

char str_11[11] = "Sweet home";

Array size can be omitted (compiler will allocate memory according to your string)

index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
string S w e e t h o m e \0

Null character 6
 [Usage] Specifier and Size Comparison

Type int char char float double

Double-precision
integer character string oating-point number
Meaning oating-point number
整數 字元 字串 浮點數
倍準浮點數

⼤⼩ (Byte)* 4 1 length+1 4 8

Speci er %d %c %s %f %lf

*In a 64-bit system

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fl
fl
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Print chars and strings
C-course-materials/07-Strings/print_char_str.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char a_char = 'Y';
printf("%c\n", a_char);

char a_string[] = "Y";

printf("%s\n", a_string);

char str_11[] = "Sweet home";

printf("%s\n", str_11);
}

Be careful!
• Use %c for printing a character
• Use %s for printing a string
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Size comparison between chars and strings
C-course-materials/07-Strings/sizes.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char a_char = 'Y';
printf("%d\n", sizeof(a_char));

char a_string[] = "Y";

printf("%d\n", sizeof(a_string));

char str_11[] = "Sweet home";

printf("%d\n", sizeof(str_11));
}

1
2 ‘\0’ is taken into consideration.
11

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Check \0 in a string
C-course-materials/07-Strings/check_end.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char str_11[] = "Sweet home";
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(str_11); i++){
if (str_11[i] == '\0') {
printf("\\0");
} else {
printf("%c", str_11[i]);
}
}
}

‘\0’ cannot be printed! But we can still detect it.

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Use \0 as the end of a loop
C-course-materials/07-Strings/end_in_for.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char str_11[] = "Sweet home";
for (int i = 0; str_11[i] != '\0'; i++){
printf("%c", str_11[i]);
}
}

‘\0’ can be used as the stop criterion for a loop.

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[Important Notes] About the null character \0

• ‘\0’ is a character that cannot be printed.

• ‘\0’ will be automatically added at the end if the length permitted.

This will automatically add \0:

char str_11[] = "Sweet home";
char str_11[11] = "Sweet home";

This will not automatically add \0:

char str_11[10] = "Sweet home";

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[Declaration] Characters and Strings with an Initializer
C-course-materials/07-Strings/declaration_initializer.c

• You can also use an initializer to declare a char variable.

String example:

char str_5[5] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o'};

Array size can be omitted (compiler will allocate memory according to your string)

Character example:

char a_char = {'Y'};

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[Important Notes] About the null character \0
• ‘\0’ is a character that cannot be printed.
• ‘\0’ will be automatically added at the end if the length permitted.
This will automatically add \0:
char str_5[6] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o'};
char str_5[] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o'};

This will not automatically add \0:

char str_5[5] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o'};

We can also manually add \0:

char str_5[6] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0'};

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[Usage] You can’t do these
C-course-materials/07-Strings/declaration.c

char a_name = "Y";

Reason: a string must be stored in an array.

char a_name[] = 'S';

char a_char[] = {'Y'};

Reason: if a char variable is declared with an array, it should not be a character. It is a string.

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When length exceeds the initializer
C-course-materials/07-Strings/shorter_initializer.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char a_string[10] = "Hello";

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When length exceeds the initializer
C-course-materials/07-Strings/shorter_initializer.c

Once the assigned length exceeds the number of elements in an initializer, ‘\0’ will be
appended to ll the remaining space until the array reaches the length.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char a_string[10] = "Hello";
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(a_string); i++){
if (a_string[i] == '\0') {
printf("\\0");
} else {
printf("%c", a_string[i]);
}
}
}

index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
string H e l l o \0 \0 \0 \0 \0
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 [Introduction] ASCII

• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

• ASCII is a character encoding system to represent characters in computers.
• ASCII has just 128 (7 bit; from 0 to 127) code points, of which only 95 are
printable characters.

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[Introduction] ASCII

Figure source: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/ascii-table/ 19

Decimal to char via ASCII encodings
C-course-materials/07-Strings/decimal_to_char_ascii.c

• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

• Characters are internally represented by their ASCII codes, which can be displayed in decimals.

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
int nums[5] = {72, 101, 108, 108, 111};
char c;
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++){
c = nums[i];
printf("%c", c);
}
}

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Hexadecimal to char via ASCII encodings
C-course-materials/07-Strings/hex_to_char_ascii.c

• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

• Characters are internally represented by their ASCII codes, which can be displayed in hexadecimals.
• 0x is the pre x for hexadecimals in C. Hexadecimals are also integers.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
/*
Hexadecimal values for 'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o'
*/
int nums[5] = {0x48, 0x65, 0x6C, 0x6C, 0x6F};
char c;
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++){
c = nums[i];
printf("%c", c);
}
}
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Print number from char via ASCII encodings
C-course-materials/07-Strings/print_num_from_char.c

• We can also print numerical values from characters.

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char a_string[5] = "Hello";
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(a_string); i++){
printf("Decimal: %d, ", a_string[i]);
printf("Hexadecimal: %x", a_string[i]);
printf("\n");
}
}

Decimal: 72, Hexadecimal: 48

Decimal: 101, Hexadecimal: 65
Decimal: 108, Hexadecimal: 6c
Decimal: 108, Hexadecimal: 6c
Decimal: 111, Hexadecimal: 6f
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Passing a char variable to a function
C-course-materials/07-Strings/print_func.c

#include <stdio.h>
void print_char(char c){
printf("%c", c);
}

void print_str(char str[]){

for (int i = 0; str[i] != '\0'; i++){
print_char(str[i]);
}
}

int main(void){
char a_char = 'Y', str_5[] = "Hello";
print_char(a_char);
printf("\n");
print_str(str_5);
}
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Input characters and strings
Input a character
C-course-materials/07-Strings/scanf_char.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char c;
scanf("%c", &c);
printf("%c\n", c);
printf("Decimal: %d\n", c);
printf("Hexadecimal: %x\n", c);
}

• We can use scanf to read a single character.

• The character can be printed as a decimal or hexadecimal number.
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Input a string
C-course-materials/07-Strings/scanf_str.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char a_string[10];
scanf("%s", a_string);
printf("%s!", a_string);
return 0;
}

• A string, being an array of characters, represents the memory address of its rst
element.
• Therefore, we don’t need to use ‘&’ when using scanf to input a string.
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Memory address of a string
C-course-materials/07-Strings/str_addr.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char a_string[] = "Hello";
printf("size: %d\n", sizeof(a_string));
printf("a_string: %p\n", a_string);
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(a_string); i++){
printf("a_string[%d]: %p\n", i, &a_string[i]);
}
}

size: 6
a_string: 0x7fffffffdda2
a_string[0]: 0x7fffffffdda2
a_string[1]: 0x7fffffffdda3
a_string[2]: 0x7fffffffdda4
a_string[3]: 0x7fffffffdda5
a_string[4]: 0x7fffffffdda6
a_string[5]: 0x7fffffffdda7 Address of \0 27
Input multiple strings
C-course-materials/07-Strings/scanf_multi_str.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char a_string[10];
while (scanf("%s", a_string) != EOF){
printf("Now the string is: %s\n", a_string);
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(a_string); i++){
if (a_string[i] == '\0') {
break;
}
printf("%c ", a_string[i]);
}
}
return 0;
}

• scanf will return EOF if it encounters the end of the input stream.
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Array of strings
[Declaration] Array of strings

Declaration

char strings_arr[num_of_strings][string_length];

Declaration with an initializer

char strings_arr[num_of_strings][string_length] = {“str1”,
“str2”, ...};

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Array of strings (Declaration with an initializer)
C-course-materials/07-Strings/arr_strings.c

• We can directly assign strings to an array with an initializer.

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char strings[3][10] = {"Tom", "Lily", "James Lee"};
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
printf("strings[%d]: %s\n", i, strings[i]);
}
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
printf("Addr strings[%d]:%p\n", i, strings[i]);
printf("Addr strings[%d][0]:%p\n", i, &strings[i][0]);
}
}

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[Illustration] Array of strings
C-course-materials/07-Strings/arr_strings.c

strings[0] T o m \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0

strings[1] L i l y \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0

strings[2] J a m e s L e e \0

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Array of strings (value assignment with while)
C-course-materials/07-Strings/arr_strings_while.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char strings[3][10];
int count = 0;
while (scanf("%s", strings[count]) != EOF){
printf("%s is read to the array.\n", strings[count]);
count++;
}
// strings[0] = "Tom";
// strings[1] = "Lily";
// strings[2] = "James Lee";
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++){
printf("strings[%d]: %s\n", i, strings[i]);
}
}

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Practical Questions
[Question] Check if a String is a Palindrome
Write a C program to determine whether a given string is a palindrome.

• Input:
racecar

• Output:
Palindrome

• Input:
hello

• Output:
Not Palindrome
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Check if a String is a Palindrome
C-course-materials/07-Strings/check_palindrome.c

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int is_palindrome(char str[]) {
int length = strlen(str); // strlen excludes '\0'
for (int i = 0; i < length / 2; i++) {
if (str[i] != str[length - i - 1]) {
return 0;
}
}
return 1;
}

index 0 1 2 3 4
string H e l l o
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Check if a String is a Palindrome
C-course-materials/07-Strings/check_palindrome.c

int main(void) {
char str[100];
printf("Please enter a string: ");
scanf("%s", str);
if (is_palindrome(str)) {
printf("Palindrome\n");
} else {
printf("Not a palindrome\n");
}
return 0;
}

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[Questions] W12 Quiz

• Q1:
• Name the code into `studentID_q1.c `
• Q2:
• Name the code into `studentID_q2.c `
• Compress your code into `studentID_w12quiz.zip` and upload it.

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