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Character Sequences: Arrays As Parameters

The document discusses passing arrays as parameters to functions in C++. Arrays can be passed by specifying the element type, identifier, and empty brackets in the function declaration. A second parameter may be needed to specify the array length. Multidimensional arrays can also be passed as parameters. Character arrays can represent character sequences by using a null terminator.

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48 views

Character Sequences: Arrays As Parameters

The document discusses passing arrays as parameters to functions in C++. Arrays can be passed by specifying the element type, identifier, and empty brackets in the function declaration. A second parameter may be needed to specify the array length. Multidimensional arrays can also be passed as parameters. Character arrays can represent character sequences by using a null terminator.

Uploaded by

heshan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Arrays as parameters

At some moment we may need to pass an array to a function as a parameter. In C++ it is not possible to pass a
complete block of memory by value as a parameter to a function, but we are allowed to pass its address. In
practice this has almost the same effect and it is a much faster and more efficient operation.
In order to accept arrays as parameters the only thing that we have to do when declaring the function is to specify
in its parameters the element type of the array, an identifier and a pair of void brackets [] . For example, the
following function:
void procedure (int arg[])
accepts a parameter of type "array of int" called arg. In order to pass to this function an array declared as:
int myarray [40];
it would be enough to write a call like this:
procedure (myarray);
Here you have a complete example:
// arrays as parameters
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void printarray (int arg[], int length) {
for (int n=0; n<length; n++)
cout << arg[n] << " ";
cout << "\n";
}
int main ()
{
int firstarray[] = {5, 10, 15};
int secondarray[] = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10};
printarray (firstarray,3);
printarray (secondarray,5);
return 0;
}
5 10 15
2 4 6 8 10
As you can see, the first parameter (int arg[] ) accepts any array whose elements are of type int, whatever its
length. For that reason we have included a second parameter that tells the function the length of each array that

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we pass to it as its first parameter. This allows the for loop that prints out the array to know the range to iterate
in
the passed array without going out of range.
In a function declaration it is also possible to include multidimensional arrays. The format for a tridimensional array
parameter is:
base_type[][depth][depth]
for example, a function with a multidimensional array as argument could be:
void procedure (int myarray[][3][4])
Notice that the first brackets [] are left blank while the following ones are not. This is so because the compiler
must be able to determine within the function which is the depth of each additional dimension.
Arrays, both simple or multidimensional, passed as function parameters are a quite common source of errors for
novice programmers. I recommend the reading of the chapter about Pointers for a better understanding on how
arrays operate.

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Character Sequences
As you may already know, the C++ Standard Library implements a powerful string class, which is very useful to
handle and manipulate strings of characters. However, because strings are in fact sequences of characters, we can
represent them also as plain arrays of char elements.
For example, the following array:
char jenny [20];
is an array that can store up to 20 elements of type char. It can be represented as:

Therefore, in this array, in theory, we can store sequences of characters up to 20 characters long. But we can also
store shorter sequences. For example, jenny could store at some point in a program either the sequence "Hello"
or the sequence "Merry christmas", since both are shorter than 20 characters.
Therefore, since the array of characters can store shorter sequences than its total length, a special character is
used to signal the end of the valid sequence: the null character, whose literal constant can be written as '\0'
(backslash, zero).
Our array of 20 elements of type char, called jenny, can be represented storing the characters sequences "Hello"
and "Merry Christmas" as:
Notice how after the valid content a null character ('\0' ) has been included in order to indicate the end of the
sequence. The panels in gray color represent char elements with undetermined values.

Initialization of null-terminated character sequences


Because arrays of characters are ordinary arrays they follow all their same rules. For example, if we want to
initialize an array of characters with some predetermined sequence of characters we can do it just like any other
array:
char myword[] = { 'H' , 'e' , 'l' , 'l' , 'o' , '\0' };
In this case we would have declared an array of 6 elements of type char initialized with the characters that form
the word "Hello" plus a null character '\0' at the end.
But arrays of char elements have an additional method to initialize their values: using string literals.
In the expressions we have used in some examples in previous chapters, constants that represent entire strings of
characters have already showed up several times. These are specified enclosing the text to become a string literal
between double quotes ("). For example:
"the result is: "

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is a constant string literal that we have probably used already.
Double quoted strings (") are literal constants whose type is in fact a null-terminated array of characters. So string
literals enclosed between double quotes always have a null character ('\0' ) automatically appended at the end.
Therefore we can initialize the array of char elements called myword with a null-terminated sequence of characters
by either one of these two methods:
char myword [] = { 'H' , 'e' , 'l' , 'l' , 'o' , '\0' };
char myword [] = "Hello";
In both cases the array of characters myword is declared with a size of 6 elements of type char: the 5 characters
that compose the word "Hello" plus a final null character ('\0' ) which specifies the end of the sequence and
that,
in the second case, when using double quotes (") it is appended automatically.
Please notice that we are talking about initializing an array of characters in the moment it is being declared, and
not about assigning values to them once they have already been declared. In fact because this type of
nullterminated arrays of characters are regular arrays we have the same restrictions that we have with any other
array, so we are not able to copy blocks of data with an assignment operation.
Assuming mystext is a char[] variable, expressions within a source code like:
mystext = "Hello";
mystext[] = "Hello";
would not be valid, like neither would be:
mystext = { 'H' , 'e' , 'l' , 'l' , 'o' , '\0' };
The reason for this may become more comprehensible once you know a bit more about pointers, since then it will
be clarified that an array is in fact a constant pointer pointing to a block of memory.

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