C Programming

Introduction

week 13: Strings

Lecturer : Cao Tuan Dung
Dept of Software Engineering
Hanoi University of
Technology
For HEDSPI Project
 Strings
• An array of characters
• Used to store text
• Another way to initialize:
char str[] = "Text";
 The terminator

…. 'H'
's' '#'
'e' ''l'' 'f'
'l' 'd'
'o' 'y'
'' 'w'
'4' '7'
'o' '$'
'r' '_'
'l' 'e'
'd' '\0'
'g' 'd' '.' 'p' 'v' ….

str

Terminator
 The Terminator
• Strings terminate with NULL character, signed
by '\0' (ascii code 0)
• This is a convention used to know where the
string ends
• It means that in order to hold a string of N
characters we need an array of length N + 1
• So the previous initialization is equivalent to
char str[] = {'b', 'l', 'a', 'b', 'l', 'a', '\0'};
 String library
• Like in the case of stdio.h and math.h, we
have a special library for handling strings
• We should #include <string.h>
 String library
• Functions:
– strlen(const char s[])
returns the length of s
– strcmp(const char s1[],
const char s2[])
compares s1 with s2
– strcpy(char s1[],
const char s2[])
copies to contents of s2 to s1
– strncpy(char s1[],
const char s2[], int n)
n is the maximum number of characters to be
appended.

– strcat(char s1[], const char s2[])

– strncat(char s1[], const char s2[], int n)
– and more…
 Example
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main()
{
char s1[ 20 ] = "Happy "; // char *s1 = “Happy” is not allowed
char s2[] = "New Year ";
char s3[ 40 ] = "";
printf( "s1 = %s\ns2 = %s\n", s1, s2 ); // s3 = “Hello” is not allowed
printf( "strcat( s1, s2 ) = %s\n", strcat( s1, s2 ) );
printf( "strncat( s3, s1, 6 ) = %s\n", strncat( s3, s1, 6 ) );
printf( "strcat( s3, s1 ) = %s\n", strcat( s3, s1 ) );
return 0;
}
s1 = Happy
s2 = New Year
strcat( s1, s2 ) = Happy New Year
strncat( s3, s1, 6 ) = Happy
strcat( s3, s1 ) = Happy Happy New Year
String Conversion Functions
• Conversion functions
– In <stdlib.h> (general utilities library)
• Convert strings of digits to integer and
floating-point values

Prototype Description
double atof( const char *nPtr ) Converts the string nPtr to double.
int atoi( const char *nPtr ) Converts the string nPtr to int.
long atol( const char *nPtr ) Converts the string nPtr to long int.
 Character Analysis and
Conversion
Functions Description
(ctype.h)
isalpha Check if the argument is a letter

isdigit Check if the argument is one of the

ten digits
isspace Check if argument is a space, newline
or tab.
tolower Converts the upper case lowercase
letters in the argument to letters
toupper Converts the lowercase letters in the
argument to upper case letters.
 String conversion function
Prototype Description
double atof( const char *nPtr ) Converts the string nPtr to double.
int atoi( const char *nPtr ) Converts the string nPtr to int.
long atol( const char *nPtr ) Converts the string nPtr to long int.
 Arrays of Strings
• An array of strings is a two-
dimensional array of characters in
which each row is one string.
– char names[People][Length];
– char month[5][10] = {“January”,
“February”, “March”, “April”,
“May”};
 Exercise 13.1
• Write a program that inputs a line of
text, counts the number of blanks by
using a function, and displays the
number of blanks.
 Solution
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int spacecounter(char []); // Function

prototype

void main(void)
{
char line[81];
printf("Enter a line of text:\n");
gets(line);
printf("Blanc character occurs for: %d
time in the line.\n", spacecounter(line));
}
 Solution
int spacecounter(char inputline[])
{
int i = 0;
int count = 0;
while (inputline[i] != '\0') {
if (inputline[i] == ' '){
count++;
}
i++;
}
return count
}
 Exercise 13.2
• write a function that:
– gets a string and two chars
– the functions scans the string and replaces every
occurrence of the first char with the second one.
• write a program to test the above function
– the program should read a string from the user (no
spaces) and two characters, then call the function
with the input, and print the result.
• example
– input: “papa”, „p‟, „m‟
– output: “mama”
 Solution (function)
void replace(char str[], char replace_what,
char replace_with)
{
int i;

for (i = 0; str[i] != '\0'; ++i)

{
if (str[i] == replace_what)
str[i] = replace_with;
}
}
 Solution (main program)
#define STRING_LEN 100

int main(void)
{
char str[STRING_LEN + 1];
char replace_what, replace_with;

printf("Please enter a string (no spaces)\n");

scanf("%100s", str);

printf("Letter to replace: ");

scanf(" %c", &replace_what);

printf("Letter to replace with: ");

scanf(" %c", &replace_with);

replace(str, replace_what, replace_with);

printf("The result: %s\n", str);

return 0;
}
 Exercise 13.3
• Write a program that tests a
customer number to determine
whether it is in the proper
format(LLLNNNN with LLL are letters
and NNNN are digits).
 Solution: testNum function
int testNum(char custNum[])
{
int count;
if (strlen(cusNum)!=7) return 0;
// Test the first three characters for alphabetic letters
for (count = 0; count < 3; count++)
{
if (!isalpha(custNum[count]))
return 0;
}
// Test the last 4 characters for numeric digits
for (count = 3; count < 7; count++)
{
if (!isdigit(custNum[count]))
return 0;
}
return 1;
}
 Solution: main program
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>

int testNum(char []);

void main(void)
{
char customer[8];
printf("Enter a customer number with exact 7 characters
in the form LLLNNNN\n";
printf("LLL = letters and NNNN = numbers): ";
scanf("%s",customer);
if (testNum(customer))
printf("That's a valid customer number.\n";
else
{
printf("That is not the proper format of the
customer number.\nHere is an example: ABC1234\n");
}
}
 Exercise 13.3
• Write your own replacement for the
standard strcpy() that comes with C
without using string.h
 Solution
char *my_strcpy(char *destination, char
*source)
{
char *p = destination;
while (*source != '\0')
{
*p++ = *source++;
}
*p = '\0';
return destination;
}
 Bài tập bổ sung
• Viết hàm trimRight(char a[]) loại bỏ tất cả
các ký tự trắng liền nhau ở cuối xâu a.
• Viết hàm trimLeft(char a[]) loại bỏ tất cả
các ký tự trắng liền nhau ở đầu xâu a.
• Viết hàm trimMiddle(char a[]) đưa tất cả
các dấu trắng liền nhau ở giữa xâu về 1.
• Test với xâu:
• “ Cong hoa xa hoi CNVN .“
Bài tập: Hàm chuẩn hóa tên
• Viết hàm thực hiện chuẩn hóa một tên
tiếng Việt như sau:
– Không có các dấu cách thừa
– Chữ cái bắt đầu các từ phải là Hoa, các chữ
cái còn lại là chữ thường.
– Hàm thao tác trực tiếp trên xâu đối số,
không trả về xâu mới dùng lệnh return
• Test hàm bằng chương trình đơn giản
• Ví dụ:” Tran hoa BINH .”  “Tran
Hoa Binh.”
 Exercise 13.4
• Write a program asks the user to
enter his or her first and last names,
separated by a space. Then print out
the first name.
• The program shoud use a function
which cuts off the last name off the
string in parameter.
 Solution
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

void nameSlice(char []); // Function prototype

void main(void)
{
char name[41];
printf("Enter your first and last names, separated
by a space:\n");
gets(name);
nameSlice(name);
printf("Your first name is: %s\n", name);
}
 Solution
// This function accepts a character array as its
// argument. It scans the array looking
// for a space. When it finds one, it replaces it
// with a null terminator.

void nameSlice(char userName[])

{
int count = 0;
while (userName[count] != ' ' &&
userName[count] != '\0')
count++;
if (userName[count] == ' ')
userName[count] = '\0';
}
 Exercise 13.5
• Write the function strend(s,t), which
returns 1 if the string t occurs at the
end of the string s, and zero
otherwise.
 Exercise 13.6: Using strstr
• A list of product number and description of shop
is:
"TV127 31 inch Television",
"CD057 CD Player",
"TA877 Answering Machine",
"CS409 Car Stereo",
"PC655 Personal Computer"
• Store this list in an array of string and write a
program allowing user to lookup a product
description by entering all or part of its product
number.
 Solution
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h> // For strstr

void main(void)
{
char prods[5][27] = {"TV127 31 inch Television",
"CD057 CD Player",
"TA877 Answering Machine",
"CS409 Car Stereo",
"PC655 Personal Computer"};
char lookUp[27], *strPtr = NULL;
int index;
printf("\tProduct Database\n\n");
printf("Enter a product number to search for: ");
scanf("%s",lookUp);
 Solution
//Fill in here…
 Exercise 13.7
• Write a program that accepts a string
from the user
and replaces all punctuation signs
(,.;:!?) with spaces
 Solution (str_any.c)
char* str_any(char* str1, char* str2)
{
while (*str1 != '\0')
{
if (strchr(str2, *str1) != NULL) {
return str1;
}
++str1;
}

return NULL;
}
 Solution
int main(void)
{
char* punc = ".,;:!?";
char s[MAX_LENGTH + 1];
char *p;

printf("Please enter a line of text\n");

scanf("%100s", s);

for (p = str_any(s, punc);

p != NULL;
p = str_any(p + 1, punc)) {
*p = ' ';
}

printf("Resulting string is:\n%s\n", s);

return 0;
}
 Bài tập bổ sung – Mã hóa
• Phương pháp mã hóa cổ điển các văn
bản được thực hiện như sau:
a) Dịch ký tự sang k bước trong bảng chữ
cái, và xoay vòng tròn. Ví dụ: a -> c, b-
>d, z ->b. Việc giải mã được thực hiện
ngược lại.
– Viết hàm mã hóa và giải mã một xâu
ký tự với giá trị bước dịch chuyển tùy
biến ở dạng tham số.
– Sử dụng hàm trên để mã hóa một
đoạn văn bản nhập từ bàn phím sau
đó giải mã.
Bài tập bổ sung – Thống kê
tần suất
• Cho một đoạn văn bản, thống kê tần
suất xuất hiện của tất cả các ký tự là
chữ cái và chữ số.
 Homework
• The number plate for motorcycles in
Hanoi is structured as follows:
DD-LDDDD.DD
• where D is a digit. L is a letter. The first
DD is in the range of 29 – 32.
• Write a function
checkValidNumberPlate(String s[]) that
return 1 if the number plate is valid and
0 if not. Test the function in a program,
which repeats asking user to input the
different number plates.
 BTBosung – Shift function
• write a function that make all the
characters of a string shift left 1
position:
– « hello »  « elloh »
• write a corresponding shift right
function.
– « hello »  « ohell »
 get Sub String
#include <string.h>
main(){
char from[10] = "12345678";
char *to;
to=strndup(from+2, 5);
}