Module 13 – part 1 – String

operations
BITS Pilani Dr. Amitesh Singh Rajput
Pilani Campus
Department of Computer Science & Information Systems
Module Overview

• Strings
• Strings Operations

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Strings
• Strings in C are represented by arrays of characters
• End of the string is marked with a special character NULL.
• The corresponding escape sequence character is \0.
• C does not have string data type.

Declaration of strings:
char str[30];
char line[80];

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
String Initialization
char str[9] = “I like C”;
same as
char str[9]={‘I’,‘ ','l’,‘i’,‘k’,‘e’,‘ ’,‘C’,‘\0’};

Q. Is there any difference between following Initializations?

char str1[]=“BITS”;
char str2[4]= “BITS”;

Ans: Yes, in second declaration there is no null character

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Printing Strings
char text[] = “C Programming”;
printf("%s", text);

Output???
C Programming

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Reading a String (2-1)
Using scanf()
char text[30];
printf(“Enter a string: ”);
scanf(“%s”,text);
printf(“The string is : %s”, text);

Sample output:
Enter a string: hello
The string is: hello
-----------------------------------------
Enter a string: hello how are you
The string is: hello
Note: scanf() takes string without blank space

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Reading a String (2-2)
char text[30];
printf(“Enter a string: ”);
scanf(“%[a-z]s”, text);
printf(“The string is : %s”,text);

Sample output:
Enter a string: hello
The string is: hello
-----------------------------------------
Enter a string: hello123
The string is: hello
Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Reading a String (2-3)
char text[80];
printf(“Enter a string: ”);
scanf(“%[^o]s”, text);
printf(“The string is : %s”, text);

Sample output:
Enter a string: Computer Programming
The string is: C

The specifier stopped reading after first occurrence of ‘o’.

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Reading a String (2-4)
char text[180];
printf(“Enter a string: ”);
scanf(“%[^~]s”,text);
printf(“The string is : %s”,text);

Note: After ^ any character can be used to

terminate the input.

Sample output:
Enter a string: hello~world
The string is: hello

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Input String using gets()
char str[200];
printf(“Enter a string: ”);
gets(str); Or fgets(str, 200, stdin);
printf(“The string is: %s”,str);

Output
Enter a string: C programming
The string is : C programming

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Character Manipulation in the
String – eliminate spaces
int main(){ Enter the text:
char s[80], ws[80]; Computer Programming
int i, j; The text without blank space is:
printf(“Enter the text:\n”); ComputerProgramming
gets(s); /* reading text from user */
Or fgets
for(i=0,j=0; s[i]!=‘\0‘; i++){
if(s[i]!=‘ ‘)
ws[j++] = s[i];
}
ws[j]=‘\0’;

printf(“The text without blank space is:\n”);

puts(ws); /* printing text on monitor */
return;
Or fputs
}
Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Important Character functions
in ctype.h
isdigit(c) /*Returns a nonzero if c is a digit*/

islower(c) /* Returns a nonzero if c is a

lower case alphabetic character */
isalpha(c) /*Returns a nonzero if c is an
alphabet*/
isspace(c) /*Returns a nonzero for blanks */
isupper(c) /*Returns a nonzero if c is capital
letter*/
toupper(c) /* Returns upper case of c */
tolower(c) /* Returns lower case of c */

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
String Manipulation functions
in string.h
strcpy(s1,s2) /* copies s2 into s1 */

strcat(s1,s2) /* concatenates s2 to s1 */

strlen(s) /* returns the length of s */

strcmp(s1,s2) /*returns 0 if s1 and s2 are

same returns less than 0 if
s1<s2 returns greater than 0 if
s1>s2 */

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Other functions in stdlib.h and
string.h
atof(): Converts an ASCII char s1[] = "+1776.23";
string to its floating-point double my_value = atof(s1);
equivalent (type double)

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Other functions in stdlib.h and
string.h
atoi(): Converts an ASCII char s2[] = "-23.5";
string to its integer equivalent int my_value = atoi(s2);

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Other functions in stdlib.h and
string.h
strncat(): Works like strcat, char s1[50] = "Hello, world!";
but concatenates only a char s2[] = "Bye now!";
strncat (s1, s2, 3);
specified number of
characters.

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Other functions in string.h

strncmp(): Works like strcmp, char s1[] = "dogberry";

but compares only a specified char s2[] = "dogwood";
number of characters of both int comp = strncmp (s1, s2, 3);
strings.

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Other functions in string.h

strncpy(): Works like strcpy, char dest[50];

but copies only a specified char src[] = "C Program";
number of characters. strncpy (dest, src, 3);

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Other functions in string.h

strstr(): Tests whether a char s1[] = "Got food?";

substring is present in a larger char s2[] = "foo";
string. Returns a pointer to the
if (strstr (s1, s2))
first occurrence of the substring
printf("'%s' is a substring of
in the larger string, or zero if
'%s'.\n", s2, s1);
the substring is not present.

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Implementation of strcat()
void main() /* s2 is concatenated after s1 */
{
char s1[100], s2[100];
int i = 0, j = 0;
printf("Enter first string\n");
scanf("%s",s1);
printf("Enter second string\n");
scanf("%s",s2);
while(s1[i++] != '\0');
i--;
while(s2[j] != '\0')
s1[i++] = s2[j++];
s1[i] = '\0';
printf("\n Final string is:%s",s1);
}

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Palindrome problem
void main(){
char str[80];
int left, right, i, len, flag = 1;
printf("Enter a string");
for(i = 0;(str[i] = getchar())!='\n'; i++);
len = i-1;
for(left = 0,right = len; left < right; ++left,--
right)
{ if(str[left]!= str[right])
{ flag = 0;
break;
}
}
if(flag)printf("\n String is palindrome");
else
printf("\n String is not a palindrome");
}
Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
 Word counting Problem
void main(){
char text[40]; Isspace function is from library
int i = 0, count = 0; #include <ctype.h>
printf("Enter a string:");
gets(text); Or fgets
while(text[i] != '\0'){
while(isspace(text[i]))
i++; /* Repeat till first non blank character */
if(text[i] != '\0')
{
count++;
while(!isspace(text[i])&& text[i]!='\0')
i++; /* Repeat till first blank character */
}
}
printf("The number of words in the string is %d",count);
}
Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Arrays of Strings
Declaration:
char name[5][30];
Five strings each contains maximum thirty characters.

Initialization:
char[5][10]={“One”,”Two”,”Three”,”Four”,”Five”};

Other valid declarations

char[][]={“One”,”Two”,”Three”,”Four”,”Five”};

char[5][]={“One”,”Two”,”Three”,”Four”,”Five”};

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Array of Strings

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Array of Strings using Pointers

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Exercise
int main () {

char *cityPtr[] = {"Chennai", "Kolkata", "Mumbai",

"New Delhi"};

for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)

printf("\n cityPtr[%d] = %s", i, cityPtr[i] );

return 0;
}

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
String Arrays: Reading and
Displaying
void main(){
char name[5][30];
int i;
printf(“Enter five strings: \n”);

/* Reading strings */
for(i=0; i<5; i++)
scanf(“%s”, name[i]);

/* Printing strings */
for(i=0; i<5; i++)
printf(“\n%s”,name[i]);
}

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Array of Strings
Problem Statement: Write a C program that will read and store
the details of a list of students in the format
ID NAME MARKS

And produce the following output

1. Alphabetical list of Names, ID’s and Marks
2. List sorted on ID’s
3. List sorted on Marks

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Implementation (1-3)
#define N 5
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
char names[N][30], marks[N][10];
char id[N][12], temp[30];
int i, j;
/* Reading Student Details */
printf("Enter Student ID NAME and MARKS \n");
for(i = 0; i<N; i++)
scanf("%s %s %s", id[i], names[i], marks[i]);

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Implementation (2-3)
/* Alphabetical Ordering of Names */
for(i=1; i<=N-1; i++)
for(j=1; j<=N-i; j++)
if(strcmp(names[j-1], names[j])>0)
{ strcpy(temp, names[j-1]);
strcpy(names[j-1], names[j]);
strcpy(names[j], temp);
/* Swapping of marks */
strcpy(temp, marks[j-1]);
strcpy(marks[j-1], marks[j]);
strcpy(marks[j], temp);

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Implementation (3-3)
/* Swapping of ID’s */
strcpy(temp, id[j-1]);
strcpy(id[j-1], id[j]);
strcpy(id[j], temp);
}
printf("ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ID NAME & MARKS");
for(i=0; i<N; i++)
printf("%s\t%s\t %s\n",id[i],names[i],marks[i]);
return;
}

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Implementation for ID wise
Sorting
for(i=1; i<=N-1; i++){
for(j=1; j<=N-i; j++){
if(strcmp(id[j-1],id[j])>0){
strcpy(temp, id[j-1]);
strcpy(id[j-1], id[j]);
strcpy(id[j], temp);
/* Swaping of marks */
strcpy(temp, marks[j-1]);
strcpy(marks[j-1], marks[j]);
strcpy(marks[j], temp);
/* Swaping of names */
strcpy(temp, names[j-1]);
strcpy(names[j-1], names[j]);
strcpy(names[j], temp);
}
}
}
Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Home Exercise 1
1) Write a C program to implement strcpy()

2) Write a C program to implement strcmp()

3) Write a C program to search a string from an array of strings

4) Write a C program which will read a line of text and rewrite it in

the alphabetical order.

5) Write a C program to replace a particular word by another word

in a given string. Both the words are provided by the user at run
time.
Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Home Exercise 2
1) Write a C program that counts the number of vowels,
consonants, digits and other symbols in a given line of text.

2) Write a C program to reverse a string. Try not to use an extra

string and modify the source string to store the reversed string.
Number of exchanges should be minimal.

3) Write a C program to separate a given string into two strings.

All the odd positioned characters are stored in the first string
and even positioned characters in the second string.

Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus