LECTURE NOTES / LAB HANDOUTS

PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS (312-313) WEEK. 9

OBJECT: To Understand C-Strings, C-String Variables, Reading Embedded Blanks, Reading
Multiple Lines, Arrays Of Strings, String Class In C++, Defining And Accessing String
Objects And Understanding Some String Class Member Functions.

STRINGS
Strings are used to represent text. They are set of characters that can also contain alphabets,
spaces, numbers and other symbols. C++ provides following two types of string representations:
• The C-style character string.
• The string class type introduced with Standard C++.

C-STRINGS
The C-String originated within the C language and continues to be supported within C++. This string
is actually a one-dimensional array of characters which is terminated by a null character '\0'. Thus a
null-terminated string contains the characters that comprise the string followed by a null.
The following declaration and initialization create a string consisting of the word "Hello". To hold
the null character at the end of the array, the size of the character array containing the string is one
more than the number of characters in the word "Hello."

Declaration Syntax:
char str [Size];

Initialization:
char str [] = {'H','e','l','l','o','\0'};
OR
char str[] = "Hello";

INPUT/OUTPUT WITH C-STRINGS

Input: cin>> str ; Output: cout<<str ;

To access single character: cout<<str[4];

Reading Embedded Blanks

cin.get(str, SIZE);
Here str represents string array and SIZE is maximum number of characters
Reading Multiple Lines
cin.get(str, SIZE, TERMINATING_CHARCTER);
Here str represents string array, SIZE is maximum number of characters and
TERMINATING_CHARCTER is a single character which stops the input

Course Instructor: Nazish Basir Page: 1/8

Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Sindh.
LECTURE NOTES / LAB HANDOUTS
PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS (312-313) WEEK. 9

PROGRAM 1: Demonstrate Simple C-string

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char str1[] = {'H','e','l','l','o','\0'};
char str2[] = "Welcome";

cout<<str1<<" "<<str2<<endl;
char str3[20]; //string variable str
cout << "Enter a string: ";
cin.get(str3, 20); //put string in str
cout << "You entered: " << str3 << endl;
return 0;
}

PROGRAM 2: Demonstrate multiline input

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
const int MAX = 2000;
char str[MAX];
int main()
{
cout << "Enter a string:"<<endl;
cin.get(str, MAX, '$'); //terminate with $
cout << "You entered:"<<endl << str << endl;
return 0;
}

PROGRAM 3: Demonstrate array of String

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
const int DAYS = 7;
const int MAX = 10;
char star[DAYS][MAX] = { "Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday",
"Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday" };
for(int j=0; j<DAYS; j++)
cout << star[j] << endl;
return 0;
}

Course Instructor: Nazish Basir Page: 2/8

Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Sindh.
LECTURE NOTES / LAB HANDOUTS
PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS (312-313) WEEK. 9

THE STRING CLASS IN C++

The standard C++ library provides a string class type that supports all the operations mentioned
above, additionally much more functionality.

DEFINING AND ASSIGNING STRING OBJECTS

You can define a string object in several ways:
string s1(“Man”);
string s2 = “Beast”;
string s3;

You can concatenate one string object with another:

s3 = “Neither “ + s1 + “ nor “;

You can also use the += operator to append a string to the end of an existing string:
s3 += s2;

You can exchange the values of strings:

s1.swap(s2);

INPUT/OUTPUT WITH STRING OBJECTS

Input: cin>> s1 ; Output: cout<<s1 ;

To access single character: cout<<str[4];

Reading Embedded Blanks

getline(cin, str);
First argument is stream object from which the input will come in this case (cin) and second argument str
represents string object
Reading Multiple Lines
getline(cin, str, TERMINATING_CHARCTER);
First argument is stream object from which the input will come in this case (cin), second argument str represents
string object and TERMINATING_CHARCTER is a single character which stops the input

Course Instructor: Nazish Basir Page: 3/8

Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Sindh.
LECTURE NOTES / LAB HANDOUTS
PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS (312-313) WEEK. 9

PROGRAM 4: Demonstrate defining and assigning string objects

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
string s1(“Man”); //initialize
string s2 = “Beast”; //initialize
string s3;
s3 = s1; //assign
cout << “s3 = “ << s3 << endl;
s3 = “Neither “ + s1 + “ nor “; //concatenate
s3 += s2; //concatenate
cout << “s3 = “ << s3 << endl;
s1.swap(s2); //swap s1 and s2
cout << s1 << “ nor “ << s2 << endl;
return 0;
}

PROGRAM 5: Demonstrate string class input/output

#include <iostream>
#include <string> //for string class
using namespace std;
int main()
{ //objects of string class
string full_name, nickname, address;
string greeting(“Hello, “);
cout << “Enter your full name: “;
getline(cin, full_name); //reads embedded blanks
cout << “Your full name is: “ << full_name << endl;
cout << “Enter your nickname: “;
cin >> nickname; //input to string object
greeting += nickname; //append name to greeting
cout << greeting << endl; //output: “Hello, Jim”
cout << “Enter your address on separate lines\n”;
cout << “Terminate with ‘$’\n”;
getline(cin, address, ‘$’); //reads multiple lines
cout << “Your address is: “ << address << endl;
return 0;
}

Course Instructor: Nazish Basir Page: 4/8

Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Sindh.
LECTURE NOTES / LAB HANDOUTS
PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS (312-313) WEEK. 9

SOME STRING FUNCTIONS

• The length() member function, which returns the number of characters in the string object.
• The find() function looks for the string used as its argument in the string for which it was
called.
• The find_first_of() function looks for any of a group of characters, and returns the position
of the first one it finds.
• The function find_first_not_of() finds the first character in its string that is not one of a
specified group.
• The erase() function removes a substring from a string. Its first argument is the position of
the first character in the substring, and the second is the length of the substring.
• The replace() function replaces part of the string with another string. The first argument is
the position where the replacement should begin, the second is the number of characters in
the original string to be replaced, and the third is the replacement string.
• The insert() function inserts the string specified by its second argument at the location
specified by its first argument.
• The append() function add characters at the end of the sentence the first argument is the
number of characters to append, and the second is the character to be appended.
• The substr() member function. It returns a substring of the string for which it was called. Its
first argument is the position of the substring, and the second is the number of characters. If
second argument is not passed, string till end is taken as substring
• The clear() function deletes all character from string

PROGRAM 6: Demonstrates finding substrings in string objects

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main(){
string s1 = "We all should respect everyone";
cout<<s1<<endl;
cout<<"Total Characters: "<<s1.length()<<endl;
int n;
n = s1.find("respect");
cout << "Found respect at index: " << n << endl;
n = s1.find_first_of("abcd");
cout << "First of spde at index: " << n << endl;
n = s1.find_first_not_of("aeiouAEIOU");
cout << "First consonant at: " << n << endl;
return 0;
}

Course Instructor: Nazish Basir Page: 5/8

Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Sindh.
LECTURE NOTES / LAB HANDOUTS
PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS (312-313) WEEK. 9

PROGRAM 7: Demonstrates changing parts of string objects

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main() {
string s1("Quick! call the Police.");
string s2("Doctor");
string s3("Don't ");
s1.erase(0, 7); //remove "Quick! "
s1.replace(9, 6, s2); //replace "Police" with "Doctor"
s1.replace(0, 1, "C"); //replace 'S' with 's'
s1.insert(0, s3); //insert "Don't " at beginning
s1.erase(s1.size()-1, 1); //remove '.'
s1.append(3, '!'); //append "!!!"
int x = s1.find(' '); //find a space
while( x < s1.size() ) //loop while spaces remain
{
s1.replace(x, 1, "/"); //replace with slash
x = s1.find(' '); //find next space
}
cout << "s1: " << s1 << endl;
return 0;
}

PROGRAM 8: Demonstrates substring of string objects

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main() {
string s1 = "His Name is Rizwan";
string s2 = s1.substr(12);
cout<<s1<<endl;
cout<<s1.substr(4,4)<<":"<<s2;
return 0;
}

Course Instructor: Nazish Basir Page: 6/8

Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Sindh.
LECTURE NOTES / LAB HANDOUTS
PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS (312-313) WEEK. 9

PASSING ARRAYS TO FUNCTIONS

Arrays can be used as arguments to functions. In a function declaration, array arguments are
represented by the data type and size of the array. For Example:
void display(char[3][3]);

You can also write declaration without size:

void display(char[][3]);

Function doesn’t need the size of the first dimension as two dimensional array is an array of arrays.
It doesn’t need to know how many elements there are, but it does need to know how big each
element is. Following is the declaration of one dimensional array:
void somefunc( int elem[] );

PROGRAM 1: Demonstrates a double dimensional array by creating a board for tic-tac-toe by

using a function which is taking array as an argument.
#include<iostream>
#include<conio.h>
using namespace std;

void display(char[3][3]);

int main(){
char arr[3][3]={{' ',' ',' '},
{' ',' ',' '},
{' ',' ',' '}};
for (int i=0 ; i<3 ; i++)
for (int j=0 ; j<3 ; j++)
{
display(arr);
cout<<"Please Enter X or O";
cin>>arr[i][j];
system("cls");
}
}
void display(char a[3][3])
{
cout<<"\n\n\n -----------\n";
for (int i=0 ; i<3 ; i++){
for (int j=0 ; j<3 ; j++)
cout<<" | "<<a[i][j];
cout<<" |\n -----------\n\n";
}
}

Course Instructor: Nazish Basir Page: 7/8

Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Sindh.
LECTURE NOTES / LAB HANDOUTS
PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS (312-313) WEEK. 9

EXERCISE 1:
Write a simple program that asks the user for a Car registration number and then verifies that by:
• Using a length function to make sure 6 characters were entered, use cout for displaying
error if user enters less or more letters.
• Check the first three character to make sure they are alphabetic. You can use
the isalpha(char) function for this.
• Check the last three character to make sure they are numeric. You can use
the isdigit(char) function for this.
• Include “ctype.h” for both isalpha() and isdigit() functions
Enter car registration number: GF121
Sorry Enter again
Enter car registration number: B121N1
Sorry Enter again
Enter car registration number: BAN123
Registration Number Verified

EXERCISE 2:
Write a program that reads a commercial website URL from user; you should expect that the URL
starts with ‘www.’ and ends with ‘.com’
Retrieve the name of the site and output it. For instance, if the user inputs www.yahoo.com, your
program should output yahoo.
Enter URL: www.youtube.com
Name of Site: youtube

Course Instructor: Nazish Basir Page: 8/8

Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Sindh.