CSC10012

STRING HANDLING IN C++

FIT-HCMUS

Contents
1 Popular libraries for string handling 2
1.1 <string> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 <cstring> (string.h) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2 Essential string handling functions in <cstring> 3

2.1 strlen() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 strcpy() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3 strcat() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.4 strcmp() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.5 strchr() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.6 strstr() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.7 strtok() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.8 Others: atoi() from <cstdlib> and to_string() from <string> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Practical example 6

4 Some notes 7

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Fundamentals of Programming | CSC10012 Department of Knowledge Engineering

1 Popular libraries for string handling

1.1 <string>
• The <string> library is specifically disigned to work with strings.

• The data type used for representing strings in this library is called std::string.

• This library is a feature of C++.

• Example usage:

#include <iostream>
#include <string> // length()

using namespace std;

int main () {
string s = "";

cout << "Enter a sentence: ";

getline(cin, s); // s is a std::string -> getline(cin, s)

cout << "The content of s is: " << s << "\n";

cout << "The size of s is " << s.length() << " bytes.\n";

return 0;
}

• Learn more at: std::string C++

1.2 <cstring> (string.h)

• The <cstring> library supports string handling using C-style string (char s[256]).

• This library is available in both C and C++.

• Example usage:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring> // strlen()

#define MAXLEN 256

using namespace std;

int main() {
char s[MAXLEN];

cout << "Enter a sentence: ";

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cin.getline(s, MAXLEN); // s is a C-style string -> cin.getline(s, MAXLEN)

cout << "The content of sentence is: " << s << "\n";
cout << "The size of sentence is: " << strlen(s) << " bytes.\n";

return 0;
}

• Learn more at: <cstring> (<string.h>)

2 Essential string handling functions in <cstring>

2.1 strlen()
• Returns the length of a C-style string.

• Example usage:

char s[256] = "Sample string";

int len_s = strlen(s); // len_s = 13

2.2 strcpy()
• Copies a C-style string, including the terminating null character.

• Example usage:

char s_src[] = "Hello World"; // Source

char s_des[256]; // Destination

strcpy(s_des, s_src);
// Now s_des contains "Hello World"

2.3 strcat()
• Appends a copy of the source string to the destination string.

• Example usage:

char str[256] = "Hello ";

strcat(str, "World");
// Now str contains "Hello World"

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2.4 strcmp()
• Compares the C-style string s1 to the C-style string s2.

• Returns:

0: the contents of both strings are equal.

< 0: the first character that does not match has a lower value in s1 than in s2.
> 0: the first character that does not match has a greater value in s1 than in s2.

• Example usage:

char s1[256] = "hello";

char s2[256] = "hello";
char s3[256] = "hi";

int s1_vs_s2 = strcmp(s1, s2);

// s1_vs_s2 = 0 as s1 and s2 are equal

int s1_vs_s3 = strcmp(s1, s3);

// s1_vs_s3 < 0
// Less than 0 as the first character
// that does not match ‘e’ in s1 has lower value than ‘i’ in s2

2.5 strchr()
• Locates the first occurrence of a character in a C-style string.

• Example usage:

char str[] = "Hello world";

char* pch;
char find_char = ’u’;

pch = strchr(str, find_char);

if (pch == NULL) // str does not contain find_char

cout << "Not found " << find_char << " in str!";
else // find_char was found in str
cout << "Found " << find_char << " at " << pch - str << "!";

// Note: The position of find_char in str is (pch - str)

2.6 strstr()
• Locates the first occurrence of a C-style string s2 in C-style string s1.

• Example usage:

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char str[] = "Hello World";

char* pch;
char find_str[] = "llo";

pch = strstr(str, find_str);

if (pch == NULL) // str does not contain find_str

cout << "Not found " << find_str << " in str!\n";
else // find_str was found in str
cout << "Found " << find_str << " at " << pch - str << "!\n";

// Note: The position of find_str in str starts from (pch - str)

2.7 strtok()
• Splits a C-style string into tokens.

• Example usage:

// Splitting the string str into tokens by the following delimiters:

// space, comma, period, and hyphen

char str[] = "- This, a sample string.";

char* pch;

pch = strtok(str, " ,.-");

while (pch != NULL) {
std::cout << pch << "\n";
pch = strtok(NULL, " ,.-");
}

/*
The Console output is:
This
a
sample
string
*/

2.8 Others: atoi() from <cstdlib> and to_string() from <string>

• atoi() converts a C-style string to an integer.

• Example usage:

// Include <cstdlib>
char str_num[10] = "50";

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int num = atoi(str_num); // num = 50

• to_string() and c_str() (from the library <string>) convert an integer to a C-style string.

• Example usage:

int num = 50;

char str_num[10];
strcpy(str_num, to_string(num).c_str()); // Now str_num contains "50"

3 Practical example
Problem: Input a string containing the full name of a person. Print the person’s name in the format: FirstName
LastName.
Example:

• Input: "Nguyen Van Ty"

• Output: "Ty Nguyen"

Solution:

// Method 1:
#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

#define MAXLEN 256

using namespace std;

int main () {
char name[MAXLEN];
char split_name[10][MAXLEN]; // Contains tokens split from name
int i = 0; // Index of split_name
char* pch;

cout << "Enter a name: ";

cin.getline(name, MAXLEN);

pch = strtok (name, " ");

strcpy(split_name[i++], pch);

while (pch != NULL) {

strcpy(split_name[i++], pch);
pch = strtok (NULL, " ");
}

cout << split_name[i-1] << " " << split_name[0];

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return 0;
}

// Method 2: (Advanced)
#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

#define MAXLEN 256

using namespace std;

int main () {
char name[MAXLEN], last_name[MAXLEN], first_name[MAXLEN];
char* first_space;
char* last_space;

cout << "Enter a name: ";

cin.getline(name, MAXLEN);

first_space = strchr(name, ’ ’); // Find the first space to get last name
int len_last_name = first_space - name;
strncpy(last_name, name, len_last_name); // Copy last name from name to last_name
last_name[len_last_name] = ’\0’; // Assign the terminating null character

last_space = strrchr(name, ’ ’); // Find the last space to get first name
strcpy(first_name, last_space + 1); // Copy first name from name to first_name

cout << first_name << " " << last_name;

return 0;
}

4 Some notes
1. When working with a std::string object named s → Use the <string> library (#include <string>), and
the input statement: getline(cin, s).

2. When working with a C-style string named s (char s[256]) → Use the <cstring> library (#include <cstring>),
and the input statement: cin.getline(str, MAXLEN).

3. Ensure there is a terminating null character (’\0’) at the end of C-style string.

4. When working with a std::string object, you can convert it to a C-style string using c_str() function.
This allows you to use functions from the <cstring> library. For more information, refer to: c_str C++.

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