Module 6 Guidance Notes

Arrays & Strings

ENGG1340 COMP2113
Computer Programming II Programming Technologies

Estimated Time of Completion: 3 Hours

Outline
There are 3 parts in this module:
I. (P. 3 – 47) Arrays – a basic data structure for storing a collection
of objects of the same data type. You will also learn about
performing some operations like searching and sorting of
elements stored in an array.
II. (P. 48 – 67) Char & Char Arrays – here you will learn about some
useful operations on char (one of the basic C/C++ data types),
as well as the built-in string representation (which we called C-
Strings) which is essentially some chars stored in an array.
III. (P. 68 – 93) C++ Strings – We will then go through the string
class in C++ which provides you with a handful of functions for
string operations.
2
Part I

ARRAYS

3
What are we going to learn?
• Array
• Passing array elements to functions
• Passing array to functions
• Searching / sorting an array
• Two dimensional arrays
• 2D array as function parameters
• char & char array

4
Handling Data of the Same Type
• Very often, a program needs to handle a collection of
data of the same type
• Consider the following problem:
– Write a program to input the scores of 80 students in a
class and compute their average score and output those
scores that are lower than the average.
int score_01, score_02, score_03, score_04, …, score_80;
Using individually
cin >> score_01 >> score_02 >> … >> score_80; named variables to
double average = (score_01 + score_02 + … + score_80) / 80.0; handle such data is
if (score_01 < average) cout << score_01 << endl; cumbersome,
if (score_02 < average) cout << score_02 << endl; especially for large
… datasets
if (score_80 < average) cout << score_80 << endl;

5
Arrays
• Arrays in C++ provide a convenient way to process
such data Main memory

– An array behaves like a list of 1024-1027

1028-1031
variables (of the same type) with a 1032-1035 score[0]
uniform naming mechanism 1036-1039 score[1]

– An array is a consecutive group of 1040-1043 score[2]

1044-1047 score[3]
memory locations that share the 1048-1051 score[4]
same type. 1052-1055
1056-1059
1060-1063
Note: Array is like list or tuple in Python. However,
1064-1067
elements in Python lists or tuples can be of any data … …
type. Elements in C++ arrays must be of the same
an array of 5 integers
data type.
6
 Arrays
• Each element of an array can be regarded as a variable of
the base type, and can be accessed by specifying the
name of the array and the position (index) in the subscript
operator [ ]
index

c[0] c[1] c[2] c[3] c[4] c[5] c[6] c[7] c[8]

-46 7 0 23 2048 -2 1 78 99

Name of array is c value Name of an individual element

If the array c is of type int,

then each element is of type int.

7
Indexes of Array Elements
• Array indexes always start from zero and end with the
integer that is one less than the size of the array.
c[0] c[1] c[2] c[3] c[4] c[5]
size of c is 6
-46 7 0 23 2048 -2 elements are c[0], c[1], c[2], c[3], c[4], c[5]

• An array index can be any integer expression, including

integer numerals and integer variables.

c[1] = 100;
cout << c[0] + c[1] + c[2] << endl;
int x = c[6] / 2;

int a = 1, b = 2;
c[a + b] += 2; // c[3] = c[3] + 2

int i = 4;
c[i + 1] = c[i] − 30; // c[5] = c[4] − 30
8
 Indexes of Array Elements
• The compiler will NOT report any Main memory

error when an array index that is 1024-1027

out of range is used. 1028-1031

1032-1035 score[0]
• On most systems, the program will 1036-1039 score[1]
proceed as if the index is legal and 1040-1043 score[2]
the memory cells corresponding to 1044-1047 score[3]
the nonexistent indexed variable 1048-1051 score[4]
will be accessed. 1052-1055 0
average
• This may unintentionally change 1056-1059 (double)

the values of the memory cells 1060-1063

probably belonging to some other 1064-1067

… …
variables.
• This is known as the array index out size of score is 5
what if we write
of bound error. score[5] = 0?
Try in a program and see what happens
9
Declaring an Array
• An array declaration specifies the base type, the name and the
size of the array.
Syntax
base_type array_name[size];

• Arrays are static entities in that their sizes cannot be

changed throughout program execution.
• Examples:
int score[5]; // an int array of 5 elements
char grade[8]; // a char array of 8 elements
double gpa[3]; // a double array of 3 elements

// Arrays and regular variables can be declared together

int max_score, min_score, score[5], passing_score;
10
Initialization with Initializer List
An array may be initialized in its declaration by using an equal sign
followed by a list of values enclosed within a pair of braces { }.
80 score[0]

100 score[1]

int score[5] = { 80, 100, 63, 84, 52 }; 63 score[2]

84 score[3]

52 score[4]

If an array is initialized in its declaration, the size of the array may

be omitted and the array will automatically be declared to have
the minimum size needed for the initialization values.
80 score[0]
int score[] = { 80, 100, 52 }; 100 score[1]

52 score[2]
size equals 3
11
 Initialization with Initializer List
• The compiler will report an error if too many values are
given in the initialization, e.g.,
int score[5] = {80, 100, 63, 84, 52, 96};
✗
• It is, however, legal to provide fewer values than the
number of elements in the initialization.
– Those values will be used to initialize the first few elements.
– The remaining elements will be initialized to a zero of the array
base type.
80 score[0]
100 score[1]
int score[5] = {80, 100};
0 score[2]
0 score[3]

How to initialize all elements to have value 0? 0 score[4] 12

Initialization with Initializer List
• It is illegal to initialize or change the content of the
whole array using an equal sign after its declaration.
• All the assignment statements below are therefore
invalid.
int score[5];

✗
score = { 80, 100, 63, 84, 52 };
score[] = { 80, 100, 63, 84, 52 };
score[5] = { 80, 100, 63, 84, 52 };

13
Example: Print the contents of an array with a loop
Need this library for setw()

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
// use initializer list to initialize array n
int n[10] = { 32, 27, 64, 18, 95, 14, 90, 70, 60, 37 };

cout << "Element" << setw(13) << "Value" << endl;

// output each array element's value

for ( int j = 0; j < 10; ++j )
cout << setw(7) << j << setw(13) << n[j] << endl;

return 0;
}

Using a loop to setw(): set the width (i.e., # of space) for the
access and print out next item to be printed out
each element 14
 Initialization with a Loop
• Use a loop to access each element and initialize them to
some initial values.
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
using the loop int n[10]; // n is an array 10 integers
control
// initialize elements of array n to 0
variable i as the
for ( int i = 0; i < 10; ++i )
index n[i] = 0; // set element at location i to 0

cout << "Element" << setw(13) << "Value" << endl;

// output each array element's value

Using a loop to for ( int j = 0; j < 10; ++j )
access and cout << setw(7) << j << setw(13) << n[j] << endl;
print out each
return 0;
element } 15
Using an Array
Compare the following two implementations.
• Write a program to input the scores of 80 students in a class and compute
their average score and output those scores that are lower than the average.
int score_01, score_02, score_03, score_04, …, score_80;

cin >> score_01 >> score_02 >> … >> score_80;

double average = (score_01 + score_02 + … + score_80) / 80.0;

if (score_01 < average) cout << score_01 << endl;

if (score_02 < average) cout << score_02 << endl;
…
if (score_80 < average) cout << score_80 << endl;

int total = 0, score[80], i; New version using array

for (i = 0; i < 80; ++i)
{
cin >> score[i];
total += score[i];
}
double average = total / 80.0;
for (i = 0; i < 80; ++i)
if (score[i] < average) cout << score[i] << endl;
16
 Example 1
• To specify an array's size with a constant variable and to set
array elements with calculations.
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
Only need to change
// constant variable can be used to specify array size
const int arraySize = 10; the value of
arraySize to make
int s[arraySize]; // array s has 10 elements the program scalable,
for (int i = 0; i < arraySize; ++i) // set the values i.e., for the program to
s[i] = 2 + 2*i; work for other array
sizes.
cout << "Element" << setw(13) << "Value" << endl;

// output contents of array s in tabular format

for ( int j = 0; j < arraySize; ++j )
cout << setw(7) << j << setw(13) << s[j] << endl;

return 0;
17
}
 Example 2
• Using array elements as counters, e.g., roll a die and record the
frequency of occurrences for each side.

• If frequency[i] stores the number of occurrences of face i,

then what is the array size needed for storing the frequencies?

int frequency[ 7 ];
// ignore element 0, use elements 1, 2, …, 6 only

• How to simulate a die-rolling?

Use a random number generator to generate a random number within

[1..6] using the expression rand() % 6 + 1

18
Example 2
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <ctime>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
const int arraySize = 7; // ignore element zero
int frequency[arraySize] = {}; // initialize elements to 0

srand( time(0) ); // seed random number generator

// roll die 6,000,000 times; use die value as frequency index

for (int roll = 1; roll <= 6000000; ++roll)
++frequency[ 1 + rand() % 6 ];

cout << "Face" << setw(13) << "Frequency" << endl;

// output each array element's value

for ( int face = 1; face < arraySize; ++face )
cout << setw(4) << face << setw(13) << frequency[face] << endl;

return 0;
} 19
Optional Exercises
1. Write a program to initialize an array with the integers 1-10 and
compute the sum of the 10 numbers.
2. Write a program to initialize an array with the first 10 odd integers
starting from 1, and compute the product of the 10 numbers.
3. Write a program to initialize an array with the 10 characters ‘a’ to ‘j’
and print them out in reverse.
4. Write a program to get 10 input numbers from the users, print
them out in reverse, and print out their sum.
5. Write a program to get input integers from the user repeatedly
until the user enters 0. Your program should count the number of
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 input by the user and print the frequencies out.

* Compare question 5 to the dice-rolling example in the previous slide.

20
Passing Array Elements to Functions

• Like regular variables, array elements can be passed

to a function either by value or by reference.
// returns the square of an integer To square each entry of
int square( int x ) an array
{
return x * x; int a[4] = { 0, 1, 2, 3 };
}
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i)
Pass by value {
a[i] ???
= square( a[i] );
}

What if this statement is replaced by this?

square( a[i] ); 21
Passing Array Elements to Functions

• Like regular variables, array elements can be passed

to a function either by value or by reference.
// returns the square of an integer To square each entry of
void square( int &x ) an array
{
x *= x; int a[4] = { 0, 1, 2, 3 };
}
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i)
Pass by reference {
square( a[i] );
}

22
Passing Arrays to Functions
• It is also possible to pass an entire array to a function (called an array
parameter)
• To indicate that a formal parameter is an array parameter,
a pair of square brackets [ ] is placed after its identifier in
the function header and function declaration
Syntax (function header)
type_ret func_name(base_type array_para[], …)

Syntax (function declaration)

type_ret func_name(base_type array_para[], …);

23
Passing Arrays to Functions
• Examples
Function definition
void modifyArray( int b[], int arraySize )
{
…
}

Function declaration (function prototype)

void modifyArray( int [], int);

Function call
Just need the array
int a[10];
name here; no square
modifyArray( a, 10);
brackets after the array
identifier in function call
24
Passing Arrays to Functions

• An array parameter behaves very much like a pass-by-

reference parameter.
– The call functions can modify the element values in the
callers' original arrays.
• An array argument only consists of the array
identifier, but does not provide information of its size.
– C++ does not perform check on the array bound, so we may
pass an array of any size to a function.
– Another int argument is often used to tell the function the
size of the array.

25
 Passing Arrays to Functions
int main()
{
const int arraySize = 5; // size of array a
int a[ arraySize ] = { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 }; // initialize array a

cout << "Effects of passing entire array:"

<< "\nThe values of the original array are:\n";

// output original array elements

for ( int i = 0; i < arraySize; ++i )
cout << setw( 3 ) << a[ i ];

cout << endl;

// pass array a to modifyArray

modifyArray( a, arraySize );
cout << "The values of the modified array are:\n";

// output modified array elements

for ( int j = 0; j < arraySize; ++j )
cout << setw( 3 ) << a[ j ]; See definition of modifyArray on the next
slide
return 0; 26
}
Passing Arrays to Functions

// in function modifyArray, "b" points to the

// original array "a" in memory
void modifyArray( int b[], int sizeOfArray )
{
// multiply each array element by 2
for ( int k = 0; k < sizeOfArray; ++k )
b[ k ] *= 2;
}

Effects of passing entire array:

The values of the original array are:
0 1 2 3 4
The values of the modified array are:
0 2 4 6 8 Screen output

* Note that the values of the array elements are modified by the
function, which is of a similar effect as pass-by-reference
27
Searching an Array
• A common programming task is to search an array for
a given value.
a[ 0 ] a[ 1 ] a[ 2 ] a[ 3 ] a[ 4 ] a[ 5 ] a[ 6 ] a[ 7 ] a[ 8 ]

-46 7 0 23 2048 -2 1 78 99

• Where is the item “78”? At index 7

• Where is the item “100”? Not found
• If the value is found, the index of the array element
containing the value is returned
• If the value is not found, −1 is returned

28
 Linear Search
• The simplest method is to perform a linear search in
which the array elements are examined sequentially
from first to last
a[ 0 ] a[ 1 ] a[ 2 ] a[ 3 ] a[ 4 ] a[ 5 ] a[ 6 ] a[ 7 ] a[ 8 ]

-46 7 0 23 2048 -2 1 78 99

Start from the first element, and Found!

move to the next one, until the
target item (78) is found.

How many elements need to be examined on average? Half of the array

How many elements need to be examined for the worst case? Entire array

29
Linear Search
// linear search of key value in array[]
// return the index of first occurrence of key in array[]
// return -1 if key is not found in array[]
int linearSearch( const int array[], int sizeOfArray, int key )
{
for ( int j = 0; j < sizeOfArray; ++j )
if ( array[ j ] == key ) // if found,
return j; // return location of key

return -1; // key not found

}

const int array[]: the const keyword is to specify that the contents of the
formal parameter array[] are to remain constant (i.e., not
to be changed) in this function.

30
 Linear Search search.cpp
int main()
{
const int arraySize = 10; // size of array
int a[ arraySize ]; // declare array a
int searchKey; // value to locate in array a

// fill in some data to array

for ( int i = 0; i < arraySize; ++i )
a[i] = 2 * i;

cout << "Enter an integer to search: ";

cin >> searchKey;

// try to locate searchKey in a

int element = linearSearch( a, arraySize, searchKey );

// display search results

if ( element != -1 )
cout << "Value found in element " << element << endl;
else
cout << "Value not found" << endl;

return 0;
} 31
Linear Search (Variant)
• The function linearSearch() returns only the first
occurrence of the search item.
• What if we need the locations of ALL occurrences of
the search item?
a[0] a[1] a[2] a[3] a[4] a[5] a[6] a[7] a[8]

-46 7 0 78 2048 -2 1 78 99

If search item = 78,

the program should be able to identify positions 3 and 7.

32
Linear Search (Variant)
• How to make changes to linearSearch() so that we
can make use of it to look for all occurrences of an item?
• What does linearSearch() return?
• How about if we start searching from the returned
position of a previous call of linearSearch()?
a[0] a[1] a[2] a[3] a[4] a[5] a[6] a[7] a[8]

-46 7 0 78 2048 -2 1 78 99

1st call to linearSearch(): start with pos 0, return pos 3

2nd call to linearSearch(): start with pos 4, return pos 7
3rd call to linearSearch(): start with pos 8, return -1
33
Linear Search (Variant)
• Function prototype for new linearSearch()
// linear search of key value in array[]
// starting search from startPos
// return the index of first occurrence of key in array[]
// return -1 if key is not found in array[]
int linearSearch( const int array[], int sizeOfArray,
int key, int startPos );

• The main() function also needs some modification,

so that linearSearch() will be called repeatedly
until no more search item can be found.
34
Sorting an Array
• Another most widely encountered programming task is to
sort the values in an array, e.g., in ascending/descending
order.
• There are many different sorting algorithms, e.g.,
insertion sort, bubble sort, quicksort, etc.
• One of the easiest sorting algorithms is called selection
sort.
a[0] a[1] a[2] a[3] a[4] a[5]
before -2 7 0 23 2048 -46

after sorting
in ascending order
-46 -2 0 7 23 2048

35
Selection Sort
• A total of N iterations are needed to sort N elements
• At each iteration i, i = 0, …, N-1,
– exchange a[i] with the smallest item among a[i]… a[N-1] (or
the largest, if sort in descending order)
a[0] … a[i] … a[N-1]

• An important property is that, after each iteration i,

– the elements from a[0]…a[i] are sorted,
– the elements from a[i+1]..a[N-1] remain to be sorted.

36
 : current element

Selection Sort : smallest element to

the right of current item

To sort in a[0] a[1] a[2] a[3] a[4] a[5]

ascending order
-2 7 0 23 2048 -46

Iteration 0 -2 7 0 23 2048 -46 before

(look for the smallest
element from a[0] to a[5], -46 7 0 23 2048 -2 after
and swap with a[0])

Iteration 1 -46 7 0 23 2048 -2 before

(look for the smallest element
from a[1] to a[5], and swap -46 -2 0 23 2048 7 after
with a[1])

Iteration 2 -46 -2 0 23 2048 7 before

(look for the smallest
element from a[2] to a[5], -46 -2 0 23 2048 7 after
and swap with a[2])

37
 : current element

Selection Sort : smallest element to

the right of current item

To sort in
ascending order

a[0] a[1] a[2] a[3] a[4] a[5]

Iteration 3 -46 -2 0 23 2048 7 before
(look for the smallest
element from a[3] to a[5], -46 -2 0 7 2048 23 after
and swap with a[3])

Iteration 4 -46 -2 0 7 2048 23 before

(look for the smallest element
from a[4] to a[5], and swap -46 -2 0 7 23 2048 after
with a[5])

Iteration 5 -46 -2 0 7 23 2048 before

(look for the smallest
element from a[5] to a[5], -46 -2 0 7 23 2048 after
and swap with a[5])

38
 Selection Sort
void swap(int &a, int &b)
{
// sort values in array[] in ascending order by selection sort int tmp = a;
void sort(int array[], int sizeOfArray ) a = b;
{ b = tmp;
int i, j, idx; return;
int min; }

for ( i = 0; i < sizeOfArray; ++i )

{
min = array[i];
idx = i;
for ( j = i + 1; j < sizeOfArray; ++j )
{
if ( array[j] < min ) Find the minimum from array[i] to
{ array[N-1]
min = array[j];
idx = j;
}
}
if ( idx != i )
swap( array[i], array[idx] ); // swap values : array[i]
}
}
: array[idx]
39
 Selection Sort sort.cpp

int main()
{
const int arraySize = 6; // size of array
int a[ arraySize ] = {-2, 7, 0, 23, 2048, -46}; // declare array a

cout << "Original array: ";

print_array( a, arraySize );

sort( a, arraySize );

cout << "Sorted array: "; void print_array( const int array[], int sizeOfArray )
print_array( a, arraySize ); {
for ( int i = 0; i < sizeOfArray; ++i )
return 0; cout << "[" << setw(2) << i << "] ";
} cout << endl;

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

cout << setw(3) << array[i] << " ";
cout << endl;
}

40
Two-Dimensional Arrays
• How about a table of values arranged in rows and
columns?
• A two-dimensional array (2D array):
Column 0 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

Row 0 a[0][0] a[0][1] a[0][2] a[0][3]

A 2D array with
Row 1 a[1][0] a[1][1] a[1][2] a[1][3] 3 rows and
4 columns
Row 2 a[2][0] a[2][1] a[2][2] a[2][3] (a 3-by-4 array)

array_name[row_index][column_index]

41
Two-Dimensional Arrays
• To declare a 2D array:

int score_2D[5][4];

base type array name num of rows num of columns

• Similar to the 1D case, each indexed variable of a multi-

dimensional array is a variable of the base type, e.g.,

int score_2D[5][4];
score_2D[0][0] = 80;
score_2D[4][3] = score_2D[0][0] + 20;

42
Two-Dimensional Arrays
• Initialization:

int b[2][3] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

fill up values for 1st row first, then 2nd row

b 0 1 2

0 1 2 3

1 4 5 0

43
Two-Dimensional Arrays
• Using a nested for loop to run through all elements.
const int nRows = 3;
const int nCols = 5;

int array2D[nRows][nCols];
int i, j;
// print out array contents
// assign initial values
for (i = 0; i < nRows; ++i)
for (i = 0; i < nRows; ++i)
{
for (j = 0; j < nCols; ++j)
for (j = 0; j < nCols; ++j)
array2D[i][j] = nCols*i + j;
cout << setw(3) << array2D[i][j] << ' ';
cout << endl; // start new line for each row
array2D.cpp }

44
2D Array as Function Parameter
• Recall that for using a 1D array as parameter:
void print_1D_array ( int array [], int sizeOfArray );

indicate that this is an array of int

• When a 2D array parameter is used in a function header or

function declaration, the size of the first dimension is not
given, but the remaining dimension size must be given in
square brackets.
• Now for using a 2D array as parameter:

void print_2D_array ( int array [][5], int numRows);

indicate that this is an array of int[5]

45
 int main()
{
const int nRows = 3;
2D Array as const int nCols = 5;

Function int array2D[nRows][nCols];

int i, j;

Parameter // assign initial values

for (i = 0; i < nRows; ++i)
for (j = 0; j < nCols; ++j)
array2D[i][j] = nCols*i + j;

print_2d_array( array2D, nRows );

return 0;
}

void print_2d_array( const int a[][5], int numRows)

array2D_func.cpp
{
// print out array contents
for (int i = 0; i < numRows; ++i) {
for (int j = 0; j < 5; ++j)
cout << setw(3) << a[i][j] << ' ';
cout << endl; // start new line for each row
}
} 46
 Reference Only

Multi-Dimensional Arrays
• Arrays with two or more dimensions are known as
multi-dimensional arrays. e.g. int score_3D [5][4][3];

• A multi-dimensional array is an array of arrays.

– All array elements are stored consecutively in memory,
regardless of the number of dimensions.
– E.g., int b[2][3] is a 1D array of size 2, with each
element being a 1D integer array of size 3.

b[0] the base type of

b[0] & b[1] is
memory int [3]
b[1]
47
Part II

CHAR & CHAR ARRAYS

48
char Data Type
• Recall that the data type char is used for representing
single characters, e.g., letters, digits, special symbols.
char c1 = 'a'; // the character 'a'
char c2 = '2'; // the character '2'
char c3 = '\n'; // the newline character

• Each char takes up 1 byte of storage space.

• The most commonly used character set is ASCII
(American Standard Code for Information
Interchange), which uses 0-127 to represent a
character.

49
The ASCII Character Set
Control Characters Printable Characters
0 (Null character) 32 space 64 @ 96 `
1 (Start of Header) 33 ! 65 A 97 a
2 (Start of Text) 34 " 66 B 98 b
3 (End of Text) 35 # 67 C 99 c
4 (End of Trans.) 36 $ 68 D 100 d
5 (Enquiry) 37 % 69 E 101 e
6 (Acknowledgement) 38 & 70 F 102 f
7 (Bell) 39 ' 71 G 103 g
8 (Backspace) 40 ( 72 H 104 h
9 (Horizontal Tab) 41 ) 73 I 105 i
10 (Line feed) 42 * 74 J 106 j
11 (Vertical Tab) 43 + 75 K 107 k
12 (Form feed) 44 , 76 L 108 l
13 (Carriage return) 45 - 77 M 109 m
14 (Shift Out) 46 . 78 N 110 n
15 (Shift In) 47 / 79 O 111 o
16 (Data link escape) 48 0 80 P 112 p
17 (Device control 1) 49 1 81 Q 113 q
18 (Device control 2) 50 2 82 R 114 r
19 (Device control 3) 51 3 83 S 115 s
20 (Device control 4) 52 4 84 T 116 t
21 (Negative acknowl.) 53 5 85 U 117 u
22 (Synchronous idle) 54 6 86 V 118 v
23 (End of trans. block) 55 7 87 W 119 w
24 (Cancel) 56 8 88 X 120 x
25 (End of medium) 57 9 89 Y 121 y
26 (Substitute) 58 : 90 Z 122 z
27 (Escape) 59 ; 91 [ 123 {
28 (File separator) 60 < 92 \ 124 |
29 (Group separator) 61 = 93 ] 125 }
30 (Record separator) 62 > 94 ^ 126 ~
31 (Unit separator) 63 ? 95 _
127 (Delete) 50
char and int
• Examples
Screen output
A
char c = 'A';
cout << c << endl;

Screen output
A
char c = 65;
cout << c << endl;

Since the data type of c is char, assigning an integer

to c is treated as assigning an ASCII code to c.

51
char and int
• We may use an int variable to store the value of a
char variable. In this case, the ASCII code of the char
will be stored. Screen output
A
char letter = 'A'; 65
int val = letter;

cout << letter << endl;

cout << val << endl;

52
char and int
• Arithmetic operations between char variables indeed
operates on the ASCII values of the characters.
char letter1 = 'a'; Screen output
char letter2 = 'b';
a
cout << letter1 << endl;
b
cout << letter2 << endl;
-1
cout << letter1 – letter2 << endl; 25
cout << 'z' – 'a' << endl; a

letter2--;
cout << letter2 << endl;

53
char and int
• More examples Screen output

50
char c = '1';
int num = c + 1;
cout << num << endl;

The statement int num = c + 1 takes the ASCII value of '1' (i.e., 49)
for the addition operation.
Screen output

D
char from = 'd';
char to = from – ('a' – 'A');
cout << to << endl;

This is a technique to convert a small letter to its corresponding capital

letter. The expression 'a' – 'A' tells the difference in ASCII values
between a small letter and its capital letter.
54
Comparisons for char Data Type
• How to determine if a letter is in lowercase or uppercase?

char letter;
cin >> letter;

if ( letter >= 'a' && letter <= 'z' )

cout << letter << " is in lowercase." << endl;
else if ( letter >= 'A' && letter <= 'Z' )
cout << letter << " is in uppercase." << endl;

Since the ASCII codes of the small letters and the capital letters are in
order, we may use the relational operators (<, >, <=, >=) and equality
operators (==, !=) to compare between characters.
55
 Character Handling Functions
The <cctype> header file contains handy functions for character
handling. Here are some examples:

int isdigit(int c) Returns a nonzero (true) value if c is a digit, and 0 (false) otherwise

int isalpha(int c) Returns a nonzero (true) value if c is a letter, and 0 (false) otherwise

int isalnum(int c) Returns a nonzero (true) value if c is a digit or a letter, and 0 (false) otherwise

int islower(int c) Returns a nonzero (true) value if c is a lowercase letter, and 0 (false) otherwise

int isupper(int c) Returns a nonzero (true) value if c is an uppercase letter, and 0 (false) otherwise
If c is an uppercase letter, returns c as lowercase letter. Otherwise, returns the
int tolower(int c)
argument unchanged.
If c is a lowercase letter, returns c as an uppercase letter. Otherwise, returns the
int toupper(int c)
argument unchanged.

Reference only: check http://cplusplus.com/reference/cctype/ for more character handling functions

56
#include <iostream>
#include <cctype>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
char a;

a = '7';
cout << a << (isdigit(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "a digit" << endl;
a = '$';
cout << a << (isdigit(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "a digit" << endl;

a = 'B';
cout << a << (isalpha(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "a letter" << endl;
a = 'b';
cout << a << (isalpha(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "a letter" << endl; charfunc.cpp
a = '4';
cout << a << (isalpha(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "a letter" << endl;

a = 'Z';
cout << a << (islower(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "a lowercase letter" << endl;
a = 'z';
cout << a << (islower(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "a lowercase letter" << endl; We will rewrite
a = '5';
this program in
cout << a << (islower(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "a lowercase letter" << endl;
C in part IV later.
a = 'M';
cout << a << (isupper(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "an uppercase letter" << endl;
a = 'm';
cout << a << (isupper(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "an uppercase letter" << endl;
a = '#';
cout << a << (isupper(a) ? " is " : " is not ") << "an uppercase letter" << endl;

return 0;
}
57
Character Handling Functions
Screen output of charfunc.cpp
7 is a digit
$ is not a digit
B is a letter
b is a letter
4 is not a letter
Z is not a lowercase letter
z is a lowercase letter
5 is not a lowercase letter
M is an uppercase letter
m is not an uppercase letter
# is not an uppercase letter

58
Text as Strings
We talked about characters.
How about if we want to represent a sequence of
characters?
cout << "Hello World!" << endl;

Strings are a sequence of characters and in C++ we use a

pair of double quotation marks to enclose a string.

"Hello World!"
“COMP2113"
"@_@"

59
 C-Strings (Character Arrays)
The low-level internal representation in C/C++ of a string
(i.e., how a string is stored in memory) is an array of char
(i.e., a character array), which is ended by a null character
('\0'). We call this a C-String or a null-terminated string.
The internal representation of the string "Hello World!"
A character array of 13 elements

'H' 'e' 'l' 'l' 'o' ' ' 'W' 'o' 'r' 'l' 'd' '!' '\0'

the space character the null character to

indicate the end of
Each element is of type char string
A question: What is the minimum size of an array for
holding a string of N characters?
Answer: N+1
60
C-Strings (Character Arrays)
• What is the difference between 'A' and "A"?
'A' 'A' '\0'
a char ‘A’ is represented internally a string "A" is represented internally
(i.e., in memory) using one byte using two bytes 'A' and '\0'

• What is the difference between '0' and '\0'?

'0' '\0'
the byte value of this char is 48, the byte value of this char is 0,
representing the digit 0 representing the null character

Also refer to the ASCII table on this page.

61
C-Strings (Character Arrays)

• Declaring a character array and assign a string to it:

char name[16] = { 'J', 'o', 'h', 'n', '\0'};

• Examples:
char name[16] = { 'J', 'o', 'h', 'n', '\0'};
cout << name;
John

Screen output

You can see that C++ treats the character array name[] as a string

62
C-Strings (Character Arrays)
Or you can simply do the followings to declare a C-
string:
char name[16] = "John"; 1

char name[] = "John"; 2

What's the difference between the above two declarations?

In 1 , the size of the array name is of 16 chars;
and in 2 , the size is of 5 chars (i.e., C/C++
automatically determines the array size in this case.)
Q: Why is the size 5 chars in case 2? 63
C-Strings (Character Arrays)
• Like regular arrays, it is not possible to copy blocks of data
to a character array using an equal sign (i.e., an
assignment) after its declaration.
• Hence, all the assignment statements below are invalid.

char name[16];

name = { 'J', 'o', 'h', 'n', '\0' };

name[] = { 'J', 'o', 'h', 'n', '\0' }; ✗
name = "John";
name[] = "John"; ✗
64
C-Strings (Character Arrays)
We may access each individual character using the subscript
operator [], just as for an ordinary array.
Screen output

char name[] = "Steve"; Steve

cout << name << endl; Stove

name[2] = ‘o';
cout << name << endl;

65
The Null character
Recall that the null character '\0' is to indicate end of string.

What is the output of the following program segment?

Screen output

char name[] = "Steve"; Steve

cout << name << endl; Steven??@#v

Since the null character is overwritten, we

name[5] = 'n'; have an unexpected end of string. The
cout << name << endl; ‘garbage’ byte contents in the memory
that follows the array memory will just be
printed out, as if they constitute part of
the string.
Note that here we overwrite the null
character '\0' at name[5] with 'n', so
In this particular example, the size of
what will be the output of the cout name[] is 6. The cout statement will also
statement? risk an index-out-of-bound error. 66
Working with C-Strings
• cout and cin can be used for I/O for C-strings:

char msg[] = "Please enter your name: ";

char name[80];
Please enter your name:
Steve
cout << msg;
Hello Steve!
cin >> name << endl;
Screen output

cout << "Hello " << name << "!" << endl;

Side-notes only: The <cstring> header in C++ provides a set of functions for C-
string manipulation, e.g., string copy strcpy(), string compare strcmp(), string
length strlen(). See http://cplusplus.com/reference/cstring/ for details.

67
Part III

C++ STRINGS

68
What are we going to learn?
• The string class
• String concatenation
• String comparison
• String I/O
• Member functions of the string class for string manipulation, e.g.,
– string::length()
– string::empty()
– string::substr()
– string::find()
– string::rfind()
– …

69
The string Class
• Handling C-string is rather low level, e.g., one will need to deal
with the internal representation (i.e., the character array) and
the null characters.
• C++ standard library provides a class (i.e., programmer defined
data type) named string for more convenient handling of
strings.
• You may think of C++ string as a wrapper/container for
handling char arrays. It provides handy string operations so
basically you don’t need to care about its underlying
representation.

70
String Initialization
• We need to include the header file <string> to use the class
string:
#include <string>

• A string object can be declared using the class name string and
initialized with a C-string or another string object:

char a[80] = "Hello"; // a C-string

string msg1 = a; // initialized with a C-string
string msg2 = "World"; // initialized with a string literal
string msg3 = msg1; // initialized with a string object

71
String Assignment
• The string class has its own end-of-string representation, for
which we do not need to handle.

• Unlike C-string, we can initialize or change a string object using

an assignment statement after its declaration:

char a[80] = "Hello"; // C-string declaration

string msg1, msg2, msg3; // string declarations

msg1 = a; // initialized with a C-string

msg2 = "World"; // initialized with a string literal
msg3 = msg1; // initialized with a string object

Compare the above with C-string declaration on this slide 72

String – Subscript Operator
• We may also access individual character using the subscript
operator []:

string msg = "Hello World!";

msg[11] = '?';

cout << msg << endl;

Hello World?

Screen output

73
String Concatenation
• Two strings can be concatenated to form a longer string using
the binary operator +
I love cats
string msg1 = "I love ";
string msg2 = "cats"; I love dogs
string msg3 = msg1 + msg2;
string msg4 = msg1 + "dogs";
string msg5 = "I hate " + msg2 + " and dogs";
I hate cats and dogs

• Note that at least one of the operands of + must be a string

object. Here, both operands are
string literals (i.e.,
constants)

string msg = "I love " + "dinosaurs";

✗ 74
String Comparison
• Strings can be compared lexicographically (dictionary order)
using relational (>, <, >=, <=) and equality (==, !=) operators.
The comparison is carried out in a character by character
manner from left to right.
Note: at least one
string msg1 = "Apple", msg2 = "apple"; of the operands
string msg3 = "apples", msg4 = "orange"; need to be a string
object
bool c1 = msg1 == msg2;
bool c2 = msg1 < msg2;
bool c3 = msg2 < msg3;
bool c4 = msg3 != msg4;
bool c5 = msg4 > msg3;

c1 ?
false c2 ?
true c3 ?
true c4 ?
true c5 ?
true

75
I/O with String Objects
• Both cout and cin support string objects.
• The insertion operator << and extraction operator >> work the
same for string objects as for other basic data types

string msg;
cin >> msg;
cout << msg;

• Note that:
– The extraction operator >> ignores whitespace at the beginning of input
and stops reading when it encounters more whitespaces.
– The word received by a string object will therefore have any leading and
trailing whitespace deleted.
– Cannot read in a line or string that contains one or more blanks

76
I/O with String Objects
Example
Please input a sentence:
#include <iostream> I love dogs
#include <string> Word 1 = "I"
using namespace std; Word 2 = "love"
Word 3 = "dogs"
int main()
{ Screen output
string word1, word2, word3;
cout << "Please input a sentence: " << endl;

cin >> word1 >> word2 >> word3;

Use \" for a "
cout << "Word 1 = \"" << word1 << "\"\n" character in a
<< "Word 2 = \"" << word2 << "\"\n" string
<< "Word 3 = \"" << word3 << "\"\n";
return 0;
}
string_io.cpp

How do we read in an entire line including spaces from the input then? 77
Reading a Line from Input
• We use the library function getline() to read in a line from
the standard input and store the line in a string:

string s;
cout << "Please input a sentence: " << endl;
getline(cin, s);
cout << "s = \"" << s << "\"\n";
string_getline.cpp

Please input a sentence:

I love dogs
s = "I love dogs"
Screen outputs

78
 Reading a Line from Input
• The function getline() can be used to read in a line from
the current position until a delimitation character is
encountered

string s;
cout << "Input 2 comma-separated phrases: " << endl;
getline(cin, s, ',');
cout << "1st phrase = \"" << s << "\"\n";

string_getline.cpp

As you can see, without

Input 2 comma-separated phrases: providing the third
argument (‘,’ in this case),
Stay hungry, stay foolish the default delimitation
1st phrase = "Stay hungry" character for the getline
function is the newline
Screen outputs character ‘\n’.

79
Member Functions
• The class string has a number of member functions which
facilitate string manipulation, which includes
– string::length() – returns length of the string
– string::empty() – returns whether the string is empty
– string::substr() – returns a substring
– string::find() – finds the first occurrence of content in the
string
– string::rfind() – finds the last occurrence of content in the
string
– string::insert() – inserts content into the string
– string::erase() – erases characters from the string
– string::replace() – replaces part of the string
More member functions can be found at http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string,
but you are expected to be get familiar with the above functions only for this course. 80
string::length()
• Returns the number of characters in a string object

string s = "Stay hungry, stay foolish";

int n = s.length();
cout << "s has " << n << " characters. " << endl;

Note we use . to invoke the member

function of a string object. s has 25 characters.
E.g., here s.length() means that we
call the string::length() member Screen outputs
function of the string object s.

81
 string::empty()
• Returns true if a string object is empty; false otherwise
string s;
if (s.empty())
cout << "s is empty." << endl;
else
cout << "s has " << s.length() << " characters.\n";

s is empty.
What if s = " "?
Is this an empty string? Screen outputs
No, this is a string with a space
character, and its length is 1.

82
string::erase()
• Erase n characters starting at a specific position pos from
the current string
• Note that the string will be modified

[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]
text S t a y h u n g r y , s t a y f o o l i s h

text.erase(11, 6)
Resulting string:
"Stay hungry foolish" pos n

83
 Example
string firstName = "Alan";
string name = firstName + " Turing";
string str1 = "It is sunny. ";
string str2 = "";
string str3 = "C++ programming.";
string str4 = firstName + " is taking " + str3;

cout << str1.empty() << endl;

cout << str2.empty() << endl;
str3.erase(11,4);
cout << str3 << endl;
cout << firstName.length() << endl; 0
cout << name.length() << endl; 1
cout << str4 << endl; C++ program.
4
string_op.cpp 11
Alan is taking C++ programming.

Screen outputs

84
 string::substr()
• Returns a substring of the current string object
starting at the character position pos and having a
length of n characters
[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]
text S t a y h u n g r y , s t a y f o o l i s h

text.substr(0, 11) text.substr(18)

pos n

The second parameter is omitted,

this extracts a substring till the end of string.

85
string::substr()
Example
string s; Screen outputs
string str;
It is
cloudy
s = "It is cloudy and warm."; cloudy and warm.
warm.
cout << s.substr(0, 5) << endl; is clo
cout << s.substr(6, 6) << endl; It is cl
cout << s.substr(6, 16) << endl; is cloudy
cout << s.substr(17, 10) << endl;
cout << s.substr(3, 6) << endl;
str = s.substr(0, 8);
cout << str << endl;
str = s.substr(2, 10);
cout << str << endl;
substring.cpp

86
 string::find()
• Searches a string object for a given string str, and returns the
position of the first occurrence
find(str)

• When pos is specified the search only includes characters at or

after position pos, ignoring any possible occurrences in previous
locations.
find(str, pos)

• If there is no occurrence of str, the constant value

string::npos (i.e., –1) will be returned.

87
string::find()
This example shows
Example that the search is case-
string s = "Outside it is cloudy and warm."; sensitive
string t = "cloudy";

cout << s.find("is") << endl;

cout << s.find('s') << endl;
Screen outputs
cout << s.find(t) << endl;
cout << s.find('i', 6) << endl; 11
cout << s.find('o') << endl; 3
if (s.find("the") == -1) 14
cout << "not found" << endl; 8
if (s.find("the") == string::npos) 16
cout << "not found" << endl; not found
not found
string_find.cpp

88
 string::rfind()
• Searches the current string object for the content specified
in str, and returns the position of the last occurrence
This is essentially to search in the
rfind(str) reverse direction from the end of
the string

• When pos is specified the search only includes characters at

or before position pos, ignoring any possible occurrences in
later locations.
rfind(str, pos)

• If there is no occurrence of str, the constant value

string::npos (i.e., –1) will be returned.

89
string::rfind()
Example
string s = "Outside it is cloudy and warm.";
string t = "cloudy";

cout << s.rfind("is") << endl;

cout << s.rfind('s') << endl;
cout << s.rfind(t) << endl; Screen outputs
cout << s.rfind('i', 6) << endl;
cout << s.rfind('o') << endl; 11
if (s.rfind("the") == -1) 12
14
cout << "not found" << endl;
4
if (s.rfind("the") == string::npos) 16
cout << "not found" << endl; not found
not found
string_rfind.cpp

90
string::insert()
• Inserts the content specified in str at position pos of
the current string

[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

text S t a y h u n g r y

v e r y

text.insert(5, "very ")

Resulting string: "Stay very hungry" pos str

91
string::replace()
• Replaces n characters starting at position pos from
the current string by the content specified in str

[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

text S t a y h u n g r y

f u n n

text.replace(5, 5, "funn")

pos n str
Resulting string: "Stay funny"
92
Example

string s1 = "Cloudy and warm.";

string s2 = "Angel is taking programming.";
string t1 = " very";
string t2 = "Nelson";

cout << s1.insert(10, t1) << endl;

cout << s2.replace(0, 5, t2) << endl;

string_insert_replace.cpp Cloudy and very warm.

Nelson is taking programming.

Screen outputs
93
We are happy to help you!

“If you face any problems in understanding the materials,

please feel free to contact me, our TAs or student TAs.
We are very happy to help you!
We wish you enjoy learning programming in this class ☺.”

94