CSE101-Lec#11

String Object

Created By:
Amanpreet Kaur &
Sanjeev Kumar
SME (CSE) LPU

 Formatted Input: Stream extraction operator

cin >> stringObject;
the extraction operator >> formats the data
that it receives through its input stream; it skips
over whitespace
Unformatted Input: getline function for a
string
getline( cin, s)
does not skip over whitespace
delimited by newline
reads an entire line of characters into s
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string s = ABCDEFG;
getline(cin, s); //reads entire line of characters
into s

Not necessarily null terminated

string is not a pointer, but a class
Many member functions take start
position and length
If length argument too large, max chosen

Creating String Objects

#include <string>
//string initialization

string type in the <string>

header file.

string s; //s contains 0 characters

string s1( "Hello" ); //s1 contains 5 characters
string s2 = Hello; //s2 contains 5 characters
//implicitly calls the constructor
string s3( 8, 'x' ); //s3 contains 8 'x' characters
string s4 = s3;
//s4 contains 8 'x' characters
string s5(s2, 3, 2); //s5 copies a substring of s2; it contains lo

string_characteristics.cpp

String Objects
The C++ string class also defines a length() function for extracting
how many characters are stored in a string.

cout << s.length() << endl;

Prints 4 for the string s == Leon

You can also use the subscript operator [ ] to access individual

characters:
e.g.
s[0] = N ;
//where index: 0 to length-1

String Objects

C++ strings can be compared using relational operators just like

fundamental types:
If(s2 < s5)
cout << s2 lexicographically precedes s5 \n;
while(s4==s3) //

'B' is lexicographically greater than 'A'

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Sample order: A,Apple, Banana, Zest, a, apricot,

leon

compare.cpp

String Objects

You can also concatenate C++ strings using the + and += operators:
string s = ABCD*FG;
string s2 = Robot;
string s5 = Soccer;
string s6 = s + HIJK; //changes s6 to ABCD*FGHIJK
s2 += s5; //changes s2 to RobotSoccer
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String Objects

Substring function:

substr()

s6 = ABCD*FGHIJK;
s4 = s6.substr(5, 3); //changes s4 to FGH

s4 gets a substring of s6, starting at index 5 and taking 3

characters

String Objects

erase() and replace() functions:

s6 = ABCD*FGHIJK;
s6.erase(4, 2); //changes s6 to ABCDGHIJK;
s6.replace(5, 2, xyz); //changes s6 to ABCDGxyzJK;
replace 2 characters from s6, starting at
index 5, with xyz
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String Objects

find() function
returns the index of the first occurrence of a given substring:
string s7 = Mississippi River basin; //23 characters
cout << s7.find(si) << endl; //prints 3
cout << s7.find(so) << endl; //prints 23, the length of the string

If the find() function fails, it returns the

length of the string it was searching.
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i.e.

find() returns 4,294,967,295

Assignment
Assignment
s2 = s1;
Makes a separate copy

s2.assign(s1);
Same as s2 = s1;

myString.assign(s, start, N);

Copies N characters from s, beginning at index start

Individual character assignment

s2[0] = s3[2];

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Range-checking
Range-checking
s3.at( index );
Returns character at index
Can throw an out_of_range exception

[] has no range checking

#include <exception>
...
string s = "leon";
try{
char letter = s.at( 50 );
cout <<"letter is = " << letter << endl;
}

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catch(exception& e){
cout << "out_of_range exception: " << e.what() << endl;
}
string_characteristics.cpp

Concatenation
Concatenation
s3.append( "pet" );
s3 += "pet";
Both add "pet" to end of s3

s3.append( s1, start, N );

Appends N characters from s1, beginning at index
start

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Comparing strings

Overloaded operators
==, !=, <, >, <= and >=
returns bool

s1.compare(s2)

returns positive if s1 is lexicographically greater

compares letter by letter
'B' lexicographically greater than 'A
a lexicographically greater than A
a lexicographically greater than Z

returns negative if less; zero if equal

Sample order: A,Apple, Banana, Zest, a, apricot, leon

s1.compare(start, length, s2, start, length)

Compare portions of s1 and s2

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s1.compare(start, length, s2)

Compare portion of s1 with all of s2

Compare.cpp

Substrings
Function substr gets a substring
s1.substr( start, N );
gets N characters, beginning with index
start
returns substring

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Swapping strings
s1.swap(s2);
Switch contents of two strings

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string Characteristics
Member functions
s1.size() and s1.length()
Number of characters in a string

s1.capacity()
Number of elements that can be stored without
reallocation

s1.max_size()
Maximum possible string size

s1.empty()
Returns true if empty

s1.resize(newlength)
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Resizes string to newlength

string_characteristics.cpp

Finding Strings and Characters in a string

Find functions
If found, index returned
If not found, string::npos returned
Public static constant in class string

s1.find( s2 )
s1.rfind( s2 )
Searches right-to-left

s1.find_first_of( s2 )
Returns first occurrence of any character in s2
Example:
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s1.find_first_of( "abcd" )

Returns index of first 'a', 'b', 'c' or 'd'

others.cpp

Finding Strings and Characters in a string

Find functions
s1.find_last_of( s2 )
Finds last occurrence of any character
in s2

s1.find_first_not_of( s2 )
Finds first character NOT in s2

s1.find_last_not_of( s2 )
Finds last character NOT in s2
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others.cpp

Replacing Characters in a string

s1.erase( start )
Erase from index start to end of string,
including start

Replace
s1.replace( begin, N, s2)
begin: index in s1 to start replacing
N: number of characters to replace
s2: replacement string

s1.replace( begin, N, s2, index, num )

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index: element in s2 where replacement comes

from
num: number of elements to use when replacing

Replace can overwrite characters

others.cpp

Example
s1.replace( begin, N, s2, index, num )
begin: index in s1 to start replacing
N: number of characters to replace
s2: replacement string
index: element in s2 where replacement comes
from
num: number of elements to use when replacing
string str = "this is an example string.";
string str3="sample phrase";
str.replace(19,6, str3, 7, 6);
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// "this is an example phrase."

Inserting Characters into a string

s1.insert( index, s2 )
Inserts s2 before position index

s1.insert( index, s2, index2, N );

Inserts substring of s2 before position index
Substring is N characters, starting at index2

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others.cpp

Summary
C++ strings are safer and easier to use than C string.

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25

Method

Use

append(char *pt);
append(char *pt, size_t count);
append(string &str, size_t
offset,size_t count);
append(string &str);
append(size_t count, char ch);
append(InputIterator Start,
InputIterator End);

Appends characters to a string from C-style strings, char's or other string objects.

at(size_t offset);

Returns a reference to the character at the specified position. Differs from the
subscript operator, [], in that bounds are checked.

begin();

Returns an iterator to the start of the string.

*c_str();

Returns a pointer to C-style string version of the contents of the string.

clear();

Erases the entire string.

copy(char *cstring, size_t count,

size_t offset);

Copies "count" characters into a C-style string starting at offset.

empty();

Test whether a string is empty.

end();

Returns an iterator to one past the end of the string.

erase(iterator first, iterator last);

erase(iterator it);
erase(size_t pos, size_t count);

Erases characters from the specified positions.

Method

Use

find(char ch,size_t offset = 0);

find(char *pt,size_t offset = 0);
find(string &str,size_t offset =
0);

Returns the index of the first character of the substring when found. Otherwise,
the special value "npos" is returned.

find_first_not_of();

Same sets of arguments as find. Finds the index of the first character that is not
in the search string.

find_first_of();

Same sets of arguments as find. Finds the index of the first character that is in
the search string.

find_last_not_of();

Same sets of arguments as find. Finds the index of the last character that is not in
the search string.

find_last_of();

Same sets of arguments as find. Finds the index of the last character that is in the
search string.

insert(size_t pos, char *ptr);

insert(size_t pos, string &str);
insert(size_t pos, size_t count,
char ch);
insert(iterator it, InputIterator
start, InputIterator end);

Inserts characters at the specified position.

push_back(char ch);

Inserts a character at the end of the string.

replace(size_t pos, size_t count,

char *pt);
replace(size_t pos, size_t count,
string &str);
replace(iterator first, iterator
last, char *pt);
replace(iterator first, iterator
last, string &str);

Replaces elements in a string with the specified characters. The range can be
specified by a start position and a number of elements to replace, or by using
iterators.

size();

Returns the number of elements in a string.

swap(string &str);

Swaps two strings.

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