Arrays in C Programming
An array is a variable that can store multiple values. For example, if we want to store 100
integers, we can create an array for it.
An array is defined as the collection of similar type of data items stored at contiguous
memory locations. Arrays are the derived data type in C programming language which can
store the primitive type of data such as int, char, double, float, etc.
Arrays are defined as Homogenous collection of data elements.
It also has the capability to store the collection of derived data types, such as pointers,
structure, etc. The array is the simplest data structure where each data element can be
randomly accessed by using its index number.
C array is beneficial if you have to store similar elements. For example, if we want to store
the marks of a student in 6 subjects, then we don't need to define different variables for the
marks in the different subject. Instead of that, we can define an array which can store the
marks in each subject at the contiguous memory locations.
Properties of Array
The array contains the following properties.
o Each element of an array is of same data type and carries the same size, i.e., int = 4
bytes.
o Elements of the array are stored at contiguous memory locations where the first element
is stored at the smallest memory location.
o Elements of the array can be randomly accessed since we can calculate the address of
each element of the array with the given base address and the size of the data element.
Advantage of C Array
1) Code Optimization: Less code to the access the data.
2) Ease of traversing: By using the for loop, we can retrieve the elements of an array easily.
3) Ease of sorting: To sort the elements of the array, we need a few lines of code only.
4) Random Access: We can access any element randomly using the array.
Disadvantage of C Array
1) Fixed Size: Whatever size, we define at the time of declaration of the array, we can't exceed
the limit. So, it doesn't grow the size dynamically like LinkedList which we will learn later.
Declaration of C Array
We can declare an array in the c language in the following way.
data_type array_name[array_size];
The example to declare the array.
int marks[5];
Here, int is the data_type, marks are the array_name, and 5 is the array_size.
Initialization of C Array
The simplest way to initialize an array is by using the index of each element. We can initialize
each element of the array by using the index. Consider the following example.
1. marks[0]=80;//initialization of array
2. marks[1]=60;
3. marks[2]=70;
4. marks[3]=85;
5. marks[4]=75;
Memory diagram of an Array: If we declare an array of size 5 then it will be stored into the
memory in following manner:
int arr[5];
Always the memory location starts from zero to n-1. Where n is the size of the array.
C Array: Declaration with Initialization
We can initialize the c array at the time of declaration. Let's see the code.
1. int marks[5]={20,30,40,50,60};
In such case, there is no requirement to define the size. So it may also be written as the
following code.
1. int marks[]={20,30,40,50,60};
Sorting an array
#include<stdio.h>
void main ()
{
int i, j,temp;
int a[10] = { 10, 9, 7, 101, 23, 44, 12, 78, 34, 23};
for(i = 0; i<10; i++)
{
for(j = i+1; j<10; j++)
{
if(a[j] > a[i])
{
temp = a[i];
a[i] = a[j];
a[j] = temp;
}
}
}
printf("Printing Sorted Element List ...\n");
for(i = 0; i<10; i++)
{
printf("%d\n",a[i]);
}
}
Program to print the largest and second largest element of
the array.
#include<stdio.h>
void main ()
{
int arr[100],i,n,largest,sec_largest;
printf("Enter the size of the array?");
scanf("%d",&n);
printf("Enter the elements of the array?");
for(i = 0; i<n; i++)
{
scanf("%d",&arr[i]);
}
largest = arr[0];
sec_largest = arr[1];
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
if(arr[i]>largest)
{
sec_largest = largest;
largest = arr[i];
}
else if (arr[i]>sec_largest && arr[i]!=largest)
{
sec_largest=arr[i];
}
}
printf("largest = %d, second largest = %d",largest,sec_largest);
}
Two-Dimensional Array in C
The two-dimensional array can be defined as an array of arrays. The 2D array is organized as
matrices which can be represented as the collection of rows and columns. However, 2D arrays
are created to implement a relational database lookalike data structure. It provides ease of
holding the bulk of data at once which can be passed to any number of functions wherever
required.
Declaration of two-dimensional Array in C
The syntax to declare the 2D array is given below.
data_type array_name[rows][columns];
Consider the following example.
int twodimen[4][3];
Here, 4 is the number of rows, and 3 is the number of columns.
Initialization of 2D Array in C
In the 1D array, we don't need to specify the size of the array if the declaration and initialization
are being done simultaneously. However, this will not work with 2D arrays. We will have to
define at least the second dimension of the array. The two-dimensional array can be declared
and defined in the following way.
int arr[4][3]={{1,2,3},{2,3,4},{3,4,5},{4,5,6}};
Two-dimensional array example in C
#include<stdio.h>
int main(){
int i=0,j=0;
int arr[4][3]={{1,2,3},{2,3,4},{3,4,5},{4,5,6}};
//traversing 2D array
for(i=0;i<4;i++){
for(j=0;j<3;j++){
printf("arr[%d] [%d] = %d \n",i,j,arr[i][j]);
}//end of j
}//end of i
return 0;
}
Output
arr[0][0] = 1
arr[0][1] = 2
arr[0][2] = 3
arr[1][0] = 2
arr[1][1] = 3
arr[1][2] = 4
arr[2][0] = 3
arr[2][1] = 4
arr[2][2] = 5
arr[3][0] = 4
arr[3][1] = 5
arr[3][2] = 6
2D array example: Storing elements in a matrix and printing it.
#include <stdio.h>
void main ()
{
int arr[3][3],i,j;
for (i=0;i<3;i++)
{
for (j=0;j<3;j++)
{
printf("Enter a[%d][%d]: ",i,j);
scanf("%d",&arr[i][j]);
}
}
printf("\n printing the elements ....\n");
for(i=0;i<3;i++)
{
printf("\n");
for (j=0;j<3;j++)
{
printf("%d\t",arr[i][j]);
}
}
1. }
Output
Enter a[0][0]: 56
Enter a[0][1]: 10
Enter a[0][2]: 30
Enter a[1][0]: 34
Enter a[1][1]: 21
Enter a[1][2]: 34
Enter a[2][0]: 45
Enter a[2][1]: 56
Enter a[2][2]: 78
printing the elements ....
56 10 30
34 21 34
45 56 78
Strings in C Programming
String in C programming is a sequence of characters terminated with a null character ‘\0’.
Strings are defined as an array of characters. The difference between a character array and a
string is the string is terminated with a unique character ‘\0’.
Declaration of Strings
Declaring a string is as simple as declaring a one-dimensional array. Below is the basic
syntax for declaring a string.
char str_name[size];
In the above syntax str_name is any name given to the string variable and size is used to
define the length of the string, i.e the number of characters strings will store.
Note: There is an extra terminating character which is the Null character (‘\0’) used to
indicate the termination of a string that differs strings from normal character arrays.
When a Sequence of characters enclosed in the double quotation marks is encountered by
the compiler, a null character ‘\0’ is appended at the end of the string by default.
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."
char greeting[6] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0'};
If you follow the rule of array initialization then you can write the above statement as follows
−
char greeting[] = "Hello";
Following is the memory presentation of the above defined string in C/C++ −
Actually, we do not place the null character at the end of a string constant. The C compiler
automatically places the '\0' at the end of the string when it initializes the array. Let us try to
print the above mentioned string −
#include <stdio.h>
int main () {
char greeting[6] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0'};
printf("Greeting message: %s\n", greeting );
return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −
Greeting message: Hello
C supports a wide range of functions that manipulate null-terminated strings −
[Link]. Function & Purpose
1 strcpy(s1, s2);
Copies string s2 into string s1.
2 strcat(s1, s2);
Concatenates string s2 onto the end of string s1.
3 strlen(s1);
Returns the length of string s1.
4 strcmp(s1, s2);
Returns 0 if s1 and s2 are the same; less than 0 if s1<s2; greater than 0 if s1>s2.
5 strchr(s1, ch);
Returns a pointer to the first occurrence of character ch in string s1.
6 strstr(s1, s2);
Returns a pointer to the first occurrence of string s2 in string s1.