String
The string can be defined as the one-dimensional array of
characters terminated by a null ('\0’).
The character array or the string is used to manipulate text such as
word or sentences
Each character in the array occupies one byte of memory.
The termination character ('\0') is important in a string since it is the
only way to identify where the string ends.
When we define a string as char s[10], the character s[10] is
implicitly initialized with the null in the memory.
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String Declaration
There are two ways to declare a string in c language such as By
char array and By string literal
1. Declaring String by char Array
char ch[10]={'j', 'a', 'v', 'a', 't', 'p', 'o', 'i', 'n', 't', '\0’};
As we know, array index starts from 0, so it will be represented as
in the figure given below.
2. Declaring String by Literal
char ch[]="javatpoint";
In such case, '\0' will be appended at the end of the string by the
compiler.
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Difference between char Array and string Literal
We need to add the null character '\0' at the end of the array by
ourself whereas, it is appended internally by the compiler in the
case of the character array.
The string literal cannot be reassigned to another set of characters
whereas, we can reassign the characters of the array.
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Example 1
#include<stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char ch1[9]={‘C', ‘O', ‘M', ‘P', ‘U', ‘T', ‘E', ‘R', '\0'};
char ch2[9]=“COMPUTER";
printf("Char Array Value is: %s\n", ch1);
printf("String Literal Value is: %s\n", ch2);
return 0;
}
Output
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Traversing String
Traversing string is somewhat different from the traversing an
integer array.
We need to know the length of the array to traverse an integer array,
whereas we may use the null character in the case of string to
identify the end the string and terminate the loop.
Hence, there are two ways to traverse a string: By using the length
of string and By using the null character.
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1. Traversing String by Using Length of String
Example of counting the number of vowels by using the null
character.
#include<stdio.h>
void main ()
{
char s[11] = “COMPUTERCS";
int i = 0;
int count = 0;
while(i<11)
{
if(s[i]==‘A' || s[i] == ‘E' || s[i] == ‘I' || s[i] == ‘O' || s[i] == ‘U')
{
count ++;
}
i++;
}
printf("The number of vowels %d",count); }
Output: The number of vowels 4 6.
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2. Traversing String by Using Null Character
#include<stdio.h>
void main ()
{
char s[11] = " COMPUTERCS ";
int i = 0;
int count = 0;
while(s[i] != NULL)
{
if(s[i]==‘A' || s[i] == ‘E' || s[i] == ‘I' || s[i] == ‘O' || s[i] == ‘U')
{
count ++;
}
i++;
}
printf("The number of vowels %d", count);
}
Output: The number of vowels 4
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Accepting string as the Input
Till now, we have used scanf to accept the input from the user.
However, it can also be used in the case of strings but with a
different scenario.
Consider the below code which stores the string while space is
encountered.
#include<stdio.h>
void main ()
{
char s[20];
printf("Enter the string?");
scanf("%s",s);
printf("You entered %s",s);
}
Output:
Enter the string? Computer Science is the best
You entered javatpoint 8.
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Accepting string as the Input
It is clear from the output that, the above code will not work for
space separated strings.
To make this code working for the space separated strings, the
minor changed required in the scanf function, i.e., instead of
writing scanf("%s",s), we must write: scanf("%[^\n]s", s) which
instructs the compiler to store the string s while the new line (\n) is
encountered.
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Accepting string as the Input
Let's consider the following example to store the space-separated
strings.
#include<stdio.h>
void main ()
{
char s[20];
printf("Enter the string?");
scanf("%[^\n]s",s);
printf("You entered %s",s);
}
Output:
Enter the string? Computer Science is the best
You entered javatpoint
Here we must also notice that we do not need to use address of (&)
operator in scanf to store a string since string s is an array of
characters and the name of the array, i.e., s indicates the base 10.
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Some Important Points w.r.t. String
The compiler doesn't perform bounds checking on the character
array. Hence, there can be a case where the length of the string can
exceed the dimension of the character array which may always
overwrite some important data.
Instead of using scanf, we may use gets() which is an inbuilt
function defined in a header file string.h. The gets() is capable of
receiving only one string at a time.
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C gets() Function
The gets() function enables the user to enter some characters
followed by the enter key.
All the characters entered by the user get stored in a character array.
The null character is added to the array to make it a string.
The gets() allows the user to enter the space-separated strings. It
returns the string entered by the user.
Declaration:
char[] gets(char[]);
#include<stdio.h>
void main ()
{
char s[30];
printf("Enter the string? ");
gets(s);
printf("You entered %s",s);
}
Output:
Enter the string? jComputer is the best 12.
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Drawbaack of C gets() Function
The gets() function is risky to use since it doesn't perform any array
bound checking and keep reading the characters until the new line
(enter) is encountered.
It suffers from buffer overflow, which can be avoided by using
fgets().
The fgets() makes sure that not more than the maximum limit of
characters are read.
Consider the following example.
#include<stdio.h>
void main()
{
char str[20];
printf("Enter the string? ");
fgets(str, 20, stdin);
printf("%s", str);
}
Output:
Enter the string? Computer is the best Subject
Computer is the b 13.
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C puts() Function
The puts() function is very much similar to printf() function.
The puts() function is used to print the string on the console which
is previously read by using gets() or scanf() function.
The puts() function returns an integer value representing the
number of characters being printed on the console.
Since, it prints an additional newline character with the string,
which moves the cursor to the new line on the console, the integer
value returned by puts() will always be equal to the number of
characters present in the string plus 1.
Syntax:
int puts(char[])
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C puts() Function
Let's see an example to read a string using gets() and print it on the
console using puts().
#include<stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char name[50];
printf("Enter your name: ");
gets(name); //reads string from user
printf("Your name is: ");
puts(name); //displays string
return 0;
}
Output:
Enter your name: Raza Haidri
Your name is: Raza Haidri
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C String Functions
There are many important string functions defined in "string.h"
library.
No. Function Description
1 strlen(string_name) returns the length of string name.
copies the contents of source string to
2 strcpy(destination, source)
destination string.
concats or joins first string with second
3 strcat(first_string, second_string) string. The result of the string is stored
in first string.
compares the first string with second
4 strcmp(first_string, second_string) string. If both strings are same, it
returns 0.
5 strrev(string) returns reverse string.
6 strlwr(string) returns string characters in lowercase.
7 strupr(string) returns string characters in uppercase.
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1. strlen() Function
The strlen() function returns the length of the given string. It
doesn't count null character '\0’.
#include<stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char ch[20]={‘R', ‘A', ‘Z', ‘A’, ‘H', ‘A', ‘I', ‘D', ‘R', ‘I', '\0'};
printf("Length of string is: %d",strlen(ch));
return 0;
}
Output
Length of string is: 10
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Program to find length of string using user defined
Function.
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX_SIZE 100 // Maximum size of the string
int main()
{
char text[MAX_SIZE]; /* Declares a string of size 100 */
int i;
int count= 0;
printf("Enter any string: "); /* Input a string from user */
gets(text);
/* Iterate till the last character of string */
for(i=0; text[i]!='\0'; i++)
{
count++;
}
printf("Length of '%s' = %d", text, count);
return 0; } 18.
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2. strcpy() Function
The strcpy(destination, source) function copies the source string in
destination.
#include<stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char ch[20]={‘R', ‘A', ‘Z', ‘A’, ‘H', ‘A', ‘I', ‘D', ‘R', ‘I', '\0'};
char ch2[20];
strcpy(ch2,ch);
printf("Value of second string is: %s",ch2);
return 0;
}
Output
Value of second string is: RAZAHAIDRI
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2. C program to copy one string to another string using
user defined Function
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX_SIZE 100 // Maximum size of the string
int main()
{
char text1[MAX_SIZE];
char text2[MAX_SIZE];
int i;
/* Input string from user */
printf("Enter any string: ");
gets(text1);
/* Copy text1 to text2 character by character */
for(i=0; text1[i]!='\0'; i++)
{
text2[i] = text1[i];
}
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2. C program to copy one string to another string using
user defined Function
//Makes sure that the string is NULL terminated
text2[i] = '\0';
printf("First string = %s\n", text1);
printf("Second string = %s\n", text2);
printf("Total characters copied = %d\n", i);
return 0;
}
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3. strcat() Function
The strcat(first_string, second_string) function concatenates two
strings and result is returned to first_string.
#include<stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char ch[10]={'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0'};
char ch2[10]={'c', '\0'};
strcat(ch,ch2);
printf("Value of first string is: %s",ch);
return 0;
}
Output
Value of first string is: helloc
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3. C program to concatenate two strings using user
defined Function
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
char s1[100] = "programming ", s2[] = "is awesome";
int length, j;
// store length of s1 in the length variable
length = 0;
while (s1[length] != '\0') {
++length;
}
// concatenate s2 to s1
for (j = 0; s2[j] != '\0'; ++j, ++length) {
s1[length] = s2[j];
}
// terminating the s1 string
s1[length] = '\0';
printf("After concatenation: "); puts(s1); return 0; } 23.
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4. strcmp() Function
The strcmp(first_string, second_string) function compares two
string and returns 0 if both strings are equal.
#include<stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char str1[20],str2[20];
printf("Enter 1st string: ");
gets(str1);//reads string from console
printf("Enter 2nd string: ");
gets(str2);
if(strcmp(str1,str2)==0)
printf("Strings are equal");
else
printf("Strings are not equal");
return 0;
}
Output
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12/14/2025 Enter 1st string: hello, Enter 2nd string: hello. Strings are equal
4. C program to compare two strings using user defined
Function
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX_SIZE 100 // Maximum string size
/* Compare function declaration */
int compare(char * str1, char * str2);
int main()
{
char str1[MAX_SIZE], str2[MAX_SIZE];
int res;
/* Input two strings from user */
printf("Enter first string: ");
gets(str1);
printf("Enter second string: ");
gets(str2);
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4. C program to compare two strings using user defined
Function
/* Call the compare function to compare strings */
res = compare(str1, str2);
if(res == 0)
{
printf("Both strings are equal.");
}
else if(res < 0)
{
printf("First string is lexicographically smaller than
second.");
}
else
{
printf("First string is lexicographically greater than
second.");
} return 0; } 26.
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4. C program to compare two strings using user defined
Function
/**
* Compares two strings lexicographically. Returns 0 if both
strings are equal, negative if first string is smaller
otherwise returns a positive value */
int compare(char * str1, char * str2)
{
int i = 0;
/* Iterate till both strings are equal */
while(str1[i] == str2[i])
{
if(str1[i] == '\0' && str2[i] == '\0')
break;
i++;
}
// Return the difference of current characters.
return str1[i] - str2[i]; 27.
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5. strrev() Function
The strrev(string) function returns reverse of the given string. Let's
see a simple example of strrev() function.
#include<stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char str[20];
printf("Enter string: ");
gets(str);//reads string from console
printf("String is: %s",str);
printf("\nReverse String is: %s",strrev(str));
return 0;
}
Output
Enter string: razahaidri
String is: razahaidri
Reverse String is: irdiahazar
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6. strlwr() and strupr() Function
The strlwr(string) function returns string characters in lowercase.
Let's see a simple example of strlwr() function.
#include<stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char str[20];
printf("Enter string: ");
gets(str);//reads string from console
printf("String is: %s",str);
printf("\nLower String is: %s",strlwr(str));
printf("\nUpper String is: %s",strlupr(str));
return 0;
}
Output
Enter string: RAZA Haidri
String is: RAZA Haidri
Lower String is: razahaidri 29.
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7. strstr() Function
The strstr() function returns pointer to the first occurrence of the
matched string in the given string.
It is used to return substring from first match till the last character.
Syntax:
char *strstr(const char *string, const char *match)
string: It represents the full string from where substring will be
searched.
match: It represents the substring to be searched in the full string.
#include<stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
char str[100]="this is javatpoint with c and java";
char *sub;
sub=strstr(str,"java");
printf("\nSubstring is: %s",sub);
return 0;
}
Output
javatpoint with c and java
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Homework
Write a C program to find total number of alphabets, digits or
special character in a string.
Write a C program to count total number of vowels and consonants
in a string.
Write a C program to count total number of words in a string.
Write a C program to find reverse of a string.
Write a C program to check whether a string is palindrome or not.
Write a C program to trim both leading and trailing white space
characters from given string.
Write a C program to remove all extra blank spaces from given
string.
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References
Yashwant Kanetkar, Let us C”, BPB Publications.
B. Kernighan and D. Ritchie, The ANSI C Programming Language,
PHI.
E. Balagurusamy, “Programming in ANSI C”, TMH.
Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie, The C Programming Language,
Pearson Education.
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
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