6.

Characters and Strings

A C-string is an array of characters terminated with a null character, denoted as ​'\0' which is equivalent to
ASCII 0. For example,
char message[] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0'};
char message[] = "Hello"; ​// same as above

Clearly, the length of array is the length of string plus 1, to account for the terminating null character ​'\0'​.

You can use ​scanf() to input a string, and ​printf() to print a string, with %s conversion specifier. For
example,
1#include <stdio.h>
2#include <string.h>
3
4int main() {
5 char message[256];
6 ​// The length of char array shall be sufficient to hold the string
7 ​// plus the terminating null character '\0'
8 printf("Enter a message: ");
9 scanf("%s", message);
10 ​// Do not place an & before the array variable
11 printf("The message is: %s\n", message);
12 ​// Print up to but not including the terminating null character '\0'
13
14 ​// print each characters
15 int i;
16 for (i = 0; message[i] != '\0'; ++i) {
17 printf("'%c' ", message[i]);
18 }
19 printf("\n");
20
21 int len = strlen(message);
22 ​// Length of string does not include terminating null character '\0'
23 printf("The length of string is %d\n", len);
24 }

Enter a message: ​hello

The message is: hello
'h' 'e' 'l' 'l' 'o'
The length of string is 5

Take note that you need to allocate a ​char array that is big enough to hold the input string including the
terminating null character ​'\0'​.
6.1 Character Type and Conversion in <
​ ctype.h>​ Header
Function Description
int ​isalpha​(int c); [a-zA-Z] Check the character's type and return true
int ​isdigit​(int c); [0-9] (non-zero) or false (0)
int ​isalnum​(int c); [a-zA-Z0-9]
int ​isxdigit​(int c); [0-9A-Fa-f]
int ​isspace​(int c); [ \t\n]
int ​iscntrl​(int c); Control character
int ​ispunct​(int c); Punctuation character
int ​isprint​(int c); Printable character
int ​isgraph​(int c); Graphical character
​ supper​(int c);
int i [A-Z] Check if uppercase/lowercase and return true
int i​ slower​(int c); [a-z] (non-zero) or false (0)
​ oupper​(int c);
int t To Uppercase Return the uppercase/lowercase character, if ​c​ is a
int t​ olower​(int c); To Lowercase lowercase/uppercase character; otherwise, return ​c​.

6.2 String/Number Conversion in ​<stdlib.h>​ Header

The ​stdlib.h​ contains function prototypes for conversion between string and numbers.

Function Description
int ​atoi​(const char * str); String to ​int Convert the ​str​ to
double ​atof​(const char * str); String to ​double int/double/long/long long​.
long ​atol​(const char * str); String to ​long
long long ​atoll​(const char * str); String to ​long long
double ​strtod​(const char* str, String to ​double Convert the ​str​ to
char** endptr); String to ​float double/float​.
float ​strtof​(const char* str, If ​endptr​ is not a null pointer,
char** endptr); it will be set to point to the first
character after the number.
long ​strtol​(const char* str, String to ​long Convert the ​str​ to
char** endptr, int base); String to ​unsigned long/unsigned long​.
unsigned long ​strtoul​(const char* long
str, char** endptr, int base);

6.3 String Manipulation in ​<string.h>​ Header

Function Description
char* ​strcpy​(char* dest, const char* String copy Copy ​src​ into ​dest​.
src); String copy at most Return ​dest​.
char* ​strncpy​(char* dest, const char* n-chars
src, size_t n);
char* ​strcat​(char* dest, const char* String concatenation Concatenate ​src​ into
src); String concatenation at dest​.
char* ​strncat​(char* dest, const char* most n-char Return ​dest​.
src, size_t n);
int ​strcmp​(const char* s1, const char* String compare Comparing ​s1​ and
s2); String compare at most s2​.
int ​strncmp​(const char* s1, const char* n-char Return 0, less than 0,
s2, size_t n); more than 0
if ​s1​ is the same, less
than, more than ​s2​.
int ​strlen​(const char* str); String Length Return the length of
str
(excluding
terminating null char)
​ trchr​(const char* str, int c);
char* s Search string for char Return a pointer to
char* s​ trrchr​(const char* str, int c); Search string for char the first/last
reverse occurrence
of ​c​ in ​str
if present. Otherwise,
return ​NULL​.
char* ​strpbrk​(const char* str, const Search string for char in Locate the first
char* pattern); pattern occurrence in ​str
of ​any character in
pattern​.
char* ​strstr​(const char* str, const Search string for sub-string Return a pointer to
char* substr); the first occurrence
of ​substr​ in ​str
if present. Otherwise,
return ​NULL​.
char* ​ trspn​(const char* str, const
s Search string for span of
char* substr); substr
char* ​strcspn​(const char* str, const Search string for
char* substr); complement span of
substr
char* ​strtok​(char* str, char *delimit); Split string into tokens
void* ​memcpy​(void *dest, const void Memory block copy
*src, size_t n); Memory block move
void* ​memmove​(void *dest, const void Memory block compare
*src, size_t n); Search memory block for
int ​memcmp​(const void *p1, const void char
*p2, size_t n); Memory block set (fill)
void* ​memchr​(void *ptr, int value,
size_t n);
void* ​memset​(void *ptr, int value,
size_t n);
6.4 char/string IO in ​<stdio.h>​ Header
Function Description
int getchar(); Get character (from Input/Output a character
int putchar(int c); stdin​) from ​stdin/stdout​.
Put character (to
stdout​)
int getc(FILE *stream); Get character (from Input/Output a character
int putc(int c, FILE *stream); FILE stream) from ​FILE​ stream.
int ungetc(int c, FILE *stream); Put character (to FILE
stream)
Un-get character (to
FILE stream)
char* gets(char *str); Get string (from Input/Output string
int puts(const char* str); stdin​) from ​stdin/stdout​.
Put string (to ​stdout​)
int sprintf(char *str, const Formatted print (to Formatted string input/output.
char *format, ...); string) Similar to ​printf()​ and ​scanf()​,
int sscanf(char *str, const char Formatted scan (from except that the output/input comes
*format, ....); string) from the ​str​.