Declaration of Strings in C
String Declaration
String declaration in C refers to the process of creating a variable that can hold a string of characters.
In C, a string is declared as an array of characters.
The size of the array determines the maximum length of the string that can be stored in the variable.
The syntax for declaring a string in C is as follows:
char string_name[array_size];
Explanation
- Here,
string_name
is the name of the string variable, andarray_size
is the size of the character array that will hold the string. - It specifies the maximum number of characters that the string can hold, including the
null
terminator.
For example:
The following code declares a string named greeting that can hold up to 19 characters:
char greeting[20];
Note that when declaring a string in this way, it does not have an initial value. To give a string an initial value, you can use the following syntax:
char greeting[20] = "Hello, World!";
String Declaration - Example
Here's an example of a C program that declares a string and uses it:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
// Declare a string to store a greeting message
char greeting[20] = "Hello, World!";
// Print the greeting message to the console
printf("%s\n", greeting);
// Return 0 to indicate that the program has executed successfully
return 0;
}
Output:
Explanation
- We declare a string named
greeting
with an initial value of "Hello, World!". - We then use the
printf
function to print the contents of the string to the console. - The format specifier
%s
is used to print a string, and the\n
character is used to print a newline after the message. - Finally, the program returns 0 to indicate that it has executed successfully.