Simple strings in C

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A character string is a sequence of characters.

C has limited (and cumbersome) string handling.

For now, we will just input and output text and not do text processing.

Below is a simple C program to do string input and output. Note the following.

The length of strings is chosen as 256 since C does not provide for dynamic length strings.
In this course (unless otherwise specified), strings will always be read at the end of a line of input. The specifier "%[^\n]s" means to read the string until the end of the line. Otherwise, the first space would terminate that string.

Here is the C code.

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
	// declarations
	char s1[256];
	// input
	printf("Please enter some text.\n");
	scanf("%[^\n]s",&s1);
	printf("You entered \"%s\".\n",s1);
	return 0;
	}

Here are some examples of input and output for the above program code.

Here is an example input.

Hello, World!

For the above example input, here is the expected output.

Please enter some text.
You entered "Hello, World!".

Here is an example input.

Goodbye for now.

For the above example input, here is the expected output.

Please enter some text.
You entered "Goodbye for now.".

The following C program shows how to input an integer followed by a text string. Note the following.

In the format string "%d " there is a space character after the "%d". That space character "eats" the space in the input. Otherwise, that space character would appear in the string (and in the output().

Here is the C code.

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
	// declarations
	int age1;
	char name1[256];
	// input
	printf("Please enter your age and name.\n");
	scanf("%d %[^\n]s",&age1,&name1);
	printf("You entered age %d and name \"%s\"\n",age1,name1);
	// output
	printf("\n");
	printf("Hello \"%s\", you are %d years old.\n",name1,age1);
	return 0;
	}

Here are some examples of input and output for the above program code.

Here is an example input.

22 John Smith

For the above example input, here is the expected output.

Please enter your age and name.
You entered age 22 and name "John Smith"

Hello "John Smith", you are 22 years old.

Here is an example input.

19 Jane Doe

For the above example input, here is the expected output.

Please enter your age and name.
You entered age 19 and name "Jane Doe"

Hello "Jane Doe", you are 19 years old.

Here is the output of the C code.