C Programming: How to Define Strings Correctly

In C language, there are various ways to define a string.

1. Character arrays can be used to define strings. For example:

char str[] = "Hello, world!";

In this example, the character array ‘str’ will automatically allocate enough memory to store the string, including the null terminator at the end of the string.

1. Character pointers can be used to define strings. For example:

char *str = "Hello, world!";

In this example, the character pointer str points to the first address of the string constant “Hello, world!”.

1. Initializing with Character Arrays: It is possible to use a character array to initialize a character array that has already been defined. For example:

char str[20];
strcpy(str, "Hello, world!");

In this example, a character array named str is first defined, and then the string “Hello, world!” is copied to str using the strcpy function.

It should be noted that in C language, strings are actually stored in the form of character arrays with the null character \0 serving as the ending marker for the string.