String
From C
There is no string datatype in C.
What is often called a "string" in C is actually an array of characters terminated by a null ('\0') character. For example:
char foo1[] = "abcd";
char foo2[] = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', '\0'};
...in the above example both foo1 and foo2 are identical "C strings". This also means that you can't assign string values, like:
char foo_src[] = "abcd"; char foo_dst[] = "1234"; /* doesn't work */ foo_dst = foo_src;
...you have to assign each value in the source array to a value in the destination array. Eg.
char foo_src[] = "abcd"; char foo_dst[] = "1234"; foo_dst[0] = foo_src[0]; foo_dst[1] = foo_src[1]; foo_dst[2] = foo_src[2]; foo_dst[3] = foo_src[3];
...this code can also be generalized to...
unsigned int num = 0;
while (foo_src[num]) /* copy characters until the null character ('\0') in foo_src */
{
foo_dst[num] = foo_src[num];
++num;
}
foo_dst[num] = 0; /* terminate foo_dst with a null */
...note that in the above both arrays are of size four and that if foo_dst was initially declared containing "xyz" then it wouldn't be possible to copy foo_src into it, as it would only have a size of three.
The above while loop is basically what strcpy() can do, although it is documented to work as an atomic unit so you can't do things like...
/* doesn't work */ strcpy(foo_src, foo_src + 1);
An array of characters will also often be called a buffer, and have a non-trivial amount of space allocated. This is often used in programs communicating over the network. Eg.
char buf1[4096]; char *buf2 = malloc(4096); copy_data_into_buf(buf1, 4096);
In the above buf1 and buf2 are of equal size (assuming the malloc call didn't fail), however sizeof(buf1) is 4096, and sizeof(buf2) is the size of a character pointer.
The biggest problem for the programer managing using C-style strings is a "buffer overflow", which is where memory is accessed outside of the range allocated. This is often why it is recommended that programs use a dynamic string API that cannot fail.
vstring is such an API.
See also StringsByExample.
