Learn C practically and Get Certified .

Popular Tutorials

Popular examples, reference materials, learn c interactively, introduction.

  • Getting Started with C
  • Your First C Program
  • C Variables, Constants and Literals
  • C Data Types

C Input Output (I/O)

  • C Programming Operators

Flow Control

  • C if...else Statement
  • C while and do...while Loop
  • C break and continue
  • C switch Statement
  • C goto Statement
  • C Functions
  • C User-defined functions
  • Types of User-defined Functions in C Programming
  • C Recursion
  • C Storage Class

Programming Arrays

  • C Multidimensional Arrays
  • Pass arrays to a function in C

Programming Pointers

Relationship Between Arrays and Pointers

  • C Pass Addresses and Pointers
  • C Dynamic Memory Allocation
  • C Array and Pointer Examples

Programming Strings

C programming strings.

String Manipulations In C Programming Using Library Functions

  • String Examples in C Programming

Structure and Union

  • C structs and Pointers
  • C Structure and Function

Programming Files

  • C File Handling

C Files Examples

Additional Topics

  • C Keywords and Identifiers
  • C Precedence And Associativity Of Operators
  • C Bitwise Operators
  • C Preprocessor and Macros
  • C Standard Library Functions

C Tutorials

  • Find the Frequency of Characters in a String
  • Sort Elements in Lexicographical Order (Dictionary Order)
  • Remove all Characters in a String Except Alphabets

In C programming, a string is a sequence of characters terminated with a null character \0 . For example:

When the compiler encounters a sequence of characters enclosed in the double quotation marks, it appends a null character \0 at the end by default.

Memory diagram of strings in C programming

  • How to declare a string?

Here's how you can declare strings:

string declaration in C programming

Here, we have declared a string of 5 characters.

  • How to initialize strings?

You can initialize strings in a number of ways.

Initialization of strings in C programming

Let's take another example:

Here, we are trying to assign 6 characters (the last character is '\0' ) to a char array having 5 characters. This is bad and you should never do this.

Assigning Values to Strings

Arrays and strings are second-class citizens in C; they do not support the assignment operator once it is declared. For example,

Note: Use the strcpy() function to copy the string instead.

Read String from the user

You can use the scanf() function to read a string.

The scanf() function reads the sequence of characters until it encounters whitespace (space, newline, tab, etc.).

Example 1: scanf() to read a string

Even though Dennis Ritchie was entered in the above program, only "Dennis" was stored in the name string. It's because there was a space after Dennis .

Also notice that we have used the code name instead of &name with scanf() .

This is because name is a char array, and we know that array names decay to pointers in C.

Thus, the  name  in  scanf() already points to the address of the first element in the string, which is why we don't need to use & .

How to read a line of text?

You can use the fgets() function to read a line of string. And, you can use puts() to display the string.

Example 2: fgets() and puts()

Here, we have used fgets() function to read a string from the user.

fgets(name, sizeof(name), stdlin); // read string

The sizeof(name) results to 30. Hence, we can take a maximum of 30 characters as input which is the size of the  name string.

To print the string, we have used puts(name); .

Note: The gets() function can also be to take input from the user. However, it is removed from the C standard. It's because gets() allows you to input any length of characters. Hence, there might be a buffer overflow.

Passing Strings to Functions

Strings can be passed to a function in a similar way as arrays. Learn more about passing arrays to a function .

Example 3: Passing string to a Function

Strings and pointers.

Similar like arrays, string names are "decayed" to pointers. Hence, you can use pointers to manipulate elements of the string. We recommended you to check C Arrays and Pointers before you check this example.

Example 4: Strings and Pointers

Commonly used string functions.

  • strlen() - calculates the length of a string
  • strcpy() - copies a string to another
  • strcmp() - compares two strings
  • strcat() - concatenates two strings

Table of Contents

  • Read and Write String: gets() and puts()
  • Passing strings to a function
  • Strings and pointers
  • Commonly used string functions

Video: C Strings

Sorry about that.

Related Tutorials

  • How to Initialize Char Array in C

Use {} Curly Braced List Notation to Initialize a char Array in C

Use string assignment to initialize a char array in c, use {{ }} double curly braces to initialize 2d char array in c.

How to Initialize Char Array in C

This article will demonstrate multiple methods of how to initialize a char array in C.

A char array is mostly declared as a fixed-sized structure and often initialized immediately. Curly braced list notation is one of the available methods to initialize the char array with constant values.

It’s possible to specify only the portion of the elements in the curly braces as the remainder of chars is implicitly initialized with a null byte value.

It can be useful if the char array needs to be printed as a character string. Since there’s a null byte character guaranteed to be stored at the end of valid characters, then the printf function can be efficiently utilized with the %s format string specifier to output the array’s content.

Another useful method to initialize a char array is to assign a string value in the declaration statement. The string literal should have fewer characters than the length of the array; otherwise, there will be only part of the string stored and no terminating null character at the end of the buffer.

Thus, if the user will try to print the array’s content with the %s specifier, it might access the memory region after the last character and probably will throw a fault.

Note that c_arr has a length of 21 characters and is initialized with a 20 char long string. As a result, the 21st character in the array is guaranteed to be \0 byte, making the contents a valid character string.

The curly braced list can also be utilized to initialize two-dimensional char arrays. In this case, we declare a 5x5 char array and include five braced strings inside the outer curly braces.

Note that each string literal in this example initializes the five-element rows of the matrix. The content of this two-dimensional array can’t be printed with %s specifier as the length of each row matches the length of the string literals; thus, there’s no terminating null byte stored implicitly during the initialization. Usually, the compiler will warn if the string literals are larger than the array rows.

Jinku Hu avatar

Founder of DelftStack.com. Jinku has worked in the robotics and automotive industries for over 8 years. He sharpened his coding skills when he needed to do the automatic testing, data collection from remote servers and report creation from the endurance test. He is from an electrical/electronics engineering background but has expanded his interest to embedded electronics, embedded programming and front-/back-end programming.

Related Article - C Array

  • How to Copy Char Array in C
  • How to Dynamically Allocate an Array in C
  • How to Clear Char Array in C
  • Array of Strings in C
  • How to Print Char Array in C

C String – How to Declare Strings in the C Programming Language

Dionysia Lemonaki

Computers store and process all kinds of data.

Strings are just one of the many forms in which information is presented and gets processed by computers.

Strings in the C programming language work differently than in other modern programming languages.

In this article, you'll learn how to declare strings in C.

Before doing so, you'll go through a basic overview of what data types, variables, and arrays are in C. This way, you'll understand how these are all connected to one another when it comes to working with strings in C.

Knowing the basics of those concepts will then help you better understand how to declare and work with strings in C.

Let's get started!

Data types in C

C has a few built-in data types.

They are int , short , long , float , double , long double and char .

As you see, there is no built-in string or str (short for string) data type.

The char data type in C

From those types you just saw, the only way to use and present characters in C is by using the char data type.

Using char , you are able to to represent a single character – out of the 256 that your computer recognises. It is most commonly used to represent the characters from the ASCII chart.

The single characters are surrounded by single quotation marks .

The examples below are all char s – even a number surrounded by single quoation marks and a single space is a char in C:

Every single letter, symbol, number and space surrounded by single quotation marks is a single piece of character data in C.

What if you want to present more than one single character?

The following is not a valid char – despite being surrounded by single quotation marks. This is because it doesn't include only a single character inside the single quotation marks:

'freeCodeCamp is awesome'

When many single characters are strung together in a group, like the sentence you see above, a string is created. In that case, when you are using strings, instead of single quotation marks you should only use double quotation marks.

"freeCodeCamp is awesome"

How to declare variables in C

So far you've seen how text is presented in C.

What happens, though, if you want to store text somewhere? After all, computers are really good at saving information to memory for later retrieval and use.

The way you store data in C, and in most programming languages, is in variables.

Essentially, you can think of variables as boxes that hold a value which can change throughout the life of a program. Variables allocate space in the computer's memory and let C know that you want some space reserved.

C is a statically typed language, meaning that when you create a variable you have to specify what data type that variable will be.

There are many different variable types in C, since there are many different kinds of data.

Every variable has an associated data type.

When you create a variable, you first mention the type of the variable (wether it will hold integer, float, char or any other data values), its name, and then optionally, assign it a value:

Be careful not to mix data types when working with variables in C, as that will cause errors.

For intance, if you try to change the example from above to use double quotation marks (remember that chars only use single quotation marks), you'll get an error when you compile the code:

As mentioned earlier on, C doesn't have a built-in string data type. That also means that C doesn't have string variables!

How to create arrays in C

An array is essentially a variable that stores multiple values. It's a collection of many items of the same type.

As with regular variables, there are many different types of arrays because arrays can hold only items of the same data type. There are arrays that hold only int s, only float s, and so on.

This is how you define an array of ints s for example:

First you specify the data type of the items the array will hold. Then you give it a name and immediately after the name you also include a pair of square brackets with an integer. The integer number speficies the length of the array.

In the example above, the array can hold 3 values.

After defining the array, you can assign values individually, with square bracket notation, using indexing. Indexing in C (and most programming languages) starts at 0 .

You reference and fetch an item from an array by using the name of the array and the item's index in square brackets, like so:

What are character arrays in C?

So, how does everything mentioned so far fit together, and what does it have to do with initializing strings in C and saving them to memory?

Well, strings in C are actually a type of array – specifically, they are a character array . Strings are a collection of char values.

How strings work in C

In C, all strings end in a 0 . That 0 lets C know where a string ends.

That string-terminating zero is called a string terminator . You may also see the term null zero used for this, which has the same meaning.

Don't confuse this final zero with the numeric integer 0 or even the character '0' - they are not the same thing.

The string terminator is added automatically at the end of each string in C. But it is not visible to us – it's just always there.

The string terminator is represented like this: '\0' . What sets it apart from the character '0' is the backslash it has.

When working with strings in C, it's helpful to picture them always ending in null zero and having that extra byte at the end.

Screenshot-2021-10-04-at-8.46.08-PM

Each character takes up one byte in memory.

The string "hello" , in the picture above, takes up 6 bytes .

"Hello" has five letters, each one taking up 1 byte of space, and then the null zero takes up one byte also.

The length of strings in C

The length of a string in C is just the number of characters in a word, without including the string terminator (despite it always being used to terminate strings).

The string terminator is not accounted for when you want to find the length of a string.

For example, the string freeCodeCamp has a length of 12 characters.

But when counting the length of a string, you must always count any blank spaces too.

For example, the string I code has a length of 6 characters. I is 1 character, code has 4 characters, and then there is 1 blank space.

So the length of a string is not the same number as the number of bytes that it has and the amount of memory space it takes up.

How to create character arrays and initialize strings in C

The first step is to use the char data type. This lets C know that you want to create an array that will hold characters.

Then you give the array a name, and immediatelly after that you include a pair of opening and closing square brackets.

Inside the square brackets you'll include an integer. This integer will be the largest number of characters you want your string to be including the string terminator.

You can initialise a string one character at a time like so:

But this is quite time-consuming. Instead, when you first define the character array, you have the option to assign it a value directly using a string literal in double quotes:

If you want, istead of including the number in the square brackets, you can only assign the character array a value.

It works exactly the same as the example above. It will count the number of characters in the value you provide and automatically add the null zero character at the end:

Remember, you always need to reserve enough space for the longest string you want to include plus the string terminator.

If you want more room, need more memory, and plan on changing the value later on, include a larger number in the square brackets:

How to change the contents of a character array

So, you know how to initialize strings in C. What if you want to change that string though?

You cannot simply use the assignment operator ( = ) and assign it a new value. You can only do that when you first define the character array.

As seen earlier on, the way to access an item from an array is by referencing the array's name and the item's index number.

So to change a string, you can change each character individually, one by one:

That method is quite cumbersome, time-consuming, and error-prone, though. It definitely is not the preferred way.

You can instead use the strcpy() function, which stands for string copy .

To use this function, you have to include the #include <string.h> line after the #include <stdio.h> line at the top of your file.

The <string.h> file offers the strcpy() function.

When using strcpy() , you first include the name of the character array and then the new value you want to assign. The strcpy() function automatically add the string terminator on the new string that is created:

And there you have it. Now you know how to declare strings in C.

To summarize:

  • C does not have a built-in string function.
  • To work with strings, you have to use character arrays.
  • When creating character arrays, leave enough space for the longest string you'll want to store plus account for the string terminator that is included at the end of each string in C.
  • Define the array and then assign each individual character element one at a time.
  • OR define the array and initialize a value at the same time.
  • When changing the value of the string, you can use the strcpy() function after you've included the <string.h> header file.

If you want to learn more about C, I've written a guide for beginners taking their first steps in the language.

It is based on the first couple of weeks of CS50's Introduction to Computer Science course and I explain some fundamental concepts and go over how the language works at a high level.

You can also watch the C Programming Tutorial for Beginners on freeCodeCamp's YouTube channel.

Thanks for reading and happy learning :)

Read more posts .

If this article was helpful, share it .

Learn to code for free. freeCodeCamp's open source curriculum has helped more than 40,000 people get jobs as developers. Get started

Popular Articles

  • C Language Library (Feb 06, 2024)
  • C Programming Language Examples (Nov 30, 2023)
  • C Programming Fgets (Nov 30, 2023)
  • C Programming Enum (Nov 30, 2023)
  • C Programming Char (Nov 30, 2023)

C Language Char

Switch to English

Table of Contents

Introduction

Understanding 'char' in c, declaring and initializing 'char' variables, using 'char' variables, arrays of 'char', signed and unsigned 'char', tips and common error-prone cases.

  • 'char' is a keyword in C language which represents the character data type. A char variable can store a single character.
  • The size of 'char' is 1 byte, which means it can hold values from -128 to 127 (in signed) or 0 to 255 (in unsigned).
  • 'char' is used for manipulating text, such as characters and strings.
  • 'char' variable is declared using the keyword 'char' followed by the variable name. It can be initialized at the time of declaration.
  • 'ch1' is a 'char' variable which is not initialized, while 'ch2' is initialized with the character 'B'.
  • We can assign a character to a 'char' variable using the assignment operator (=).
  • We can also use a 'char' variable in expressions, like in the 'printf' function.
  • This will print the character 'C' to the standard output.
  • An array of 'char' variables is commonly used to store strings.
  • Here, 'str' is a 'char' array that stores the string "Hello".
  • By default, 'char' is signed in some compilers and unsigned in others. We can explicitly declare 'char' as signed or unsigned.
  • 'ch1' can hold values from -128 to 127, while 'ch2' can hold values from 0 to 255.
  • Be careful when using 'char' in arithmetic expressions. 'char' is promoted to integer in such cases, which might lead to unexpected results.
  • Do not use 'char' to store values outside its range. It will cause overflow.
  • Remember that a 'char' variable stores only a single character. Do not assign a string to a 'char' variable.
  • Always initialize your 'char' variables. Uninitialized 'char' variables can contain garbage values.

Home » Learn C Programming from Scratch » C Character Type

C Character Type

Summary : in this tutorial, you will learn what C character type is and how to declare, use and print character variables in C.

C uses char type to store characters and letters. However, the char type is  integer type because underneath C stores integer numbers instead of characters.

To represent characters, the computer has to map each integer with a corresponding character using a numerical code. The most common numerical code is ASCII, which stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

The following table illustrates the ASCII code:

For example, the integer number 65 represents a character A  in upper case.

In C, the char type has a 1-byte unit of memory so it is more than enough to hold the ASCII codes. Besides ASCII code, there are various numerical codes available such as extended ASCII codes. Unfortunately, many character sets have more than 127 even 255 values. Therefore, to fulfill those needs, Unicode was created to represent various available character sets. Unicode currently has over 40,000 characters.

Using C char  type

In order to declare a  variable with character type, you use the  char keyword followed by the variable name. The following example declares three char variables.

In this example, we initialize a character variable with a character literal. A character literal contains one character that is surrounded by a single quotation ( ' ).

The following example declares  key character variable and initializes it with a character literal ‘ A ‘:

Because the char type is the integer type, you can initialize or assign a char variable an integer. However, it is not recommended since the code may not be portable.

Displaying C character type

To print characters in C, you use the  printf()   function with %c  as a placeholder. If you use %d , you will get an integer instead of a character. The following example demonstrates how to print characters in C.

In this tutorial, you have learned about C character type and how to declare, use and print character variables in C.

C Programming Tutorial

  • Character Array and Character Pointer in C

Last updated on July 27, 2020

In this chapter, we will study the difference between character array and character pointer. Consider the following example:

Can you point out similarities or differences between them?

The similarity is:

The type of both the variables is a pointer to char or (char*) , so you can pass either of them to a function whose formal argument accepts an array of characters or a character pointer.

Here are the differences:

arr is an array of 12 characters. When compiler sees the statement:

c language char assignment

On the other hand when the compiler sees the statement.

It allocates 12 consecutive bytes for string literal "Hello World" and 4 extra bytes for pointer variable ptr . And assigns the address of the string literal to ptr . So, in this case, a total of 16 bytes are allocated.

c language char assignment

We already learned that name of the array is a constant pointer. So if arr points to the address 2000 , until the program ends it will always point to the address 2000 , we can't change its address. This means string assignment is not valid for strings defined as arrays.

On the contrary, ptr is a pointer variable of type char , so it can take any other address. As a result string, assignments are valid for pointers.

c language char assignment

After the above assignment, ptr points to the address of "Yellow World" which is stored somewhere in the memory.

Obviously, the question arises so how do we assign a different string to arr ?

We can assign a new string to arr by using gets() , scanf() , strcpy() or by assigning characters one by one.

Recall that modifying a string literal causes undefined behavior, so the following operations are invalid.

Using an uninitialized pointer may also lead to undefined undefined behavior.

Here ptr is uninitialized an contains garbage value. So the following operations are invalid.

We can only use ptr only if it points to a valid memory location.

Now all the operations mentioned above are valid. Another way we can use ptr is by allocation memory dynamically using malloc() or calloc() functions.

Let's conclude this chapter by creating dynamic 1-d array of characters.

Expected Output:

Load Comments

  • Intro to C Programming
  • Installing Code Blocks
  • Creating and Running The First C Program
  • Basic Elements of a C Program
  • Keywords and Identifiers
  • Data Types in C
  • Constants in C
  • Variables in C
  • Input and Output in C
  • Formatted Input and Output in C
  • Arithmetic Operators in C
  • Operator Precedence and Associativity in C
  • Assignment Operator in C
  • Increment and Decrement Operators in C
  • Relational Operators in C
  • Logical Operators in C
  • Conditional Operator, Comma operator and sizeof() operator in C
  • Implicit Type Conversion in C
  • Explicit Type Conversion in C
  • if-else statements in C
  • The while loop in C
  • The do while loop in C
  • The for loop in C
  • The Infinite Loop in C
  • The break and continue statement in C
  • The Switch statement in C
  • Function basics in C
  • The return statement in C
  • Actual and Formal arguments in C
  • Local, Global and Static variables in C
  • Recursive Function in C
  • One dimensional Array in C
  • One Dimensional Array and Function in C
  • Two Dimensional Array in C
  • Pointer Basics in C
  • Pointer Arithmetic in C
  • Pointers and 1-D arrays
  • Pointers and 2-D arrays
  • Call by Value and Call by Reference in C
  • Returning more than one value from function in C
  • Returning a Pointer from a Function in C
  • Passing 1-D Array to a Function in C
  • Passing 2-D Array to a Function in C
  • Array of Pointers in C
  • Void Pointers in C
  • The malloc() Function in C
  • The calloc() Function in C
  • The realloc() Function in C
  • String Basics in C
  • The strlen() Function in C
  • The strcmp() Function in C
  • The strcpy() Function in C
  • The strcat() Function in C
  • Array of Strings in C
  • Array of Pointers to Strings in C
  • The sprintf() Function in C
  • The sscanf() Function in C
  • Structure Basics in C
  • Array of Structures in C
  • Array as Member of Structure in C
  • Nested Structures in C
  • Pointer to a Structure in C
  • Pointers as Structure Member in C
  • Structures and Functions in C
  • Union Basics in C
  • typedef statement in C
  • Basics of File Handling in C
  • fputc() Function in C
  • fgetc() Function in C
  • fputs() Function in C
  • fgets() Function in C
  • fprintf() Function in C
  • fscanf() Function in C
  • fwrite() Function in C
  • fread() Function in C

Recent Posts

  • Machine Learning Experts You Should Be Following Online
  • 4 Ways to Prepare for the AP Computer Science A Exam
  • Finance Assignment Online Help for the Busy and Tired Students: Get Help from Experts
  • Top 9 Machine Learning Algorithms for Data Scientists
  • Data Science Learning Path or Steps to become a data scientist Final
  • Enable Edit Button in Shutter In Linux Mint 19 and Ubuntu 18.04
  • Python 3 time module
  • Pygments Tutorial
  • How to use Virtualenv?
  • Installing MySQL (Windows, Linux and Mac)
  • What is if __name__ == '__main__' in Python ?
  • Installing GoAccess (A Real-time web log analyzer)
  • Installing Isso

Search anything:

Working with character (char) in C

Software engineering c programming.

Binary Tree book by OpenGenus

Open-Source Internship opportunity by OpenGenus for programmers. Apply now.

Reading time: 30 minutes

C uses char type to store characters and letters. However, the char type is integer type because underneath C stores integer numbers instead of characters.In C, char values are stored in 1 byte in memory,and value range from -128 to 127 or 0 to 255. In order to represent characters, the computer has to map each integer with a corresponding character using a numerical code. The most common numerical code is ASCII, which stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

How to declare characters?

To declare a character in C, the syntax:

Complete Example in C:

C library functions for characters

The Standard C library #include <ctype.h> has functions you can use for manipulating and testing character values:

How to convert character to lower case?

  • int islower(ch)

Returns value different from zero (i.e., true) if indeed c is a lowercase alphabetic letter. Zero (i.e., false) otherwise.

How to convert character to upper case?

  • int isupper(ch)

A value different from zero (i.e., true) if indeed c is an uppercase alphabetic letter. Zero (i.e., false) otherwise.

Check if character is an alphabet?

  • isalpha(ch)

Returns value different from zero (i.e., true) if indeed c is an alphabetic letter. Zero (i.e., false) otherwise.

Check if character is a digit

  • int isdigit(ch);

Returns value different from zero (i.e., true) if indeed c is a decimal digit. Zero (i.e., false) otherwise.

Check if character is a digit or alphabet

  • int isalnum(ch);

Returns value different from zero (i.e., true) if indeed c is either a digit or a letter. Zero (i.e., false) otherwise.

Check if character is a punctuation

  • int ispunct(ch)

Returns value different from zero (i.e., true) if indeed c is a punctuation character. Zero (i.e., false) otherwise.

Check if character is a space

  • int isspace(ch)

Retuns value different from zero (i.e., true) if indeed c is a white-space character. Zero (i.e., false) otherwise.

  • char tolower(ch) & char toupper(ch)

The value of the character is checked other if the vlaue is lower or upper case otherwise it is change and value is returned as an int value that can be implicitly casted to char.

Find size of character using Sizeof()?

To get the exact size of a type or a variable on a particular platform, you can use the sizeof operator. The expressions sizeof(type) yields the storage size of the object or type in bytes.

In the below example the size of char is 1 byte, but the type of a character constant like 'a' is actually an int, with size of 4.

  • All the function in Ctype work under constant time

What are the different characters supported?

The characters supported by a computing system depends on the encoding supported by the system. Different encoding supports different character ranges.

Different encoding are:

ASCII encoding has most characters in English while UTF has characters from different languages.

char_ASCII-1

Consider the following C++ code:

What will be the output of the above code?

OpenGenus IQ: Learn Algorithms, DL, System Design icon

  • C++ Tutorial
  • Java Tutorial
  • Python Tutorial
  • HTML Tutorial
  • CSS Tutorial
  • C Introduction
  • C Data Types and Modifiers
  • C Naming Conventions
  • C Integer Variable
  • C Float and Double Variables
  • C Character Variable
  • C Constant Variable
  • C Typecasting
  • C Operators
  • C Assignment Operators
  • C Arithmetic Operators
  • C Relational Operators
  • C Logical Operators
  • C Operator Precedence
  • C Environment Setup
  • C Program Basic Structure
  • C printf() Function
  • C scanf() Function
  • C Decision Making
  • C if Statement
  • C if else Statement
  • C if else if Statement
  • C Conditional Operator
  • C switch case Statement
  • C Mathematical Functions
  • C while Loop
  • C do while Loop
  • C break and continue
  • C One Dimensional Array
  • C Two Dimensional Array
  • C String Methods
  • C Bubble Sort
  • C Selection Sort
  • C Insertion Sort
  • C Linear Search
  • C Binary Search
  • C Dynamic Memory Allocation
  • C Structure
  • C Recursive Function
  • C Circular Queue
  • C Double Ended Queue
  • C Singly Linked List
  • C Doubly Linked List
  • C Stack using Linked List
  • C Queue using Linked List
  • C Text File Handling
  • C Binary File Handling

How to Declare and Use Character Variables in C Programming

C basic concepts.

In this lesson, we will discover how to declare and use character variables in C programming with this practical guide. Get hands-on with examples and take a quiz to reinforce your understanding.

What is Character Variable

In C programming, a character variable can hold a single character enclosed within single quotes. To declare a variable of this type, we use the keyword char , which is pronounced as kar . With a char variable, we can store any character, including letters, numbers, and symbols.

video-poster

Syntax of Declaring Character Variable in C

Here char is used for declaring Character data type and variable_name is the name of variable (you can use any name of your choice for example: a, b, c, alpha, etc.) and ; is used for line terminator (end of line).

Now let's see some examples for more understanding.

Declare a character variable x .

Declare 3 character variables x , y , and z to assign 3 different characters in it.

Note: A character can be anything, it can be an alphabet or digit or any other symbol, but it must be single in quantity.

Declare a character variable x and assign the character '$' and change it value to @ in the next line.

Test Your Knowledge

Attempt the multiple choice quiz to check if the lesson is adequately clear to you.

Test Your Knowledge

For over a decade, Dremendo has been recognized for providing quality education. We proudly introduce our newly open online learning platform, which offers free access to popular computer courses.

Our Courses

News updates.

  • Refund and Cancellation
  • Privacy Policy

cppreference.com

Assignment operators.

Assignment and compound assignment operators are binary operators that modify the variable to their left using the value to their right.

[ edit ] Simple assignment

The simple assignment operator expressions have the form

Assignment performs implicit conversion from the value of rhs to the type of lhs and then replaces the value in the object designated by lhs with the converted value of rhs .

Assignment also returns the same value as what was stored in lhs (so that expressions such as a = b = c are possible). The value category of the assignment operator is non-lvalue (so that expressions such as ( a = b ) = c are invalid).

rhs and lhs must satisfy one of the following:

  • both lhs and rhs have compatible struct or union type, or..
  • rhs must be implicitly convertible to lhs , which implies
  • both lhs and rhs have arithmetic types , in which case lhs may be volatile -qualified or atomic (since C11)
  • both lhs and rhs have pointer to compatible (ignoring qualifiers) types, or one of the pointers is a pointer to void, and the conversion would not add qualifiers to the pointed-to type. lhs may be volatile or restrict (since C99) -qualified or atomic (since C11) .
  • lhs is a (possibly qualified or atomic (since C11) ) pointer and rhs is a null pointer constant such as NULL or a nullptr_t value (since C23)

[ edit ] Notes

If rhs and lhs overlap in memory (e.g. they are members of the same union), the behavior is undefined unless the overlap is exact and the types are compatible .

Although arrays are not assignable, an array wrapped in a struct is assignable to another object of the same (or compatible) struct type.

The side effect of updating lhs is sequenced after the value computations, but not the side effects of lhs and rhs themselves and the evaluations of the operands are, as usual, unsequenced relative to each other (so the expressions such as i = ++ i ; are undefined)

Assignment strips extra range and precision from floating-point expressions (see FLT_EVAL_METHOD ).

In C++, assignment operators are lvalue expressions, not so in C.

[ edit ] Compound assignment

The compound assignment operator expressions have the form

The expression lhs @= rhs is exactly the same as lhs = lhs @ ( rhs ) , except that lhs is evaluated only once.

[ edit ] References

  • C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):
  • 6.5.16 Assignment operators (p: 72-73)
  • C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
  • 6.5.16 Assignment operators (p: 101-104)
  • C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
  • 6.5.16 Assignment operators (p: 91-93)
  • C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):
  • 3.3.16 Assignment operators

[ edit ] See Also

Operator precedence

[ edit ] See also

  • Recent changes
  • Offline version
  • What links here
  • Related changes
  • Upload file
  • Special pages
  • Printable version
  • Permanent link
  • Page information
  • In other languages
  • This page was last modified on 19 August 2022, at 08:36.
  • This page has been accessed 54,567 times.
  • Privacy policy
  • About cppreference.com
  • Disclaimers

Powered by MediaWiki

  • C Data Types
  • C Operators
  • C Input and Output
  • C Control Flow
  • C Functions
  • C Preprocessors
  • C File Handling
  • C Cheatsheet
  • C Interview Questions
  • C Exercises - Practice Questions with Solutions for C Programming
  • C Programming Interview Questions (2024)
  • C | Storage Classes and Type Qualifiers | Question 7
  • C | Storage Classes and Type Qualifiers | Question 3
  • C | Storage Classes and Type Qualifiers | Question 8
  • Top 25 C Projects with Source Code in 2023
  • C | Storage Classes and Type Qualifiers | Question 19
  • C++ Exercises - C++ Practice Set with Solutions
  • Top | MCQs on Dynamic Programming with Answers | Question 19
  • C++ Programming Multiple Choice Questions
  • Data Structures & C Programming - GATE CSE Previous Year Questions
  • Class 8 NCERT Solutions - Chapter 16 Playing with Numbers - Exercise 16.1
  • QA - Placement Quizzes | SP Contest 2 | Question 9
  • Monotype Solutions Interview Experience
  • QA - Placement Quizzes | SP Contest 2 | Question 3
  • GATE | Quiz for Sudo GATE 2021 | Question 18
  • QA - Placement Quizzes | SP Contest 2 | Question 8
  • Mentor Graphics Interview Experience| Set 6 (On-Campus for Freshers)

C Exercises – Practice Questions with Solutions for C Programming

The best way to learn C programming language is by hands-on practice. This C Exercise page contains the top 30 C exercise questions with solutions that are designed for both beginners and advanced programmers. It covers all major concepts like arrays, pointers, for-loop, and many more.

C-Exercises

So, Keep it Up! Solve topic-wise C exercise questions to strengthen your weak topics.

C Programming Exercises

The following are the top 30 programming exercises with solutions to help you practice online and improve your coding efficiency in the C language. You can solve these questions online in GeeksforGeeks IDE.

Q1: Write a Program to Print “Hello World!” on the Console.

In this problem, you have to write a simple program that prints “Hello World!” on the console screen.

For Example,

Click here to view the solution.

Q2: write a program to find the sum of two numbers entered by the user..

In this problem, you have to write a program that adds two numbers and prints their sum on the console screen.

Q3: Write a Program to find the size of int, float, double, and char.

In this problem, you have to write a program to print the size of the variable.

Q4: Write a Program to Swap the values of two variables.

In this problem, you have to write a program that swaps the values of two variables that are entered by the user.

Swap-two-Numbers

Swap two numbers

Q5: Write a Program to calculate Compound Interest.

In this problem, you have to write a program that takes principal, time, and rate as user input and calculates the compound interest.

Q6: Write a Program to check if the given number is Even or Odd.

In this problem, you have to write a program to check whether the given number is even or odd.

Q7: Write a Program to find the largest number among three numbers.

In this problem, you have to write a program to take three numbers from the user as input and print the largest number among them.

Q8: Write a Program to make a simple calculator.

In this problem, you have to write a program to make a simple calculator that accepts two operands and an operator to perform the calculation and prints the result.

Q9: Write a Program to find the factorial of a given number.

In this problem, you have to write a program to calculate the factorial (product of all the natural numbers less than or equal to the given number n) of a number entered by the user.

Q10: Write a Program to Convert Binary to Decimal.

In this problem, you have to write a program to convert the given binary number entered by the user into an equivalent decimal number.

Q11: Write a Program to print the Fibonacci series using recursion.

In this problem, you have to write a program to print the Fibonacci series(the sequence where each number is the sum of the previous two numbers of the sequence) till the number entered by the user using recursion.

FIBONACCI-SERIES

Fibonacci Series

Q12: Write a Program to Calculate the Sum of Natural Numbers using recursion.

In this problem, you have to write a program to calculate the sum of natural numbers up to a given number n.

Q13: Write a Program to find the maximum and minimum of an Array.

In this problem, you have to write a program to find the maximum and the minimum element of the array of size N given by the user.

Q14: Write a Program to Reverse an Array.

In this problem, you have to write a program to reverse an array of size n entered by the user. Reversing an array means changing the order of elements so that the first element becomes the last element and the second element becomes the second last element and so on.

reverseArray

Reverse an array

Q15: Write a Program to rotate the array to the left.

In this problem, you have to write a program that takes an array arr[] of size N from the user and rotates the array to the left (counter-clockwise direction) by D steps, where D is a positive integer. 

Q16: Write a Program to remove duplicates from the Sorted array.

In this problem, you have to write a program that takes a sorted array arr[] of size N from the user and removes the duplicate elements from the array.

Q17: Write a Program to search elements in an array (using Binary Search).

In this problem, you have to write a program that takes an array arr[] of size N and a target value to be searched by the user. Search the target value using binary search if the target value is found print its index else print ‘element is not present in array ‘.

Q18: Write a Program to reverse a linked list.

In this problem, you have to write a program that takes a pointer to the head node of a linked list, you have to reverse the linked list and print the reversed linked list.

Q18: Write a Program to create a dynamic array in C.

In this problem, you have to write a program to create an array of size n dynamically then take n elements of an array one by one by the user. Print the array elements.

Q19: Write a Program to find the Transpose of a Matrix.

In this problem, you have to write a program to find the transpose of a matrix for a given matrix A with dimensions m x n and print the transposed matrix. The transpose of a matrix is formed by interchanging its rows with columns.

Q20: Write a Program to concatenate two strings.

In this problem, you have to write a program to read two strings str1 and str2 entered by the user and concatenate these two strings. Print the concatenated string.

Q21: Write a Program to check if the given string is a palindrome string or not.

In this problem, you have to write a program to read a string str entered by the user and check whether the string is palindrome or not. If the str is palindrome print ‘str is a palindrome’ else print ‘str is not a palindrome’. A string is said to be palindrome if the reverse of the string is the same as the string.

Q22: Write a program to print the first letter of each word.

In this problem, you have to write a simple program to read a string str entered by the user and print the first letter of each word in a string.

Q23: Write a program to reverse a string using recursion

In this problem, you have to write a program to read a string str entered by the user, and reverse that string means changing the order of characters in the string so that the last character becomes the first character of the string using recursion. 

Reverse-a-String

reverse a string

Q24: Write a program to Print Half half-pyramid pattern.

In this problem, you have to write a simple program to read the number of rows (n) entered by the user and print the half-pyramid pattern of numbers. Half pyramid pattern looks like a right-angle triangle of numbers having a hypotenuse on the right side.

Q25: Write a program to print Pascal’s triangle pattern.

In this problem, you have to write a simple program to read the number of rows (n) entered by the user and print Pascal’s triangle pattern. Pascal’s Triangle is a pattern in which the first row has a single number 1 all rows begin and end with the number 1. The numbers in between are obtained by adding the two numbers directly above them in the previous row.

pascal-triangle

Pascal’s Triangle

Q26: Write a program to sort an array using Insertion Sort.

In this problem, you have to write a program that takes an array arr[] of size N from the user and sorts the array elements in ascending or descending order using insertion sort.

Q27: Write a program to sort an array using Quick Sort.

In this problem, you have to write a program that takes an array arr[] of size N from the user and sorts the array elements in ascending order using quick sort.

Q28: Write a program to sort an array of strings.

In this problem, you have to write a program that reads an array of strings in which all characters are of the same case entered by the user and sort them alphabetically. 

Q29: Write a program to copy the contents of one file to another file.

In this problem, you have to write a program that takes user input to enter the filenames for reading and writing. Read the contents of one file and copy the content to another file. If the file specified for reading does not exist or cannot be opened, display an error message “Cannot open file: file_name” and terminate the program else print “Content copied to file_name”

Q30: Write a program to store information on students using structure.

In this problem, you have to write a program that stores information about students using structure. The program should create various structures, each representing a student’s record. Initialize the records with sample data having data members’ Names, Roll Numbers, Ages, and Total Marks. Print the information for each student.

We hope after completing these C exercises you have gained a better understanding of C concepts. Learning C language is made easier with this exercise sheet as it helps you practice all major C concepts. Solving these C exercise questions will take you a step closer to becoming a C programmer.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. what are some common mistakes to avoid while doing c programming exercises.

Some of the most common mistakes made by beginners doing C programming exercises can include missing semicolons, bad logic loops, uninitialized pointers, and forgotten memory frees etc.

Q2. What are the best practices for beginners starting with C programming exercises?

Best practices for beginners starting with C programming exercises: Start with easy codes Practice consistently Be creative Think before you code Learn from mistakes Repeat!

Q3. How do I debug common errors in C programming exercises?

You can use the following methods to debug a code in C programming exercises Read the error message carefully Read code line by line Try isolating the error code Look for Missing elements, loops, pointers, etc Check error online

Please Login to comment...

Similar reads, improve your coding skills with practice.

 alt=

What kind of Experience do you want to share?

Next: Unions , Previous: Overlaying Structures , Up: Structures   [ Contents ][ Index ]

15.13 Structure Assignment

Assignment operating on a structure type copies the structure. The left and right operands must have the same type. Here is an example:

Notionally, assignment on a structure type works by copying each of the fields. Thus, if any of the fields has the const qualifier, that structure type does not allow assignment:

See Assignment Expressions .

When a structure type has a field which is an array, as here,

structure assigment such as r1 = r2 copies array fields’ contents just as it copies all the other fields.

This is the only way in C that you can operate on the whole contents of a array with one operation: when the array is contained in a struct . You can’t copy the contents of the data field as an array, because

would convert the array objects (as always) to pointers to the zeroth elements of the arrays (of type struct record * ), and the assignment would be invalid because the left operand is not an lvalue.

A man is valued by his works, not his words!

Structure assignment and its pitfall in c language.

Jan 28 th , 2013 9:47 pm

There is a structure type defined as below:

If we want to assign map_t type variable struct2 to sturct1 , we usually have below 3 ways:

Consider above ways, most of programmer won’t use way #1, since it’s so stupid ways compare to other twos, only if we are defining an structure assignment function. So, what’s the difference between way #2 and way #3? And what’s the pitfall of the structure assignment once there is array or pointer member existed? Coming sections maybe helpful for your understanding.

The difference between ‘=’ straight assignment and memcpy

The struct1=struct2; notation is not only more concise , but also shorter and leaves more optimization opportunities to the compiler . The semantic meaning of = is an assignment, while memcpy just copies memory. That’s a huge difference in readability as well, although memcpy does the same in this case.

Copying by straight assignment is probably best, since it’s shorter, easier to read, and has a higher level of abstraction. Instead of saying (to the human reader of the code) “copy these bits from here to there”, and requiring the reader to think about the size argument to the copy, you’re just doing a straight assignment (“copy this value from here to here”). There can be no hesitation about whether or not the size is correct.

Consider that, above source code also has pitfall about the pointer alias, it will lead dangling pointer problem ( It will be introduced below section ). If we use straight structure assignment ‘=’ in C++, we can consider to overload the operator= function , that can dissolve the problem, and the structure assignment usage does not need to do any changes, but structure memcpy does not have such opportunity.

The pitfall of structure assignment:

Beware though, that copying structs that contain pointers to heap-allocated memory can be a bit dangerous, since by doing so you’re aliasing the pointer, and typically making it ambiguous who owns the pointer after the copying operation.

If the structures are of compatible types, yes, you can, with something like:

} The only thing you need to be aware of is that this is a shallow copy. In other words, if you have a char * pointing to a specific string, both structures will point to the same string.

And changing the contents of one of those string fields (the data that the char points to, not the char itself) will change the other as well. For these situations a “deep copy” is really the only choice, and that needs to go in a function. If you want a easy copy without having to manually do each field but with the added bonus of non-shallow string copies, use strdup:

This will copy the entire contents of the structure, then deep-copy the string, effectively giving a separate string to each structure. And, if your C implementation doesn’t have a strdup (it’s not part of the ISO standard), you have to allocate new memory for dest_struct pointer member, and copy the data to memory address.

Example of trap:

Below diagram illustrates above source memory layout, if there is a pointer field member, either the straight assignment or memcpy , that will be alias of pointer to point same address. For example, b.alias and c.alias both points to address of a.alias . Once one of them free the pointed address, it will cause another pointer as dangling pointer. It’s dangerous!!

  • Recommend use straight assignment ‘=’ instead of memcpy.
  • If structure has pointer or array member, please consider the pointer alias problem, it will lead dangling pointer once incorrect use. Better way is implement structure assignment function in C, and overload the operator= function in C++.
  • stackoverflow.com: structure assignment or memcpy
  • stackoverflow.com: assign one struct to another in C
  • bytes.com: structures assignment
  • wikipedia: struct in C programming language
  • Subjects Home
  • Fundamentals of C Language
  • About C tutorial
  • Important points about C
  • Applications of C
  • C Language and English Language
  • Features of C
  • C, C++ and Java
  • Overview of C Language
  • History of C
  • First Program in C Hello World
  • Basic Structure of C Programming
  • Tokens in C
  • Keywords in C
  • Identifiers in C
  • Format Specifiers
  • Format Specifiers Examples
  • Data Types in C Language
  • Introduction to Data Types in C
  • int Data Type in C
  • float Data Type in C
  • double Data Type in C
  • char Data Type in C
  • Variable in C Language
  • Variable Introduction in C
  • Variable Declaration and Initialization
  • Variable types and Scope in C
  • Local Variable in C
  • static Variable in C
  • Global variables in C
  • Storage Class in C
  • Constant in C Language
  • Constants in C
  • Operators and Enums in C Language
  • Introduction to Operator
  • Arithmetic Operators in C
  • Relational Operators in C
  • Bit-wise Operators in C
  • Logical Operators in C
  • Assignment Operators in C
  • Conditional Operator in C
  • sizeof() Operator in C
  • Operator Precedance
  • ASCII Value
  • Decision Making of C Language
  • Decision Making in C Introduction
  • if Statement
  • if-else Statement
  • Nested if Statement
  • if else if Ladder
  • switch case
  • Loop control in C Language
  • Loop Introduction in C
  • while loop in C
  • do while Loop In C
  • for Loop in C
  • Control Flow in C Programming
  • break Statement in C
  • continue Statement in C
  • goto Statement in C
  • Array in C Language
  • Single Dimensional Array
  • Multi-Dimensional Array in C
  • String in C Language
  • Introduction to String
  • Function in C Language
  • Function in C
  • Function Calling in C
  • return type in Function
  • Call by Value in C
  • User Define Function
  • Predefined Functions
  • String functions in C
  • All String Functions
  • strcat() function
  • strncat() function
  • strcpy() function
  • strncpy() function
  • strlen() function
  • strcmp() function
  • strcmpi() function
  • strchr() function
  • strrchr() function
  • strstr() function
  • strrstr() function
  • strdup() function
  • strlwr() function
  • strupr() function
  • strrev() function
  • strset() function
  • strnset() function
  • strtok() function
  • Recursion in c
  • Introduction to Recursion
  • Direct and Indirect Recursion
  • Pointer in C Language
  • Pointer in C
  • types of pointer
  • NULL pointer
  • Dangling Pointer
  • Void/Generic Pointers
  • Wild Pointer
  • Near, Far and Huge Pointer
  • Pointer Expressions and Arithmetic
  • Pointer and Array
  • Strings as pointers
  • Pointer to Function
  • Call by Reference in C
  • Structure in C Language
  • Structure in C
  • Nested Structure in C
  • Array of Structures in C
  • Pointer to Structure
  • Structure to Function in C
  • typedef in C
  • typedef vs #define in C
  • Union in C Language
  • File Input/Output
  • Introduction to File
  • File Operation in c
  • Dynamic Memory Allocation
  • Introduction to DMA
  • calloc() and free()
  • realloc() and free() function
  • C Pre-processor
  • Introduction about Pre-processor
  • Command Line Arguments
  • Introduction CLAs

c language char assignment

char Data Type in C Programming Language

Table of Content:

  • char keyword is used to refer character data type.
  • Character data type allows a variable to store only one character.
  • The storage size of character data type is 1(32-bit system). We can store only one character using character data type.
  • For example, 'A' can be stored using char datatype. You can't store more than one character using char data type.

char Variable Declaration and Variable Initialization:

Variable Declaration:  To declare a variable, you must specify the data type & give the variable a unique name.

Variable Initialization :  To initialize a variable you must assign it a valid value.

char Variable Declaration and Initialization in two step:

Char variable declaration and initialization in single step:, a program that demonstrates char variables:, explanation.

Notice that  character1  is assigned the value 82, which is the ASCII value that corresponds to the letter R. As mentioned, the ASCII character set occupies the first 127 values in the character set.

Related Assignment

  • Assignment 1: Write a program to illustrate the results of type conversion from char to int data type.
  • Assignment 2: Write a program that displays the keyed in character and the next character in the ASCII table.

You May Like

IMAGES

  1. char Data type in C

    c language char assignment

  2. 049 char functions

    c language char assignment

  3. C++ Char Data Type with Examples (2022)

    c language char assignment

  4. The Guide of Char in C++

    c language char assignment

  5. C++ Char Data Type with Examples (2023)

    c language char assignment

  6. C++ Char Data Type with Examples

    c language char assignment

VIDEO

  1. PROGRAMMING ASSIGNMENT 2

  2. C Programming Language

  3. Data types in C Language in Hindi

  4. Data types in c language(int, char, float & double)

  5. #012

  6. Character Data Type in C language (urdu or hindi)

COMMENTS

  1. c

    I am using C language as platform. I have edited the tag. - Vinay. Dec 27, 2011 at 14:02. Add ... Any decent compiler should actually warn you about the implicit conversion from const char * to char *... If using C++, consider using std::string instead of char *, and std::cout ... C: String assignment to character array. 0. assigning a string ...

  2. String assignment in C

    7. You can't assign to an array. Two solutions: either copy the string: or use a const char pointer instead of an array and then you can simply assign it: const char *name; /* etc. */. Or use a non-const char pointer if you wish to modify the contents of "name" later: char *name;

  3. Strings in C (With Examples)

    C Programming Strings. In C programming, a string is a sequence of characters terminated with a null character \0. For example: char c[] = "c string"; When the compiler encounters a sequence of characters enclosed in the double quotation marks, it appends a null character \0 at the end by default. Memory Diagram.

  4. The GNU C Reference Manual

    This is a reference manual for the C programming language as implemented by the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). Specifically, this manual aims to document: The 1989 ANSI C standard, commonly known as "C89". The 1999 ISO C standard, commonly known as "C99", to the extent that C99 is implemented by GCC. The current state of GNU extensions ...

  5. How to Initialize Char Array in C

    Use String Assignment to Initialize a char Array in C. Another useful method to initialize a char array is to assign a string value in the declaration statement. The string literal should have fewer characters than the length of the array; otherwise, there will be only part of the string stored and no terminating null character at the end of the buffer.

  6. C String

    The char data type in C. From those types you just saw, the only way to use and present characters in C is by using the char data type. Using char, you are able to to represent a single character - out of the 256 that your computer recognises. It is most commonly used to represent the characters from the ASCII chart.

  7. Comprehensive Guide on 'char' in C Language

    Understanding 'char' in C. 'char' is a keyword in C language which represents the character data type. A char variable can store a single character. char ch = 'A'; The size of 'char' is 1 byte, which means it can hold values from -128 to 127 (in signed) or 0 to 255 (in unsigned). 'char' is used for manipulating text, such as characters and strings.

  8. Strings in C

    We can initialize a C string in 4 different ways which are as follows: 1. Assigning a String Literal without Size. String literals can be assigned without size. Here, the name of the string str acts as a pointer because it is an array. char str[] = "GeeksforGeeks"; 2. Assigning a String Literal with a Predefined Size.

  9. Assignment Expressions (GNU C Language Manual)

    7 Assignment Expressions. As a general concept in programming, an assignment is a construct that stores a new value into a place where values can be stored—for instance, in a variable. Such places are called lvalues (see Lvalues) because they are locations that hold a value. An assignment in C is an expression because it has a value; we call it an assignment expression.

  10. C Character Type

    Displaying C character type. To print characters in C, you use the printf() function with %c as a placeholder. If you use %d, you will get an integer instead of a character. The following example demonstrates how to print characters in C. char ch = 'A' ; printf ( "ch = %c\n" ,ch); printf ( "ch = %d, hence an integer\n" ,ch); return 0 ; In this ...

  11. Character Array and Character Pointer in C

    The type of both the variables is a pointer to char or (char*), so you can pass either of them to a function whose formal argument accepts an array of characters or a character pointer. Here are the differences: arr is an array of 12 characters. When compiler sees the statement: char arr[] = "Hello World";

  12. Working with character (char) in C

    However, the char type is integer type because underneath C stores integer numbers instead of characters.In C, char values are stored in 1 byte in memory,and value range from -128 to 127 or 0 to 255. In order to represent characters, the computer has to map each integer with a corresponding character using a numerical code.

  13. How to Declare and Use Character Variables in C Programming

    Syntax of Declaring Character Variable in C. char variable_name; Here char is used for declaring Character data type and variable_name is the name of variable (you can use any name of your choice for example: a, b, c, alpha, etc.) and ; is used for line terminator (end of line).

  14. Assignment operators

    Assignment performs implicit conversion from the value of rhs to the type of lhs and then replaces the value in the object designated by lhs with the converted value of rhs . Assignment also returns the same value as what was stored in lhs (so that expressions such as a = b = c are possible). The value category of the assignment operator is non ...

  15. How to assign char to char* in C?

    That's why assigning a char gives you a warning, because you cannot do char* = char. But the assignment of "H", works, because it is NOT a char - it is a string ( const char* ), which consists of letter 'H' followed by terminating character '\0'. This is char - 'H', this is string ( char array) - "H". You most likely need to change the ...

  16. C Exercises

    This C Exercise page contains the top 30 C exercise questions with solutions that are designed for both beginners and advanced programmers. It covers all major concepts like arrays, pointers, for-loop, and many more. So, Keep it Up! Solve topic-wise C exercise questions to strengthen your weak topics.

  17. Structure Assignment (GNU C Language Manual)

    15.13 Structure Assignment. Assignment operating on a structure type copies the structure. The left and right operands must have the same type. Here is an example: Notionally, assignment on a structure type works by copying each of the fields. Thus, if any of the fields has the const qualifier, that structure type does not allow assignment:

  18. Structure Assignment and Its Pitfall in C Language

    The pitfall of structure assignment: Beware though, that copying structs that contain pointers to heap-allocated memory can be a bit dangerous, since by doing so you're aliasing the pointer, and typically making it ambiguous who owns the pointer after the copying operation. If the structures are of compatible types, yes, you can, with ...

  19. C Programming: error: assignment to expression with array type

    First part, you try to copy two array of character (string is not a pointer, it is array of character that is terminated by null character \0 ). If you want to copy value of an array to another, you can use memcpy, but for string, you can also use strcpy. E[0].nom = "reda"; change to: strcpy(E[0].nom,"reda"); Second part, you make the pointer ...

  20. char Data Type in C Programming Language

    char keyword is used to refer character data type. Character data type allows a variable to store only one character. char ch='a'; The storage size of character data type is 1 (32-bit system). We can store only one character using character data type. For example, 'A' can be stored using char datatype. You can't store more than one character ...

  21. C++ char assignment

    0. If you don't care about the specific mapping from characters to integers, you can simply assign to an int: char c = 'A'; int i = c; On many architectures, this will map A to 65, B to 66 and so on. To map an entire word to an integer, simply loop over the entire word and add the integers up.