Searching an array of char or string pointed by char*

Question

would it make any difference if i use c-style functions to search an array or cstring?

To my understanding an array is similar to string which doesn't have '/0' byte set at the end. — user963241
– user963241, Commented Nov 24, 2010 at 14:03
This question is extremely unclear. In C, there is no "string" datatype: all strings are always represented as pointer to NUL-terminated character sequences (arrays). — unwind
– unwind, Commented Nov 24, 2010 at 14:05

user191776 · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-24 14:15:30Z

1

In a character string (cstring), the NULL character at the end acts as a sentinel, to signify the end of the search.

If it's an array of characters without the terminating NULL character, then you had better know the length of the string, to avoid overflow.

answered Nov 24, 2010 at 14:15

user191776

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Comments

pmg · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-24 14:25:48Z

0

Inside the function it is all the same.

int foo1(char *x) {
    /* x is a (char *) */
}
int foo2(char x[]) {
    /* x is a (char *) */
}
int foo3(char x[42]) {
    /* x is a (char *) */
}

answered Nov 24, 2010 at 14:20

pmg

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peoro · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-24 14:04:56Z

0

You mean:

char *str1;

and

char str2[ X ];

?

In that case no, it wouldn't do any difference: you need to iterate over all characters of your string.

answered Nov 24, 2010 at 14:04

peoro

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