confused by strings

**kevinprograms** · 02-11-2013

Im trying to write a program that reads in strings and decides if the 1st one is repeated. I cant figure out how to store the first string into a variable, and compare that variable to the rest of the inputted strings.

ANY help or ideas would be freakin cool.

Code:

   #include <strings.h>
   #include <stdio.h> 
  
   int main () { 
       
//Declared variables     
       int i;
       int n;
       char curname[250];
       char lname[250]; 
       int freq;
       freq=1;
  
//Scans in n for n strings      
     printf("Enter n, followed by n Last names (each last name bust be a single word):\n");
     scanf("%d",&n);


//Loops for n strings    
     for (i=1; i<=n; i++){


//Scans in strings 
     scanf("%s", curname);


//Stores first string in curname 
  if (i==1) {
  strcpy(lname,curname); }
  
//checks for repeated names 
     if  (strcmp(curname, lname) == 0) {
      freq++; 
      }
      }
      if (freq > 1) {
      
   
   printf("First name in list is repeated.\n"); }
         
   else if (freq == 1) {
        
   printf("First name in list is not repeated.\n");}
  
  


  system("PAUSE");
  return 0;
}

**std10093** · 02-11-2013

What you need is an array of strings, rather than an array of characters.

Code:

char* [10]

This can store up to ten strings. Careful for memory management.

**kevinprograms** · 02-11-2013

alright so i made a 2d array that holds 1000 strings. how would i store each incoming name into that array? strcmp ((names[0],name) == 0) didnt work

**std10093** · 02-11-2013

strcpy is used for copying strings.

strcmp is used to compare strings.

But, what you need first to look into is how to allocate memory with malloc.

However, despite this is what will allocate the less memory needed for you, I suggest you to use a 2D array with fixed sizes.

Here is an example. Read the comments and then try to modify your code

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(void){
   
    char stringsArray[10][30];
    /* What the dimensions mean? */
    /* The first dimension is how many strings */
    /* we are going to allocate. */
    /* The second allocation states the max length of */
    /* every string. */
    /* So, we have an array which can store ten strings */
    /* of max length 30-1 letters. Why -1? For the null terminator. */
    
    int i;
    printf("Input 10 strings\n");
    for(i = 0 ; i < 10 ; i++)
    {
        /* 29 stands for the maximum length */
        scanf("%29s", stringsArray[i]);
    }
    
    /* Do work */
    
    printf("Printing\n");
    for(i = 0 ; i < 10 ; i++)
    {
        printf("%s\n", stringsArray[i]);
    }
    
    return 0;
 
}

We used scanf. Hope that helps. Also welcome to the forum

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