Strings confusion, =/.

I'm confused about how exactly the string functions (strcat, etc.) work. I honestly just don't understand them at all, although more specifically, I don't understand how or what the string functions do in the following code example that they give:

Code:

#include <iostream> //For cout
#include <cstring>  //For the string functions

using namespace std;

int main()
{
  char name[50];
  char lastname[50];
  char fullname[100]; // Big enough to hold both name and lastname
  
  cout<<"Please enter your name: ";
  cin.getline ( name, 50 );
  if ( strcmp ( name, "Julienne" ) == 0 ) // Equal strings
    cout<<"That's my name too.\n";
  else                                    // Not equal
    cout<<"That's not my name.\n";
  // Find the length of your name
  cout<<"Your name is "<< strlen ( name ) <<" letters long\n";
  cout<<"Enter your last name: ";
  cin.getline ( lastname, 50 );
  fullname[0] = '\0';            // strcat searches for '\0' to cat after
  strcat ( fullname, name );     // Copy name into full name
  strcat ( fullname, " " );      // We want to separate the names by a space
  strcat ( fullname, lastname ); // Copy lastname onto the end of fullname
  cout<<"Your full name is "<< fullname <<"\n";
  cin.get();
}

If someone could please explain it to me a bit better than they do here, I would greatly appreciate it.

strlen - Gives the length of a string
strcpy - Copies one string to another string
strcat - Copies one string onto the end of another string
strcmp - Compares two strings, returns zero of there's no diff

For more info, consult the man pages.

Also, do you at least know about C++ string objects?

Originally Posted by UMR_Student

Also, do you at least know about C++ string objects?

Nope, not the slightest clue about them.

well they're a good way to go

Code:

#include <string>   <-- In C++

and then it's just:

Code:

string whatever;

you'll find that they are Extremely more dynamic and easier (in most respects) than char arrays.

however, the ways in which you deal with them are different. But in your case, if you want to add two together you could do something like this:

Code:

string firstname;
string lastname;
string fullname;

... get info here...

fullname = firstname + " " + lastname;

That ought to do it

Good luck!

Awesome, thanks very much to both of you.

I think that char fullname[100]; must be char fullname[101];! Because if someone write a name and lastname which both contains 50 chars. Plus the space between the names. Then there is 100 + 1 = 101.

No, neither first name nor last name can be longer than 49 characters. Therefore the full name cannot be longer than 98 characters + space + null terminator = 100.

Another good reason to switch to C++ strings.

Yup =) Strings are much better for this sort of thing.