Thread: question about basic programming

That's the only way to print a string in one step.
The %s format for printf expects a pointer to a char.

Here are some examples.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
  char a[] = "hello";
  char *b = "hello";

  // I assume you understand this
  printf("The string is %s\n", "hello" );

  // the array name 'a' decays to '&a[0]'
  printf("The string is %s\n", a );
  printf("The string is %s\n", b );

  // explicitly point at the first element
  printf("The string is %s\n", &a[0] );
  printf("The string is %s\n", &b[0] );

  // explicitly point at the 4th element
  printf("The string is %s\n", &a[3] );
  printf("The string is %s\n", &b[3] );

  // now for some weirdness
  // a "string" is just an anonymous char array.
  printf("The string is %s\n", &"hello"[0] );
  
  return 0;
}

Originally Posted by Maor Elbaz

how can you print a string using a pointer?

Because the definition of a "string" in C is actually a character array where the pointer points to the first character in the array. The string lasts until it ends with a null terminator '\0'. I have a question on the board recently where I forgot to place a null terminator at the end of a character array and the program blew through the memory and put garbage values into my array, because it had no idea where to stop since I didn't provide a null terminator.

So to recap one more time:

1. "String" is just a character array.

2. A Character array is represented by a pointer to the first value. So if you have char charArray[50] for example, charArray points to the memory location of the first element of the array.

3. You can also use a char pointer directly instead of the bracket notation, which also points to the memory location of the first array element.

4. C knows the end of the array by the '\0' character. Without that character, it does not know where the "string" ends.

5. "Strings" as they exist in other programming languages, don't really exist in C, or at least are represented as character arrays.

6. Please make a more appropriate thread title next time such as "How can you print a string using a pointer" or "Char pointer confusion." There is nothing in your thread title that explains what you are asking at all.