Thread: Treating Character Arrays as Strings

Hello!

I am writing some code for multiple purposes. I've already compiled the parts with the numeric arrays. The issues that I've been having are dealing with stringSpace(char name).

Here is my code:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>#include <stddef.h>
#include <stdlib.h>


void printArray(int n[]);
void randomPop(int array2[]);
void stringSpace(char name);


int main(void)
{
    int i;
    int n[4];
    int array2[20];
    char name[8] = "Serenity";
    
    for (i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
        printf("Enter value %d. \n", i+1);
        scanf("%d", &n[i]);
    }
   
    printf("%s%13s\n", "Element", "User's Value");
    printArray(n);
    
    printf("%s%13s\n", "Element", "Random Value");
    randomPop(array2);
    
    printf("%s", "Name with spaces: \n");
    stringSpace(name);
    
    return 0;
}
void printArray(int n[])
{
    int i;
    for (size_t i = 0; i < 4; ++i)  {
        printf("%7zu%13d\n", i, n[i]);
    }
}
void randomPop(int array2[])
{
    int j;
    for (size_t j = 0; j < 20; ++j) {
        array2[j] = rand() % 100 + 1;
        printf("%7zu%13d\n", j, array2[j]);
    }
}
void stringSpace(char name)
{
    char m;
    for (size_t m = 0; m < SIZE && name[m] != '\0'; ++m)    {
        printf("%c", name[m]);
}

I'm not quite sure how to go about this. I've been trying to follow an example from my C textbook, but it isn't leading me in the right place. In the example, the user is prompted for the characters, while I already have the characters, "Serenity," that I want to be printed.

Overall, I'm trying to print out the word, "Serenity," but with spaces between each letter: "S e r e n i t y."

I want to establish a prototype for this and call it from main.

Any help would be appreciated. The errors that I'm facing for the most part mostly include:
-note: expected ‘char’ but argument is of type ‘char *’
-error: subscripted value is neither array nor pointer nor vector

"Name" must be being read as a pointer, if I'm not mistaken. Is there a way to fix this? I'm trying to figure out how to initialize a character array but as a string.

Thanks for all help in advance. I really appreciate it.

Code:

char name[8] = "Serenity";

This is wrong. This allocates an array exactly 8 characters wide and initializes it with the 8 characters from the string but doesn't copy the 0 byte at the end to mark the end of the string. Instead do one of these.

Code:

char name[] = "Serenity";
char *name = "Serenity";

As for stringSpace, the parameter needs to be of type char *, not char. You also have some conflicting variables here, you have a char m that you're not using and immediately shadowing by size_t m. I also don't see SIZE in the program. You're also not printing out any spaces, just the characters from the string itself. I'd shorten up that syntax a bunch and just do this.

Code:

void stringSpace(char *s) {
  for(; *s; s++) printf("%c ", *s);
}

But using array subscripting, like this.

Code:

void stringSpace(char *s) {
  for(int i = 0; s[i]; i++) printf("%c ", s[i]);
}

Both functions are the same, which one you use is a matter of taste.

Thank you so much for your help!
Everything is working greatly now and I have a better grasp of the concept.

Best regards!