Declaring String : [Character Array] in C Programming

Declaring String Or Character Array in C

String data type is not supported in C Programming. String means Collection of Characters to form particular word. String is useful whenever we accept name of the person, Address of the person, some descriptive information. We cannot declare string using String Data Type, instead of we use array of type character to create String.

Character Array is Called as ‘String’
Character Array is Declared Before Using it in Program

Syntax :

char String_Variable_name [ SIZE ] ;

Examples :

char city[30];

char name[20];

char message[50];

These are some sample declarations of the String.In the first example we have defined string to store name of city.Maximum Size to store City is 30 which must be specified inside the Square brackets.

Explanation of the Example

Consider -

char city[30];

above example ,

Point	Explanation
Significance	We have declared array of Character [i.e String]
Size of String	30 Bytes
Bound Checking	C Does not Support Bound Checking i.e if we store City with size greater than 30 then C will not give you any error
Data Type	char
Maximum Size	30

Precautions to be taken while declaring Character Variable :

String / Character Array Variable name should be legal C Identifier.
String Variable must have Size specified.

char city[];

Above Statement will cause compile time error.

Do not use String as data type because String data type is included in later languages such as C++ / Java. C does not support String data type

String city;

When you are using string for other purpose than accepting and printing data then you must include following header file in your code -

#include<string.h>