How strings are stored and retrieved in C language

String Handling in C programming with common functions

• String is a combination of characters and it is enclosed in double quotes
• Character array is used to hold string.
• Char name_ of_string[ string _ length];
• Char is data type and string length is the name of characters in a string.
• A string variable can also be declared without specifying the number of characters.
• The variables that is used to store a string is called string variables.
• The last character of a string must be a Null character \0 i.e. Null character \0 is added the end of the string.
• Null character \0 is also included in the string length.

The string can be initialized
char languageName[20]="cprogramming";
char languageName[ ]   ="cprogramming";

The most common string function are:

• fputs( )
• fgets( )
• strcpy( )

What is fputs() function? Explain with the help of an example.

• It is used to write a string of characters in to a file
• The function writes the string until the null character \0 is reached
• It does not add the null character of the file
• The file must be opened or in append mode to write this funcation

fputs() Example

Syntax:

fputs(string, file_pointer);

FILE*fp;

Fp = fopen(“test1.txt”,”w”);

fputs(“The string of your choice:”,fp);

The above string is written in test 1.txt file.


What is fgets() funcation? Explain with the help of an example.

• It is used to read a string of characters of a certain length from a file.
• The file must be opened or in append mode to write this function.

fgets(string or string variable, n, file _pointer)

N is the number of characters read from the file.