Arrays & C Strings — Free C/C++ Tutorial
Learn Arrays & C Strings in C/C++ with a free, beginner-friendly tutorial, examples and practice for Indian students on Syllab.in.
TL;DR: Learn Arrays & C Strings in C/C++ with a free, beginner-friendly tutorial, examples and practice for Indian students on Syllab.in.
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Arrays & C Strings in C/C++
An array is a fixed-size, contiguous block of elements of the same type: `int a[5];`. Indexing is 0-based, so valid indices are 0..4. C does NOT check array bounds — writing a[5] or a[100] compiles and runs but corrupts memory (a leading cause of crashes and security bugs). You must track the length yourself.
A C string is just an array of char terminated by a special null character '\0'. So "Hi" occupies 3 bytes: 'H', 'i', '\0'. Functions in <string.h> — strlen, strcpy, strcmp, strcat — rely on that terminator to know where the string ends. Forgetting the '\0' leads to reads running off the end.
Arrays decay to a pointer to their first element when passed to a function, which is why a function receiving an array cannot know its length via sizeof — you pass the length as a separate argument.
Arrays & C Strings — Syntax
int scores[3] = {90, 85, 77};
char name[] = "Nara"; // includes \0
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