C language, how find the length of a word in a 2d array?

c string multidimensional-array string-length
Alex picture Alex · Apr 4, 2013 · Viewed 12.7k times · Source

I am trying to make a condition for a for loop where i have to say (c<wordlength) but im not sure how to find the length of the word.

so lets say i have an arrary called...

char shopping[10][10]={"BAGELS","HAM","EGGS"};

what is the right syntax to find that shopping[0] has 6 letters?

Answer

NPE picture NPE · Apr 4, 2013

The right syntax is

strlen(shopping[0])

This returns a value of type size_t that does not include the NUL terminator.

See man strlen for details.

If you are using strlen(unchanging_string) as the terminal condition of a loop, it is prudent to call it once before the loop instead of calling it on every iteration.

An alternative way to loop over the characters of shopping[0] is as follows:

char *s = shopping[0];
while (*s) {
  /* (*s) is the current character */
}

Related questions

How do I concatenate const/literal strings in C?

I'm working in C, and I have to concatenate a few things. Right now I have this: message = strcat("TEXT ", var); message2 = strcat(strcat("TEXT ", foo), strcat(" TEXT ", bar)); Now if you have experience in C I'm sure you realize …

Read More
How do I create an array of strings in C?

I am trying to create an array of strings in C. If I use this code: char (*a[2])[14]; a[0]="blah"; a[1]="hmm"; gcc gives me "warning: assignment from incompatible pointer type". What is the correct way to do this? edit: …

Read More
How to convert a string to integer in C?

I am trying to find out if there is an alternative way of converting string to integer in C. I regularly pattern the following in my code. char s[] = "45"; int num = atoi(s); So, is there a better way or …

Read More