Coding, Programming Tutorials - Storing strings in arrays in C

Unlike web languages like PHP, ASP, Perl, you are NOT able to store text strings in one-dimensional arrays like you would in those web languages. C++ requires the use of 2-dimensional arrays in order to store lines of text. For this to happen C++ uses a mix of character sequences and arrays. As for a limit on how many dimensions of arrays you can have... There's an unlimited amount.

So to start off, we'll use a basic C++ format. Using the input-output stream file, the standard library file, and the strings file.

#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

using namespace std;

int main(){

cin.get();
return 0;
}

Now we'll start off by calling some new variables, as well as a new character array.

#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

using namespace std;

const int num_arrays = 10;
const int array_length = 99;

char string_array[num_arrays][array_length];

int main(){

cin.get();
return 0;
}

How a two-dimensional array works is that it has two certain aspects to it. The first is how many arrays it can hold. The second is how many characters it can carry in this instance. We used the integer num_arrays to set how many arrays the array can hold. array_length is for how many characters one array can hold up to. Both these values are interchangeable.

Now all that remains now is to set character values into the array.

Since we don't want to numerically set each array one by one, we'll use the array listing.

#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

using namespace std;

const int num_arrays = 10;
const int array_length = 99;

char string_array[num_arrays][array_length] = {
             "Array 0",
             "Array 1",
             "Array 2",
             "Array 3",
             "Array 4",
             "Array 5",
             "Array 6",
             "Array 7",
             "Array 8",
             "Array 9"
             };

int main(){

cin.get();
return 0;
}

There is one thing you should know about arrays. The array value will begin at 0, but, it will always need one space for one last value, /0. /0 tells the array to stop storing values. It is automatically placed at the end of calling arrays for values. If we set an array value for 10, it would mean it has 11 arrays to store data. But since /0 is needed, we can only use 10. Be warned though, if you call array value 10, nothing will appear.

Since all the values are set into the array, we should now call them. We can call them one by one with C-output, but let's just use a loop to see it in action.

#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

using namespace std;

const int num_arrays = 10;
const int array_length = 99;

int main(){

    for(int count = 0; count < num_arrays; count++)
    {
              cout << string_array[count] << endl;

              }

cin.get();
return 0;
}

After it compiles you should see all your array values pop up.