C++ Programming:

From Problem Analysis

to Program Design, Third Edition

Chapter 9: Arrays and Strings

Objectives
In this chapter you will:
• Learn about arrays
• Explore how to declare and manipulate data into
arrays
• Understand the meaning of “array index out of
bounds”
• Become familiar with the restrictions on array
processing
• Discover how to pass an array as a parameter to
a function
C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 2
Objectives (continued)

• Learn about C-strings

• Examine the use of string functions to
process C-strings
• Discover how to input data into—and output
data from—a C-string
• Learn about parallel arrays
• Discover how to manipulate data in a two-
dimensional array

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 3

Data Types

• A data type is called simple if variables of that

type can store only one value at a time

• A structured data type is one in which each

data item is a collection of other data items

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 4

Arrays
• Array - a collection of a fixed number of
components wherein all of the components
have the same data type
• One-dimensional array - an array in which the
components are arranged in a list form
• The general form of declaring a one-
dimensional array is:

dataType arrayName[intExp];
where intExp is any expression that evaluates to a
positive integer

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 5

Declaring an array

• The statement
int num[5];
declares an array num of 5 components of the
type int
• The components are num[0], num[1],
num[2], num[3], and num[4]

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 6

 Accessing Array Components
• The general form (syntax) of accessing an array
component is:
arrayName[indexExp]
where indexExp, called index, is any expression whose
value is a nonnegative integer
• Index value specifies the position of the
component in the array
• The [] operator is called the array subscripting
operator
• The array index always starts at 0
C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 8
Processing One-Dimensional Arrays
• Some basic operations performed on a one-
dimensional array are:
− Initialize
− Input data
− Output data stored in an array
− Find the largest and/or smallest element
• Each operation requires ability to step through
the elements of the array
• Easily accomplished by a loop

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 13

 Accessing Array Components
• Consider the declaration

int list[100]; //list is an array

//of the size 100
int i;

• This for loop steps-through each element of the

array list starting at the first element

for (i = 0; i < 100; i++) //Line 1

//process list[i] //Line 2
C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 14
Accessing Array Components
(continued)
• If processing list requires inputting data into
list
− the statement in Line 2 takes the from of an
input statement, such as the cin statement

for (i = 0; i < 100; i++) //Line 1

cin >> list[i];

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 15

Array Index Out of Bounds
• If we have the statements:
double num[10];
int i;

• The component num[i] is a valid index if i =

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9
• The index of an array is in bounds if the index
>=0 and the index <= ARRAY_SIZE-1

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 18

Array Index Out of Bounds
(continued)
• If either the index < 0 or the index >
ARRAY_SIZE-1
− then we say that the index is out of bounds

• There is no guard against indices that are out

of bounds
− C++ does not check if the index value is within
range

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 19

 Array Initialization

• As with simple variables

− Arrays can be initialized while they are being declared
• When initializing arrays while declaring them
− Not necessary to specify the size of the array
• Size of array is determined by the number of initial
values in the braces
• For example:
double sales[] = {12.25, 32.50, 16.90, 23,
45.68};

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 20

 Partial Initialization
• The statement
int list[10] = {0};
declares list to be an array of 10 components and
initializes all components to zero
• The statement
int list[10] = {8, 5, 12};
declares list to be an array of 10 components,
initializes list[0] to 8, list[1] to 5, list[2] to
12 and all other components are initialized to 0

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 21

Partial Initialization (continued)
• The statement
int list[] = {5, 6, 3};
declares list to be an array of 3 components and
initializes list[0] to 5, list[1] to 6, and list[2] to 3
• The statement
int list[25]= {4, 7};
declares list to be an array of 25 components
− The first two components are initialized to 4 and 7
respectively
− All other components are initialized to 0

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 22

Restrictions on Array Processing

Assignment does not work with arrays

In order to copy one array into another array we must

copy component-wise

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 23

Restrictions on Array Processing
(continued)

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 24

Arrays as Parameters to Functions
• Arrays are passed by reference only

• The symbol & is not used when declaring an

array as a formal parameter

• The size of the array is usually omitted

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 25

Arrays as Parameters to Functions
(continued)
• If the size of one-dimensional array is
specified when it is declared as a formal
parameter

− It is ignored by the compiler

• The reserved word const in the declaration

of the formal parameter can prevent the
function from changing the actual parameter

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 26

Base Address of an Array
• The base address of an array is the address, or
memory location of the first array component
• If list is a one-dimensional array
− base address of list is the address of the
component list[0]
• When we pass an array as a parameter
− base address of the actual array is passed to the
formal parameter
• Functions cannot return a value of the type array

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 31

C Strings (Character Arrays)

• Character array - an array whose components

are of type char

• String - a sequence of zero or more characters

enclosed in double quote marks

• C stings are null terminated (‘\0’)

• The last character in a string is the null

character
C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 32
C Strings (Character Arrays)
(continued)
• There is a difference between 'A' and "A"

− 'A' is the character A

− "A" is the string A

• Because strings are null terminated, "A"

represents two characters, 'A' and '\0‘

• Similarly, "Hello" contains six characters,

'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', and '\0'
C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 33
C Strings (Character Arrays)
(continued)
• Consider the statement
char name[16];
• Because C strings are null terminated and
name has sixteen components
− The largest string that can be stored in name
is 15
• If you store a string of length, say 10 in name
− The first 11 components of name are used
and the last 5 are left unused

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 34

C Strings (Character Arrays)
(continued)
• The statement
char name[16] = "John";
declares a string variable name of length 16
and stores "John" in it
• The statement
char name[] = "John";
declares a string variable name of length 5
and stores "John" in it

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 35

 String Comparison
• C-strings are compared character by character
using the collating sequence of the system
• If we are using the ASCII character set
1. The string "Air" is smaller than the string
"Boat"
2. The string "Air" is smaller than the string
"An"
3. The string "Bill" is smaller than the string
"Billy"
4. The string "Hello" is smaller than "hello"

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 37

Reading and Writing Strings

• String Input

− Aggregate operations are allowed for string

input

− cin >> name; stores the next input string in

name

− Strings that contain blanks cannot be read using

the extraction operator >>

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 39

Reading and Writing Strings
(continued)
− To read strings with blanks, use the get
function with an input stream variable, such as
cin:

cin.get(str, m+1);

• Stores the next m characters into str but the

newline character is not stored in str

• If the input string has fewer than m characters,

the reading stops at the newline character

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 40

Reading and Writing Strings
(continued)
• String Output
− The statement cout << name; outputs the
content of name on the screen
− The insertion operator << continues to write
the contents of name until it finds the null
character
− If name does not contain the null character,
then we will see strange output: << continues
to output data from memory adjacent to name
until '\0' is found
C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 41
Input/Output Files
• C++ strings are not null terminated
• Variables of type string can be used to read and
store the names of input/output files
• The argument to the function open must be a
null terminated string (a C-string)
• If we use a variable of type string to read the
name of an input/output file and then use this
variable to open a file
− The value of the variable must first be converted
to a C-string (null-terminated string)

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 42

Input/Output Files (continued)

• The header file string contains the function

c_str
− Converts a value of the type string to a null-
terminated character array

• The syntax to use the function c_str is:

strVar.c_str()
where strVar is a variable of type string

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 43

Parallel Arrays

• Two (or more) arrays are called parallel if

their corresponding components hold related
information

• For example:

int studentId[50];

char courseGrade[50];

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 44

Two-Dimensional Arrays

• Two-dimensional Array: a collection of a fixed

number of components arranged in two
dimensions
− All components are of the same type
• The syntax for declaring a two-dimensional
array is:
dataType arrayName[intexp1][intexp2];
where intexp1 and intexp2 are expressions yielding
positive integer values

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 45

Two-Dimensional Arrays
(continued)
• The two expressions intexp1 and intexp2
specify the number of rows and the number of
columns, respectively, in the array

• Two-dimensional arrays are sometimes called

matrices or tables

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 46

Accessing Array Components

• The syntax to access a component of a two-

dimensional array is:
arrayName[indexexp1][indexexp2]
where indexexp1 and indexexp2 are
expressions yielding nonnegative integer
values
• indexexp1 specifies the row position and
indexexp2 specifies the column position

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 48

Initialization
• Like one-dimensional arrays
− Two-dimensional arrays can be initialized
when they are declared
• To initialize a two-dimensional array when it
is declared
1. Elements of each row are enclosed within
braces and separated by commas
2. All rows are enclosed within braces
3. For number arrays, if all components of a row
are not specified, the unspecified components
are initialized to zero

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 50

Processing Two-Dimensional Arrays
• A two-dimensional array can be processed in
three different ways:

1. Process the entire array

2. Process a particular row of the array, called row

processing

3. Process a particular column of the array, called

column processing

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 51

Processing Two-Dimensional Arrays
(continued)
• Each row and each column of a two-
dimensional array is a one-dimensional array

• When processing a particular row or column

of a two-dimensional array

− We use algorithms similar to processing one-

dimensional arrays

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 52

Passing Two-Dimensional Arrays as
Parameters to Functions
• Two-dimensional arrays can be passed as
parameters to a function

• By default, arrays are passed by reference

• The base address, that is, the address of the

first component of the actual parameter is
passed to the formal parameter

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 58

Two-Dimensional Arrays
• Two-dimensional arrays are stored in row
order
− The first row is stored first, followed by the
second row, followed by the third row and so on
• When declaring a two-dimensional array as a
formal parameter
− Can omit size of first dimension, but not the
second
• Number of columns must be specified

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 59

 Summary
• An array is a structured data type with a fixed
number of components
− Every component is of the same type
− Components are accessed using their relative
positions in the array
• Elements of a one-dimensional array are
arranged in the form of a list
• An array index can be any expression that
evaluates to a non-negative integer
• The value of the index must always be less
than the size of the array
C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 60
 Summary (continued)
• The base address of an array is the address of
the first array component
• In a function call statement, when passing an
array as an actual parameter, you use only its
name
• As parameters to functions, arrays are passed
by reference only
• A function cannot return a value of the type
array
• In C++, C-strings are null terminated and are
stored in character arrays
C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 61
Summary (continued)
• Commonly used C-string manipulation
functions include: strcpy, strcmp, and
strlen
• Parallel arrays are used to hold related
information
• In a two-dimensional array, the elements are
arranged in a table form

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 62

Summary

• To access an element of a two-dimensional

array, you need a pair of indices: one for the
row position and one for the column position
• In row processing, a two-dimensional array is
processed one row at a time
• In column processing, a two-dimensional
array is processed one column at a time

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Third Edition 63