Character arrays - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Working with Character Arrays in C

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple program that stores and displays a name using character arrays in C. This is like writing a name on a piece of paper and then reading it out loud.

🎯 Goal: Build a program that stores a name in a character array, counts the number of characters, and then prints the name and its length.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a character array with a specific name

Create an integer variable to store the length of the name

Use a loop to count the characters in the array

Print the name and the length

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Character arrays are used to store text like names, messages, or any words in many programs.

💼 Career

Understanding how to work with strings and arrays is essential for programming in C, especially in systems programming and embedded software.

1

Create a character array with the name

Create a character array called name and initialize it with the string "Alice".

C

# Create a character array called name with the value "Alice"
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use double quotes to create a string in C, like char name[] = "Alice";.

2

Create an integer variable for length

Create an integer variable called length and set it to 0.

C

#include 

char name[] = "Alice";

// Create an integer variable called length and set it to 0
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use int length = 0; to create the variable.

3

Count the characters in the array

Use a for loop with an integer variable i starting at 0 to count characters in name until you find the null character '\0'. Increase length by 1 for each character.

C

#include 

char name[] = "Alice";
int length = 0;

// Use a for loop to count characters in name until '\0'
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use name[i] != '\0' to check for the end of the string.

4

Print the name and its length

Use printf to print the text Name: followed by the name array, then print Length: followed by the length variable on the next line.

C

#include 

char name[] = "Alice";
int length = 0;

for (int i = 0; name[i] != '\0'; i++) {
    length++;
}

// Print the name and length
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use printf("Name: %s\n", name); and printf("Length: %d\n", length);.