Assigning a string to a variable (not a pointer, not a array)

JStew · 11-18-2002, 07:51 AM

This is for C, not Perl or anything else... just C...

is it even possible to store a word, sentence as a string literal to a variable... this variable needs to just be a char variable (or the like) and not a pointer or array.. can it be done???

acid_kewpie · 11-18-2002, 07:53 AM

well not as a char, as a char is just a single byte, which is the point of using a pointer to a char array instead...

JStew · 11-18-2002, 08:03 AM

Is there a way maybe without using char? Is there any way possible at all to store a word or phrase to just one variable? Is there a header file that supports any function that would do this?

acid_kewpie · 11-18-2002, 08:13 AM

there is no native string datatype in C. C++ has a String class, but a string is fundamentally non-primitive, so not present in C. you can get by with something like...

Code:

char* string;
string = "help me";

so you can treat it as a string, even though it is just a pointer to an array of characters. Mind you, that's all a string ever is in C++, it's just hidden from you.