Strings

Overview

C-style strings are raw arrays of characters ending with a null terminator (`\0`). C++ introduced `std::string`, an object-oriented, dynamic, and infinitely safer way to handle text.

Syntax

cpp

// C-Style String
char c_str[] = "Hello"; // Size is 6 ('H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0')

// Modern C++ std::string
#include <string>
std::string cpp_str = "Hello";
cpp_str += " World!"; // Easy concatenation

Common Pitfalls

Forgetting the null terminator `\0` when manually building a C-style char array, causing buffer over-reads.
Trying to assign one C-string to another using `=` (you must use `strcpy`).

Interview Tips

Understand why `std::string` is better: It automatically manages memory, supports simple operators (+, ==), and tracks its own length.

Real-World Example

Comparing the difficulty of concatenation.

example

cpp

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <cstring>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    // C-style way (dangerous and verbose)
    char c1[20] = "Hello ";
    char c2[] = "World";
    strcat(c1, c2); 
    
    // C++ way (safe and clean)
    string s1 = "Hello ";
    string s2 = "World";
    string s3 = s1 + s2;
    
    cout << s3 << endl;
    return 0;
}

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