Lesson # 6. Using strings

Дата изменения: 15 октября 2021

Theory

String type

• To work with a string the string library must be included:
• #include <string>
• Variables of string type can be understood as an array of characters.
• A specific character in a string can be accessed as in a regular array, that is, by its index:
• string str="it's possible to understand it"; cout << str[2] << endl; // output: ' for (int i = 0; i <= s.size(); i++) { // to iterate over the characters of a string if (s[i] == ' ') //to do sth }

String functions

• Find()
• size_t find (const string& str, size_t pos = 0) const;
• Searches the string for the first occurrence of the sequence specified by its arguments.
• When pos is specified, the search only includes characters at or after position
• pos, ignoring any possible occurrences that include characters before pos.

• size_t is an unsigned integral type, able to represent the size of any object in bytes
• npos constant — Maximum value for size_t (usually = 4294967295)
• This value, when used as the value for a len (or sublen) parameter in string’s member functions, means «until the end of the string».
• As a return value, it is usually used to indicate no matches.
• This constant is defined with a value of -1, which because size_t is an unsigned integral type, it is the largest possible representable value for this type.
• The method to find how many times the subsctring occurs in the string:
string str="it's possible to understand it"; string substr="it"; size_t f = -1; int counter = 0; while (true) // infinite loop { // f = str.find(substr); // f will be equaled to 0 // 'f+1' is required to move to the next position after found match f = str.find(substr, f+1); // in the 2-nd iteration f = 28 // in the 3-rd iteration f = 4294967295, it means that there is no more matches // string::npos = 4294967295 if (f == string::npos) break; counter++; } cout << counter;

Escape sequences are used to represent certain special characters within string literals and character literals: \‘ single quote

char c = '\''

Strings as char and pointers

• A C-character string is a string (character array) with a null character at the end (\0).
• char s[6] = "Hello"; // \0 is added automatically char s[] = "Hello"; // the same reuslt char* p = s; // H

To iterate over the string characters:

char* p = s; while (*p != 0) cout << *p++;

or

char* p = s; while (*p) cout << *p++;

All the tasks that you did not have time to complete in class automatically become your homework. The homework must be completed before the next lesson.

To do all the tasks and labs of this lesson you must create three files:

1. a header file (basicStrings.h) (functions definitions for all the tasks must be placed here);
2. a basicStrings.cpp file (the implementations of the functions with comments for all the tasks must be placed here)
3. a main.cpp must provide prompts for user, calling created functions and output results for all the tasks.
4. Each function should be accompanied by a comment about what it is intended for, and a number of the task must be provided.

String type

Lab 1:

To do: A string type variable (s="Hello world") is given and character (variable c) is given (ask user to input it). Check if the character c is among the characters of the string. Create a function named checkIfChar to do the task. The function must return 1 if entered character is found or 0 otherwise.

Note 1: The signature of the function must be as follows:

bool checkIfChar(string s, char c)

Expected output:

lab 1
A sentence is "Hello world"
Enter character:
>>> o
result:
1


✍ Algorithm:

1. Open visual studio and create a console application named Lesson6. While creating, check the Empty project (Пустой проект) item.
2. Two .cpp files must be added to the source files folder of the project (basicStrings.cpp and main.cpp) and one header file must be added to the Header files folder.
3. Open the main.cpp file’s code and add all the libraries we need to do the lab:
4. #include
#include  //
#include  // is needed to work with string type
using namespace std;

5. Inside the main function, ask user to input a sentence and assign the input value to str variable. Don’t forget to declare the variable:
6. int main() {
cout << "lab 1:" << endl;
string str="Hello world"; // declaration of the variable

// ..
}

7. Then, ask user to input a character to find it in the sentence. Set the input value to a variable c:
8. cout << "Enter character :" << endl;
char c;
cin >> c;

9. Now, we’re going to create a function to check if the input charecter is within the input sentence. The function must be supplied with two values — the sentence (str) and character (c), they are the arguments of the function. Add the signature of the function before the main function:
10.  //lab 1: Check if the character c is among the characters of the string
bool checkIfChar(string s, char c)
{
// to do
}

11. We’re going to itereate over the characters of the string using for loop. Inside the the loop body we must check if a current character of the string matches the character c. If it does, the function must return 1, in the case when it doesn’t, the function returns 0.
12. for (int i=0;i<= s.size();i++){
if (s[i]==c){
return 1;
break;
}
}
return 0;

13. Come back to the main function code and call the function. The results of the function must be printed out, so, the calling should be inside cout<< statement:
14. cout << "result :" << checkIfChar(str, c) << endl;

15. Be careful not to forget to add a statement to stay the console window opened:
16. //...
system("pause");
return 0;
//...

17. Run the program and check the output.

To do: Create a function to check if input text contains a combination of letters 'mo'. Return 1 (if found) or 0 (if not found). It is not allowed to use any standard functions. To store the text, you should use a string type variable.

Note 1: The signature of the function must be as following:

bool findMo(string s)

Note 2: To check two or more conditions in if statement you must use && (logical and):

if (condition_1 && condition_2){ }

Expected output:

task 1
result for 'Hello world' is:
0
---
result for 'My mom' is:
result:
1


To do: Create a function to check if the value of string variable contains the word 'dog'. Return 1 (if found) or 0 (if not found). You should use c character string and a pointer. It is not allowed to use any standard functions.

Note 1: The signature of the function must be as following:

bool findMo(char* p)

Expected output:

task 2
the string is: Hello world
result:
0
---
Enter a sentence:
the string is: my dog is nice
result:
1


To do: A sentence is given: str = "word1 word2 word3 word4". Calculate the number of words in it. It is not allowed to use any string standard functions.

Note 1: You have to count the number of words by the number of spaces between the words.

Note 2: Don't forget to check if the sentence contain extra spaces at the beginning and end of the sentence.

Note 3: The signature of the created function must be as following:

void countWords(string s, int& counter)

Expected output:

task 3
Enter a sentence:
>>>  word1 word2 word3 word4
result:
4


To do: A string is given. Check if its first and last characters match. Create a function named LastAndFirst to do the task. It is not allowed to use any string standard functions (except size() function).

Note 1: The signature of the created function must be as following:

bool LastAndFirst(string s)

Note 2: The size() method of the string can be useful to find the last character (s.size()).

Expected output:

task 4
for sentence Hello world
the result is:
false
---
for sentence lucky ball
result is:
true


String functions

To do: Create a function to check if the text contains the word cat. Print the position (order number) of the word in the text. You should use standard find function.

Note 1: The signature of the created function must be as follows:

void findCatFunction(string s, string s0)

Note 2: About find() function:

s.find(s0) // returns -1 if there are no matches of s0 in the text s

Expected output:

task 5
for text: cat word1 word3 word4
result :
cat is found at: 0
---
for text: word1 word3 word4
result :
---
for sentence: word1 cat word3 word4
result :
cat is found at: 6

Lab 2:

To do: Two strings S and S0 are given (they are entered). Find the number of occurrences of the string S0 in the string S.

Note 1: In the solution, it is convenient to use the find member function of the string class, which returns the position of the occurrence of type size_t (unsigned integer), or the value of string :: npos in case no occurrence was found. Look at the example to understand the way to use them.

Note 2: The signature of the function must be as follows:

int countOccurrence(string s, string s0)

Expected output:

Lab 2
string 1: it's possible to understand it
string 2: it
result : 2


✍ Algorithm:

1. Open main.cpp file and inside the main function, under the previous task code, add the code to output the number of the task. After that, declare the variables of string type and initialize them with values:
2. //lab 2
cout << "lab 2:" << endl;
string str1, str2;
str1 = "it's possible to understand it";
str2 = "it";
cout << "string 1: " << str1 << "\n string 2: "<< str2 << endl;

\n is used to insert a new line.
3. Open the implementation file, that is basicStrings.cpp. Add the code of the signature of the function, and also, add comments with explanation of the task:
4. // lab 2: Find the number of occurrences of the string S0 in the string S
int countOccurrence(string s, string s0)
{
// to do:
}

5. The function must return integer type (since int is the type of the function).
6. The function has two parameters of string type: s is a string containing the sentence, and s0 is a substring which we must find inside the string s.
7. To find the substring we're going to use the find() standard method and f variable of size_t type (an unsigned integral type). The f variable will store the position of the substring inside the s string. And if there isn't founded substring the f will store 0 number, since it will be increase by 1 (f+1). When the find() function will reach the end of the string, the npos value (npos is a constant — maximum value for size_t (usually = 4294967295)) will be set to f variable:
8.  size_t f = -1;
int res = 0; // counter of the numbers of occurrences
while (true) // infinite loop
{
f = s.find(s0,f+1);
if (f == string::npos) // if the end of the string is reached
break; // exit loop
++res;
}
return res;

The infinite loop is convenient to use when we don't know how many repetitions of the loop there will be. Here the break operator will be executed only if when seeking the substrings, we will reach the end of the string.
9. Let's return to the main.cpp file and inside the main function add the call of our function. Since the function will return the integer value, that is the number of occurrences, we must store the results of the function inside the variable:
10. int counter = countOccurrence(str1, str2);
cout << "result :"  << counter << endl;

11. Run the program and see the outputs.

To do: The strings S and S0 are given. Create a function to remove the last substring that matches S0 from the S string. If there are no matching substrings, then return the unchanged S string.

Note 1: You can use the rfind member function of the string class to find the last occurrence of a substring, and you can use the erase member function to delete.

Note 2: Look at the example to understand the way to use them.

Note 3: The signature of the function must be as follows:

string eraseLast(string s, string s0) { // to do: // // return s; }

Expected output:

task 6:
string 1: it's possible to understand it
string 2: it
result: it's possible to understand


To do: A string containing at least one space character is given. Return the substring between the first and last spaces of the string. If the string contains single space, an empty string must be returned.

Note 1: You can use the substr member function of the string class to extract a substring.

Note 2: Look at the example to understand the way to use them.

Note 3: The signature of the function and the fragment of its code:

string betweenSpaces(string s) { size_t f1, f2; f1 = s.find(" "); // the position of the first space f2 = s.rfind(" "); // the position of the last space // ...; // ...; return // ...; }

Expected output:

task 7:
string: it's possible to understand it
result : possible to understand


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