What does char *x = "geeksquiz" mean?

Question

I am pretty new to programming . And I am coming across this declaration a lot. Say for example:

char *x = "geeksquiz";

Does this mean that x holds the address of first element of the string,i.e, the character 'g' ?

If so then consider the following example:

char *str1 = "geeks"; 
char *str2 = "forgeeks"; 
printf("str1 is %s, str2 is %s", str1, str2);

Output is:

str1 is geeks, str2 is forgeeks

How come printf statement prints str1 is geeks and str2 is forgeeks , if they hold addresses respectively ? or is it the placeholder %s that's instructing the printf to print the string literals ?

Where are you coming across it? In your C++ book? Which book is it? — Lightness Races in Orbit, Jan 20 '19 at 13:34
Mandatory preemptive link to accompany Lightness Races in Orbit's comment https://stackoverflow.com/questions/388242/the-definitive-c-book-guide-and-list — StoryTeller - Unslander Monica, Jan 20 '19 at 13:36
Possible duplicate of [Understanding C-strings & string literals in C++](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7670059/understanding-c-strings-string-literals-in-c) — ShadowRanger, Jan 20 '19 at 13:40

eerorika · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-20T13:58:42.587

Does this mean that x holds the address of first element of the string,i.e, the character 'g' ?

Yes.

is it the placeholder %s that's instructing the printf to print the string literals ?

Yes.

To be more specific, %s is not limited for string literals. It is for printing null terminated srings - which string literals are. Also, it's called a format specifier.

Considering you've used the tag, note that the expression char *x = "geeksquiz"; is ill-formed in C++. In C++, the string literal is an array of const char and it doesn't decay to a pointer to non-const char. It is well formed in C, because in that language string literals are non-const.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 20 '19 at 13:38

0

If this is used in c language then x holds the address of string first character 'g'. You can print it using this code.

    #include<stdio.h>
    int main(){
    char *x="geeksquiz";
    printf("%c",*x);
    return 0;
    }

Output : g

answered Jan 20 '19 at 13:38

V2K

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what if I need to print other characters of the string? – Mahendra Kumar Jan 31 '19 at 08:50
If you want to print other characters of the string then increment pointer if you want to print second character then write printf("%c",*(x+1); – V2K Feb 01 '19 at 13:45

What does char *x = "geeksquiz" mean?

2 Answers2