String literals

Learn string literals with double quotes and escape sequences.

Creating strings with string literals

Text inside double quotes is a string literal. C automatically appends '\0'; you do not write it yourself.

char city[] = "Paris";
/* city: {'P','a','r','i','s','\0'} */

The array size is computed automatically: 5 letters + 1 null = 6 elements. Using a string literal is shorter and clearer than listing characters one by one.

Computing array size

Leaving the array size empty ([]) when assigning a string literal lets C compute it for you. But if you give the size by hand, you must add one for the null character.

char s1[] = "Hello";  /* 6 elements: 5 letters + 1 null */
char s2[6] = "Hello";  /* same: 5+1 */

If you write char s2[5] = "Hello"; there is no room for the null character, which is undefined behavior. sizeof(s1) returns the full array size; this is one more than the letter count.

Exercise Define a city string and print it

Initialize a char array with the string literal "Paris". Print its size in bytes with sizeof; then print the string with printf %s. Output is size first, then string.

Show example solution

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    char city[] = "Paris";
    printf("%zu\n", sizeof(city));
    printf("%s\n", city);
    return 0;
}

Test yourself

String literal assignment

char fruit[] = ____;  /* "Apple" string */

Show answer

char fruit[] = "Apple";  /* "Apple" string */

Which of the following is a valid string literal?
- "Hello"
- `Hello`
- {Hello}
- 'Hello'
Show answer

"Hello" — "Hello" is a string literal in double quotes.
Match string definitions

"Ali"

string literal
char

character type
\0

auto appended
sizeof

byte size of array

Next lesson: strlen

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