Does the length of the string include 0?

Mondo Technology Updated on 2024-02-08

About whether the length of the string is included'\0'There are different points of view.

In C, a string is made up of an array of characters, each of which occupies a storage unit. And this array of characters starts with:'\0'As an end, this'\0'Also known as the "terminator" of strings. '\0'It plays a very important role here, and it indicates the end of the string. There is no this'\0', the computer can't determine when the string ends, and therefore can't process the string correctly.

From a definition and storage point of view,'\0'Although it is a special character, in the character array, it is also a real character that occupies a storage unit. So, from that point of view,'\0'should be counted as part of a string. That is, the length of the string is actually included'\0'Target.

So, when we define a string, for example"hello", which is actually stored in memory'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0'。Here'\0'Although we can't see or touch it, it does exist and plays an important role. It is an important part of strings in C and is used to mark the end of strings.

In computer programming, when we need to calculate the length of a string, we usually use the strlen() function. This function is very useful because it accurately calculates the actual number of characters in a string without being affected by whitespace characters such as spaces, tabs, etc. It's important to note that the strlen() function doesn't terminate the character when it is evaluated'\0'Count in length. '\0'It is the terminator of a string in C, and its role is to identify the end of the string. In actual programming operations,'\0'is critical for the manipulation of strings. For example, when we need to copy one string to another, or concatenate one string to another, we need to take this into account'\0'exists. If not'\0', the program may continue to copy or stitch, overwriting other data in memory, causing unpredictable errors.

However, when calculating string length,'\0'It will not be counted. This means that if a string is set in the form of a'\0'terminated, then the length calculated using the strlen() function will be 1 less than the actual number of characters. This is because in C, the length of a string is actually the number of non-null characters in an array of characters'\0'and is not considered a valid character. So, when dealing with strings, understand'\0'and how to use the strlen() function correctly is very important.

In addition, the amount of space (in bytes) that a string occupies in a computer's memory actually includes a terminator'\0'。This is because in C, strings are set in the form of'\0'As a closing flag, this means that each string must start with one'\0'character to mark where it ends. This is the closing character'\0'Occupies 1 byte of space. From a byte-count perspective, a string always occupies 1 byte more space than its length. This is because of the terminator'\0'so that strings occupy more space in memory than we intuitively think.

This concept is very important when working with strings, as it involves memory usage and proper handling of strings. Understanding how strings are stored in memory can help us better understand and process string data and avoid errors such as out-of-bounds access. To sum up, there is a question about whether the length of the string is included'\0', depending on the definition and context. In some cases,'\0'is counted as the length of the string, but not in other cases. But when calculating the size of the memory space occupied by the string,'\0'It must be taken into account.

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