Best way to declare a constant string in C

Question

I have a string: "The world is a beautiful place to live in.".

I have two source files and a global header file. I can access the string in two easy ways:-

Declaring and defining a constant variable as shown: I can use it using extern

const char *str = "The world is a beautiful place to live in.";
Using #define STR "The world is a beautiful place to live in."

Out of the above two options, which one is preferred in C?

Besides the definition of the "variable" `str` being wrong, it's *mostly* a matter of personal taste, and how you're supposed to use it. — Some programmer dude, Nov 08 '17 at 09:23
Considering one will pollute every translation unit that includes that header with a global variable. The answer is obvious. — StoryTeller - Unslander Monica, Nov 08 '17 at 09:24

user2736738 · Answer 1 · 2017-11-08T09:32:01.027

0

It doesn't matter (doesn't matter if you only consider of getting a string literal) how you do but in case you want to get the string constant to be traced under debugger you may want to use the const char*str = ...

With macro definition you will get all the problems of macro expansion- the side effects of the expanson, the pollution of the name space, the deviation from debugger help etc

edited Nov 08 '17 at 09:32

answered Nov 08 '17 at 09:24

user2736738

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Best way to declare a constant string in C

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