What's the difference when initializing an array declaration with a string literal and a list of distinct characters?

Question

char short_string[] = "abc"   
char short_string[] = {'a', 'b', 'c'}

what I think is the difference is that the 2nd line is a switch statement and that it requires input from user (either a b or c as the 1st line is more of a statement.... is this right ?

The only difference is that the second one doesn't have a null terminator... but I second unapersson's question :) — Daniel Sloof, May 10 '11 at 09:34
[I can only repeat myself](http://stackoverflow.com/q/5947805/1968): get a C++ book and learn the basics of the language. We cannot teach you each and every aspect here. You lack even the most fundamental understanding of the language. — Konrad Rudolph, May 10 '11 at 09:35
I recommend you to go for something easier first, this book is for experts. — Andrejs Cainikovs, May 10 '11 at 10:06

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered May 10 '11 at 09:39

No. That's not a switch statement. Both lines are variable declarations with initialization. The difference is that:

char short_string[] = "abc"

Declares short_string null terminated c-string.
Memory dump: 0x61, 0x62, 0x63, 0x00
Variable length in bytes: 4

While second line:

char short_string[] = {'a', 'b', 'c'}

Declares short_string as byte array.
Memory dump: 0x61, 0x62, 0x63
Variable length in bytes: 3

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 10 '11 at 09:41

The first statement declares and initializes a string with the content abc (including terminating zero) -- this is a character array that is four characters long.

The second statement declares a character array with the three characters a, b and c -- it's almost the same thing as the first, except no terminating zero (not a proper string).

Also: All statements in C/C++ must be terminated with a semicolon.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 10 '11 at 09:41

The difference is the first option will assign three characters and a trailing null ( x'00') the second option will assign the same three characters but no trailing null and would cause problems were you attempt to use any of the str.... family of functions.

What's the difference when initializing an array declaration with a string literal and a list of distinct characters?

3 Answers3