Lesson 9: Arrays

This lesson will show you how to:

• Use string literals
• Assign strings to variables
• One dimensional arrays

Q. What's the difference between a computer and a blonde?
A. You only have to punch information once into a computer.

Arrays are a data structure that is used to store a group of objects of the same data type in memory. All the elements of an array must be the same data type, for example float, char, int, a structure or function. Structures provide a way to organize related data and will be studied in a later lesson. Functions provide a way to define a new operation. They are used to calculate a result or update parameters. Functions will be covered in a later lesson. T
An array is defined with this syntax.

data type arrayName[size];

Examples:

int ID[30];
          /* Could be used to store the ID numbers of students in a class */

float temperatures[31];
           /* Could be used to store the daily temperatures in a month */

char name[20];
            /* Could be used to store a character string. Character strings in C are terminated be the null character, '\0'. This will be discussed later in the this lesson. */

An example program using arrays:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{

char work[20];

word[0] = ‘H’;
word[1] = ‘e’;
word[2] = ‘l’;
word[3] = ‘l’;
word[4] = ‘o’;
word[5] = 0;

printf(“The contents of word[] is -? %s\n”, word);

return 0;

}

This program prints the word "Hello" on the screen.

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