Help with converting 2 or more chars to a single string

Question

I am trying to convert two or more chars into a single string. Is this possible, and if so, how might I go about this? (BTW I am new to programming...)

Answer 1

Create an array of char, or a pointer to char with enough heap memory allocated using malloc (remember strings require a termination character '\0', so are longer than their content by one character). Then you can assign to individual array elements. A few examples how one could use those:

char *str = (char*)malloc((LENGTH+1)*sizeof(char));
// now str can store up to LENGTH characters plus null terminator

// copy at most LENGTH characters of string plus null terminator
strncpy(str, "Jello World!", LENGTH+1);

OR

char str[LENGTH+1];
// now str can store up to LENGTH characters plus null terminator

// copy at most LENGTH characters of string plus null terminator
strncpy(str, "Jello World!", sizeof(str));

Then you can do things like

str[0] = 'H';
// Now it's "Hello World!"
str[5] = '\0';
// and now just "Hello"

The strncpy is just an example on how to copy strings into existing character arrays. You could probably go with str[0] style, just don't forget the null terminator.

Answer 2

So remember a string is just an array of characters, and we can create an array by using char MyCoolString[i + 1], where i is the amount of characters you want and the +1 is for the \0 you need for you computer to know where the string ends. Now using our new string, you can write a for loop to copy characters from an old string, or use the following syntax if you know you'll always only use 2 specific characters: char MyCoolString[] = {FirstString[0], FirstString[3], '\0'}; But be sure to not forget the \0, or your computer will probably have issues. Hope this helps and good luck with the rest of pset2!