Assigning a string to a variable of type char in C

Question

i have used the code.

char *y;
y="hello world";
printf("%c",y);

it just shows something useless. What mistake i am making.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 10 '17 at 06:53

4

Change :

printf("%c",y);

to :

printf("%s",y);

as %c specifier indicates a char. To identify a string, you need the specifier %s.

answered Oct 10 '17 at 06:53

Marievi

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Now its working thanks. – Shantanu vidwans Oct 10 '17 at 06:55
@Shantanuvidwans glad that I helped! You could accept an answer if your problem is solved :) – Marievi Oct 10 '17 at 07:15

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 10 '17 at 06:53

1

To print a c-string use the %s format specifier in printf. What is happening now is that y evaluates to some address and then you are trying to print that address using %c which causes UB.

answered Oct 10 '17 at 06:53

babon

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msc · Answer 3 · 2017-10-10T07:02:11.253

1

It is undefined behaviour because you have used wrong format specifier.

C11 Standard: §7.21.6.1: Paragraph 9:

If a conversion specification is invalid, the behavior is undefined.225) If any argument is not the correct type for the corresponding coversion specification, the behavior is undefined.

So, use %s instead of %c for character string.

edited Oct 10 '17 at 07:02

answered Oct 10 '17 at 06:55

msc

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Assigning a string to a variable of type char in C

3 Answers3