Strings in C#
Bibek Kumar
CSE Deptt. DITU
[Link]@[Link]
[Link] Kumar-Assistant Professor-CSE
INDEX
• Introduction.
• Immutable vs Mutable strings.
• String methods in C#.
• Comparing Strings
• Mutable strings.
• Regular Expressions.
• Method Parameter.
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Strings in C#
Strings represents a group of characters and character array is a easiest way to
represent a sequence of characters in C#.
Ex. char [ ] name= new char[4];
name[0]=‘N’; name[1]=‘a’; name[2]=‘m’; name[3]=‘e’;
C# supports a feature known as regular expressions that can be used for complex string
manipulation and pattern matching.
C# support a predefined reference type known as string.
string can be use to declare string type objects of type
[Link] class.
[Link] and [Link] namespaces
are also used in Building Strings,Formatting Expressions and
Regular Expression
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Immutable vs mutable strings
• Immutable string cannot be • mutable string can be changed or modify
changed once declared and once declared and defined.
defined. class mutableString
class ImmutableString {
{ static void Main(string[] args)
static void Main(string[] args) {
{ StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder(“DIT");
string str=“DIT”;
[Link](“University");
str = str + “University”;
[Link](“Dehradun");
[Link](str);
[Link](str);
}
Note*: if we assign a string to str, another }
memory will be created and string will be Note*: if we assign a string to str, after append
written and GC Will collect earlier one. ing our string the same memory location will a
ppend the string.
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Immutable String Methods
Some predefined methods
Used in [Link] class.
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Comparing Strings
Compare() Method
int n=[Link](s1,s2);
Zero interger, if s1 is equal to s2
A positive Integer (1) , if s1 is greater than s2
A negative integer(-1), if s1 is less than s2
Equals() Method
There are two versions of Equals method. They are implemented as follows:-
bool b1= [Link](s1);
bool b2= [Link](s2,s1);
These methods returns a Boolean value true if s1 and s2 are equal, otherwise false.
The == Operator
bool b3= (s1==s2); //b3 is true if they are equal
We very often use such statements in decision statements, like:-
if(s1==s2)
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Mutable Strings
This type of strings are modifiable using the StringBuilder class.
StringBuilder str1=new StringBuilder(“hello”);
StringBuilder str2=new StringBuilder();
They can grow dynamically as more characters are added to them.
They can grow either unbounded or up to a configurable maximum.
Mutable Strings are also known as dynamic strings.
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Mutable Strings (Contd…)
The [Link] namespace contains the class StringBuilder,
therefore we must include the using [Link] directive for
creating and manipulating mutable strings.
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Mutable String Program
using System; //[Link] a String
using [Link]; [Link](3,"Life");
class strbuild //[Link]
[Link](5,3);
{ public static void Main() //[Link]
{ string str1,str2; [Link]('A', '*');
[Link]("Enter first string"); //[Link]
str1=[Link](); int y= [Link];
[Link]("Enter Second string"); [Link]("Capacity is"+y);
[Link]=100;
str2=[Link](); y=[Link];
StringBuilder s1 = new StringBuilder(str1); [Link]("New Capacity is"+y);
StringBuilder s2 = new StringBuilder(str2); //[Link]
//[Link] a String int z = [Link];
[Link]("Smile"); int v = [Link];
[Link](" Length of s1 "+ z);
// [Link]("String After Append :" +s1); [Link]("Length of s2"+ v);
//[Link] Format //[Link]
[Link]("1)s2 after Append Format {0}",s2); int c= [Link];
[Link]("2)s1 after Append Format {0}",s1); [Link]("Max Capacity"+s1);
//[Link] Capacity //[Link] a character
int n=[Link];
int x=[Link](30); s2[n-1]='@'; } }
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Regular Expression
Regular expression provide a powerful tool for searching
and manipulating a large text . A R.E. may be applied to a
text to complete tasks such as:
To locate substrings and return them.
To modify one or more substrings and return them.
To Identify substrings that begins with or end with a
pattern of characters .
To find all words that begins with a group of characters
and end with some other characters.
To find all the occurrences of a substring pattern and
many more.
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Regular Expression (contd…)
Regular expression (also known as pattern string) is a string containing two types of
characters
1. Literals : characters that we wish to search and match in the text.
2. Metacharacters: Metacharacters are special characters that give command to the
regular expression parser.
\b , \B, \S* and | are metacharacters and m, er ,X, space and comma are Literals.
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Method Parameters
Methods are declared inside the body of class.
modifier type methodname(formal parameter list) Example.
{ int product(int x, int y)
method body {
} Int m=x*y;
Return(m);
}
C# employs four kinds of parameter.
1. Value Parameters
2. Output Parameters
3. Reference Parameters
4. Parameter arrays
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Pass by Value
- By default method parameters are passed by value.
- A parameter declare with no modifier is passed by value and called a value parameter.
using System;
class PassByValue
{
static void Change(int m)
{
m=m+10; //Value of m is changed.
}
public static void Main()
{
int x=100;
Change(x);
[Link]("x="+x);
}
}
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Pass by Reference
A parameter declared with ref keyword is a reference parameter.
Example:-
void Modify(ref int x) //x is declared as reference parameter
Unlike a value parameter, a reference parameter doesn’t create a new storage location.
When a formal parameter is declared as ref , the corresponding arguments in the
method invocation must also be declared as ref.
Example:-
void Modify( ref int x)
{
x+=10; //value of m will be changed
}
int m= 5; //,m is initialized
Modify(ref m); //pass by reference
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Pass by Reference
using System;
class XYZ [Link]("m = "+m);
{ [Link]("n = "+n);
static void Swap(ref int x, ref int y) Swap(ref m, ref n);
{ [Link]("After Swapping:");
int temp=x; [Link]("m = "+m);
x=y; [Link]("n = "+n);
}
y=temp;
}
}
public static void Main()
{
int m=100;
int n=200;
[Link]("Before Swapping:");
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The Output Parameters
Output parameters are used to pass results back to the calling method.
This is achieved by declaring the parameters with an out keyword.
Similar to reference parameter, out parameter does not create a new
storage location.
Example:-
Void output(out int x)
{
x=100;
}
int m; //m is uninitialized
output(out m); //value of m is set.
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The Output Parameters
using System;
class xyz
{
static void Square(int x, out int y)
{
y=x*x;
}
public static void Main()
{
int m;//need not be initialized
Square(10, out m);
[Link]("m= "+m);
}
}
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Variable Argument Lists
In C#, we can define methods that can handle variable number of
arguments using what are known as PARAMETER ARRAYS.
Parameter arrays are declared using the keyword params.
Void function1(params int [ ]x)
{
}
Here, x has been declared as parameter array. This array must be one
dimensional arrays.
A parameter may be a part of a formal parameter list and in such cases, it
must be the last parameter.
The method function1 can be invoked in two ways:-
• Using int type array as a value parameter. ( function1(a);)
• Using zero or more int type arguments for the parameter array.(function
(10,20);)
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Variable Argument Lists
using System;
class XYZ
{
static void Parray(params int [ ] arr)
{
[Link]("Array elements are:");
foreach(int i in arr)
{
[Link](" "+i);
[Link]();
}
}
public static void Main()
{
int [ ] x={11,22,33};
Parray(x);
Parray();
Parray(110,220);
}
}
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