Counting Bytes Of Char S - c++

Question

I have a homework, It is:
Write the code of function below, this function should count number of bytes inside of s till it is not '\0'.
The function:
unsigned len(const char* s);
Really I do not know what this homework mean, can anyone write this homework's code please?
Further more can anyone please explain what does "Const char* s" mean? If you can explain with some examples it would be perfect.
Here is a code which I'm trying to do:
unsigned len(const char* s)
{
int count=0;; int i=0;
while (*(s+i)!=0)
{
count++;
i++;
}
return count;
}
But in the main function I do not know what should I write, BTW I have written this:
const char k='m';
const char* s=&k;
cout << len(s) << endl;
The result always is 4! really I do not know what should I do for this question, if I can store only one character in const char, so the result should be the same always. What this question is looking for exactly?

Answer 1

The homework means you should write a function that behaves like this:
int main() {
char s[] = {'a','b','c','\0'};
unsigned s_length = len(s);
// s_length will be equal to 3 ('a','b','c', not counting '\0')
}
I think it's unlikely that anyone will do you homework for you here.
Presumably your class has covered function parameters, pointers, and arrays if you're being asked to do this. So I guess you're asking about const. const char* s means that s points to a const char, which means you're not allowed to modify the char. That is, the following is illegal:
unsigned len(const char *s) {
*s = 'a'; // error, modifying a const char.
}
Here are the basic things you need to know about pointers to write the function. First, in this case the pointer is pointing at an element in an array. That is:
char A[] = {'a','b','c','\0'};
char const *s = &A[0]; // s = the address of A[0];
The pointer points to, or references, a char. To get that char you dereference the pointer:
char c = *s;
// c is now equal to A[0]
Because s points at an element of an array, you can add to and subtract from the pointer to access other elements of the array:
const char *t = s+1; // t points to the element after the one s points to.
char d = *t; // d equals A[1] (because s points to A[0])
You can also use the array index operator:
char c = s[0]; // c == A[0]
c = s[1]; // c == A[1]
c = s[2]; // c == A[2]
What would you used to look at each element of the array sequentially, with an increasing index?
Your proposed solution looks like it should work correctly. The reason you're getting a result of 4 is just coincidence. You could be getting any results at all. The problem with the way you're calling the function:
const char k='m';
const char* s=&k;
cout << len(s) << endl;
is that there's no '\0' guaranteed to be at the end. You need to make an array where one of the elements is 0:
const char k[] = { 1,2,3,0};
const char* s = &k[0];
cout << len(s) << '\n'; // prints 3
char m[] = { 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', '\0', 'e', 'f'};
cout << len(m) << '\n'; // prints 4
char const *j = "Hello"; // automatically inserts a '\0' at the end
cout << len(j) << '\n'; // prints 5

Answer 2

In C (and by extension C++), strings can be represented as a sequence of characters terminated by a null character. So, the string "abc" would be represented as
'a', 'b', 'c', '\0'
This means, you can get the length of a C string by counting each character until you encounter a null. So if you have a null terminated const char* string, you can find out the length of that string by looping over the string and incrementing a counter variable until you find the '\0' character.

Answer 3

it means you have a string like hello world Every string terminates with a \0. That means it looks like this: hello world\0
Now step over the char array (char* s) until you find \0.
Update:
\0 is in fact only one single character of value 0x00. \ is used to tell visualize that this is meant instead of the number 0 in a string.
Example:
0abc\0 -> string starting with number 0 and is terminated with 0x0.
EDIT
char * indicates the type of the variable s. It is a pointer to a character array. const means that this character array is readonly and can't be changed.

Answer 4

Do you actually mean "count the characters till you find a '\0'"?
If so, you could implement it like this:
for each character
if it is not 0
increment x (where x is variable holding number of characters found)
otherwise
stop looking
return x

Answer 5

I am not going to write your homework as well :P, but let me give you some hint: it's called "pointer arithmetic". So, a pointer is a thing exactly just as it names says: a pointer to a memory "cell". As you know all variables in the memory are stored in "cells", that you can refer by an address. A C string is stored in continuous cells in the memory, so for example "abc" would look like something like (the '\0' is added by the compiler when you define a string literal with quotes):
+----+----+----+----+
|'a' |'b' |'c' |'\0'|
+----+----+----+----+
^
s
and you also get the address of the first char. Now, to get the address of 'b', you can simple add one to s like this: (s + 1). To get what is actually in the cell where s points to, you should use the * operator:
*s = 'a' or *(s + 1) = 'b'. This is called pointer arithmetic.
Note: in this case adding one to the pointer shifts to the next cell, because char is one byte long. If you define a pointer to bigger structure (long int for example of 4 bytes) adding one will move to the to the position in the memory where your next structure would begin (in case of long int it will move +4 bytes).
Now that should be enough help to finish your hw.

Answer 6

OK , I have found my answer, just check if I'm true:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
unsigned len(const char*);
int main()
{
const char* s = "Hello";
cout << len(s) << endl;
return 0;
}
unsigned len(const char* s)
{
int count=0;; int i=0;
while (*(s+i)!=0)
{
count++;
i++;
}
return count;
}
So it is showing that I have set "Hello" into const char* s; So for const char* variables I should use strings like "Hello" with the sign ("). Is that True?