How to add strings to a 2d array of char elements? - c++

Question

I have the below program written in C++:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int age[5];
char name[5][10];
age[0]=10;
age[1]=20;
age[2]=30;
age[3]=25;
age[4]=40;
name[0]="abc";
name[1]="abc";
name[2]="abc";
name[3]="abc";
name[4]="abc";
cout<<name[0]<<" is "<<age[0]<<"years old";
cout<<"\n";
cout<<name[1]<<" is "<<age[1]<<"years old";
cout<<"\n";
cout<<name[2]<<" is "<<age[2]<<"years old";
cout<<"\n";
cout<<name[3]<<" is "<<age[3]<<"years old";
cout<<"\n";
cout<<name[4]<<" is "<<age[4]<<"years old";
cout<<"\n\n";
system("PAUSE");
}
When I compile and run it, I get these errors:
error C2440: '=' : cannot convert
from 'const char [3]' to 'char [10]'
There is no context in which this conversion is possible
error C2440: '=' : cannot convert
from 'const char [2]' to 'char [10]'
There is no context in which this conversion is possible
error C2440: '=' : cannot convert
from 'const char [2]' to 'char [10]'
There is no context in which this conversion is possible
error C2440: '=' : cannot convert
from 'const char [2]' to 'char [10]'
There is no context in which this conversion is possible
error C2440: '=' : cannot convert
from 'const char [2]' to 'char [10]'
There is no context in which this conversion is possible
I am running MSVC 2008 under Windows 7. I have tried many possible solutions but I failed in fixing this. Any help would be appreciated,

Answer 1

You are treating the name array as if it was defined thus:
char *name[5];
So either define it that way, or use the following code to populate it:
strcpy(name[0], "abc");
strcpy(name[1], "abc");
strcpy(name[2], "abc");
strcpy(name[3], "abc");
strcpy(name[4], "abc");
I prefer the former choice. The point being you are trying to assign a char * to a char [] which is what strcpy is for. Given you are manipulating initialized C strings in this case anyway, you might as well deal with char * throughout the code.

Answer 2

You should use std::string for this purpose. The use of char* and char[] to represent strings is deprecated in C++ for many good reasons.

Answer 3

Given the program snippet, name can be initialized at the declaration itself.
char name[5][10] = { "abc", "abc", "abc", "abc", "abc" } ;
// ^ index 5 is not necessary. char name[][10] = { .. } would also suffice.
Specified the length of each row is 10 but only using first 3 indexes of it. Every 3rd index ( i.e., 4th element in the array ) is automatically added with a '\0'.
Initialization can be done in case of age array too.

Answer 4

You can use also std::string name[10] instead of 2d char's array. In this case only you can assign new values to the strings through operator '='.
Otherwise you should to use array of char* and use strcpy() function for assignment.