The String Type in Borland C++

You have learned that variables of type 'char' can only hold one character. A collection of characters, (as in a name, an address, or even a social security number), is called a string. The programming language 'C' handled strings in a very complex way and, while C++ did much to improve upon 'C' in other ways, it did little for string handling. The idea seemed to be that, if one wanted a string type, then it should be implemented as a C++ class. Indeed, many C++ textbooks include a demonstration of such a class.

More recently, the C++ development community has seen a need for a built-in string type and the standards committee has included one in the draft standard. In Borland C++, to access this type, one includes the file <cstring.h>. Once this has been done, one can declare strings, as in:

string mySocialSecurityNumber;

One can then perform the usual set of operations on such a string including input, output, assignment, and comparison. Here is a simple program that demonstrates some of the basic features.

// Demonstration of the string type included in Borland C++
// The string 'Fred' is assumed to be 'correct'.
// File stringdm.cpp

#include <iostream.h>
#include <cstring.h>

void main()
{	string name1;
	string name2 = "Fred";

	cout << "Please enter a string\n";
	cout << "Enter 'quit' to exit\n";
	cin >> name1;

	while (name1 != "quit")
	{
		if (name1 == name2) // The two strings must match completely
				      // In this case, an uppercase 'F' must be entered

		{	cout << "The correct name was entered\n\n";
		}
		else
		{	cout << "The name " << name1 << " was entered\n\n";
		}
		cout << "Please enter a string\n";
		cout << "Enter 'quit' to exit\n";
		cin >> name1;
	}
}

Section XIII of "The Essentials of C" provides more information about the string class.