Size of a char array in C++

Asked By santoshyadav 40 points N/A Posted on - 09/18/2011

The size of a char array that is declared to store a string should be one longer than the number of characters in the string. why?

Best Answer by JamesAlexander

Answered By mathews.m 0 points N/A #124861

Hi Santhosh

The size of array that is declared to store a string should always be one number higher than characters because the array always starts from zero and it subtracts the no of characters subtract minus one
Ex : Rajesh no of characters = 6
The array should be declared as {7)

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Answered By JamesAlexander 0 points N/A #124862

When you take a character array, the elements are stored in consecutive memory locations. This is how a string is stored in memory.

So there should be a means by which compiler can identify when the string is terminated. So it is achieved by storing a null character at the end of the array. So whenever you declare a character array, there should be an additional bit meant for storing the null character.
This is the reason you should always allocate an extra 1 bit while declaring a character array.
So if you want to store a string which has 5 characters, you should declare a character array of size 6.

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