Talk:Comparison of programming languages (string functions)

C function toupper() in UpperCase

This is misleading in the article. C doesn't have a function to uppercase a whole string. toupper() takes and returns an integer as its arguments, NOT strings. It's prototype:

int toupper(int c);

If c is a lowercase letter (a-z), topupper() returns the uppercase version (A-Z). Otherwise toupper() returns c unchanged. toupper() does not convert international characters (those with ASCII codes over 0x80), like ă or ç. To uppercase a whole string you need to write a function something like this:

#include <ctype.h> //standard C header file with the prototype of toupper()

void UpperCaseAString(char *theString)//string is a pointer to the first char of the string you want to uppercase.

{

char *myCharPtr = theString;//myCharPtr is a pointer to char - innitialize it to theString

while(*myCharPtr != '\0')//C uses-null terminated strings. *is what's pointed to by myCharPtr
    {
    *myCharPtr = toupper(*myCharPtr);
    myCharPtr ++; //myCharPtr is a pointer to type char so it will be incremented by sizeof(char).
    }
}

In C strings are essentially pointers to a character and they end where there is a NULL ('\0') character. It would be worthwhile to explain what strings are in different languages.Senor Cuete (talk) 03:41, 10 May 2008 (UTC)Senor Cuete[reply]

The 1. should appear as a pound sign and the box is put there by Wiki's text engine. I didn't type it like that.Senor Cuete (talk) 03:44, 10 May 2008 (UTC)Senor Cuete[reply]

The <source lang="...">...</source> tag should fix it. Ghettoblaster (talk) 12:43, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Compare (integer result, fast/non-human ordering)

In the table row for C, why would you go through the hassle of writing your own function when you could call the C function strncmp?

#include <string.h>

int strncmp(const char *s1, const char *s2, size_t n);

Senor Cuete (talk) 00:52, 16 May 2008 (UTC)Senor Cuete[reply]

substring

Shouldn't the table row for C just mention the C function strncpy?

#include <string.h>

char *strncpy(char *s1, const char *s2, size_t n);

Why concatenate when you can copy?Senor Cuete (talk) 00:53, 16 May 2008 (UTC)Senor Cuete[reply]

Because strncpy() will not copy a null-terminator if the string is n or more characters long. --Spoon! (talk) 12:13, 16 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

strings vs lists

"In both Prolog and Erlang, a string is represented as a list (of character codes), therefore all list-manipulation procedures are applicable, though the latter also implements a set of such procedures that are string-specific."

I think this is the same for Haskell, should it also be noted? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.171.21.141 (talk) 00:20, 28 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Additional procedure/operators

Some further string manipulations for consideration:

substring append & prepends: eg in python: s+="ABD"
replace substring:
1. by substring text: eg AWK gsub("Earthling","Martian",string)
2. by slice: s[3:4]="XY"
insert substring at offset.

NevilleDNZ (talk) 08:17, 15 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

ASC

Came here looking for a Python equivalent to the ASC() function, which, in BASIC/VB6, returns the numeric value of the first character of a string.

Not exactly equivalent to any string function in any language which handles strings differently, but in BASIC it was a string function. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.206.162.148 (talk) 05:17, 22 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

substring, startpos, base?

Ark! The substring table does not list the base for startpos and endpos. Is the startpos=1 the first character in the parent string, or the second? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.206.162.148 (talk) 05:57, 22 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Square bracket as syntax

There is a problem here: sometimes the square brackets indicate on optional field: string(1[,n]), and sometimes are part of the language: string[1,n].

That leaves the problem that we can't always see that part of the command is optional: string[1 /,n/]. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.206.162.148 (talk) 06:03, 22 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

LUA missing as programming language

I missed lua in this page. I'm willing to add lua examples (which might take some time) but there should be someone to cross-read them. Or are there reasons not to have lua in the examples?