Appending element into an array of strings in C

Question

I have an array of strings with a given size, without using any memory allocation, how do I append something into it?

Say I run the code, its waiting for something you want to enter, you enter "bond", how do I append this into an array ? A[10] ?

Answer 1

If the array declared like

char A[10];

then you can assign string "bond" to it the following way

#include <string.h>

//...

strcpy( A, "bond" );

If you want to append the array with some other string then you can write

#include <string.h>

//...

strcpy( A, "bond" );
strcat( A, " john" );

Answer 2

You can't append to an array. When you define the array variable, C asks the is for enough contiguous memory. That's all the memory you ever get. You can modify the elements of the array (A[10]=5) but not the size.

However, you CAN create data structures that allow appending. The two most common are linked lists and dynamic arrays. Note, these are no built into the language. You have to implement them yourself or use a library. The lists and arrays of Python, Ruby and JavaScript are implemented as dynamic arrays.

LearnCThHardWay has a pretty good tutorial on linked lists, though the one on dynamic arrays is a little rough.