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carraysstringcharacterstrcmp

C - Comparing string literal with character array

I am new to C and am still a bit confused about how to use strings via character arrays.

In my C program, I am accepting commands from the user:

char command[20];
scanf("%s",command);

Of course, afterwards I want to figure out what command they typed (something similar to: "if (command == "hello"), then do something"). I know this is not possible in C because I am comparing a string literal to a character array, but what would be a good way to it? I have tried using strcmp(command, "hello") and still got errors.

Any advice you can provide would be very appreciated. Thank you!

Solution

  • strcmp returns 0 when the strings are the same. I have code that uses strcmp comparing character arrays to string literals, and I was quite confused when it wasn't working. Turns out it was wrong for me to assume it would return 1 when the string are the same!

    Maybe you've made the same mistake?