How to get the Length of a String in C

Updated onbyAlan Morel
How to get the Length of a String in C

Table of Contents

  1. Conclusion

In this post, we'll learn how to get the length of a string in C.

Thankfully, C provides us with a function called strlen() that does exactly what we need. The function is included with the standard library, inside the <string.h> header file.

First, let's define a string. Remember that a string in C is just an array of characters.

CLIKE
char greeting[] = "Hello, world!";

Now, let's get the length of the string:

CLIKE
char greeting[] = "Hello, world!"; int length = strlen(greeting);

Then if you want, you can print the length using printf:

CLIKE
char greeting[] = "Hello, world!"; int length = strlen(greeting); printf("greeting length: %u", length);

Here's a fully-working example:

CLIKE
#include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { char greeting[] = "Hello, world!"; int length = strlen(greeting); printf("greeting length: %u", length); }

That's pretty much it. Now that you know how to get the length of a string, you can use that information however you want.

Conclusion

In this post, we learned how to get the length of a string in C by using the strlen() function.

Hopefully, you've found this information useful.

Happy coding!

To learn more about web development, founding a start-up, and bootstrapping a SaaS, follow me on X!
Copyright © 2017 - 2024 Sabe.io. All rights reserved. Made with ❤ in NY.