You can use c[i]= '\0' or simply c[i] = (char) 0.
The null/empty char is simply a value of zero, but can also be represented as a character with an escaped zero.
Answer from ardent on Stack OverflowYou can use c[i]= '\0' or simply c[i] = (char) 0.
The null/empty char is simply a value of zero, but can also be represented as a character with an escaped zero.
You can't store "no character" in a character - it doesn't make sense.
As an alternative you could store a character that has a special meaning to you - e.g. null char '\0' - and treat this specially.
So i have been willing to learn to code for a long time and i started 4 days ago and im watching some youtube tutorials but my VisualStudio 2012 is typing ' ' instead of '' and it keep giving me Empty character literal error. Any solutions ? ( i already tried to google it but i couldnt understand a word)
So, strings are made up of characters. You can have literals of them both. Double-quotes indicate string literals, and single-quotes indicate character literals.
It's ok to have a zero-length string (""), but a zero-length character doesn't make any sense and isn't valid. This is what the compiler is telling you.
Bonus credit: Try not to use "" for empty strings - use String.Empty instead. It communicates your intent better, and reduces the chance of a space accidentally getting in there via typing error.
Use "" for the empty string. Single quotes need exactly one character between them.
'' doesn't make any sense. Try 'A' or 'z' or '%' or '.' instead.
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This line:
m_pchString[m_nLength-1] = '';
What you probably mean is:
m_pchString[m_nLength-1] = '\0';
Or even:
m_pchString[m_nLength-1] = 0;
Strings are zero terminated, which is written as a plain 0 or the null character '\0'. For double quote strings "" the zero termintation character is implicitly added to the end, but since you explicitly set a single character you must specify which.
You've said that you "get an error stating that strncpy is unsafe to use if I use the null terminator," but you use strlen, which simply does not work if the string isn't null terminated. From cplusplus:
The length of a C string is determined by the terminating null-character
My suggestion would be to use null or 0 like others are suggesting and then just use strcpy instead of strncpy as you copy the whole string every time anyway.
The reason is that a character literal is defined as a character. There may be extensions that allow it to be more than one character, but it needs to be at least one character or it just doesn't make any sense. It would be the same as trying to do:
int i = ;
If you don't specify a value, what do you put there?
This is because an empty string still contains the the null character '\0' at the end, so there is still a value to bind to the variable name, whereas an empty character literal has no value.
There's no such thing as an empty char. The closest you can get is '\0', the Unicode "null" character. Given that you can embed that within string literals or express it on its own very easily, why would you want a separate field for it? Equally, the "it's easy to confuse "" and " "" arguments don't apply for '\0'.
If you could give an example of where you'd want to use it and why you think it would be better, that might help...
The reason for this usage was this:
myString.Replace ('c', '')So remove all instances of'c'from myString.
To remove a specific char from a string you can use the string overload:
myString = myString.Replace ("c", String.Empty);
Your statement
myString.Replace ('c', '\0')
Won't remove any characters. It will just replace them with '\0' (End-Of-String, EOS), with varying consequences. Some string operations might stop when encountering an EOS but in .NET most actions will treat it like any other char. Best to avoid '\0' as much as possible.
Can we put it in C++ source code?
No, it would be a syntax error.
If not, what's the usage of ''?
There is no usage, unless your purpose is to cause a compilation error (for which there are probably better alternatives such as static_assert).
Can it be understood that empty character constant '' is just a pure grammar error just like a variable being named as 2018ch ?
Yes. The grammar says:
character-literal: encoding-prefix opt ' c-char-sequence '
Notice that unlike the encoding-prefix, c-char-sequence is not optional.
Side note: Yes, it is a character sequence - multi character literals exist. But you don't need to learn about them yet other than knowing that you probably won't need them. Just don't assume that they're strings.
'' makes no sense and thus it won't compile, what value is it supposed to have?
Remember, it's all just bits and bytes in memory at some point so what value should the bytes have that represent ''?
char a = 0;
//or
char a = '\0';
These represent "empty" chars which is the closest you'll get to ''.
A char by definition has a length of one character. Empty simply doesn't fit the bill.
Don't run into confusion between a char and a string of max length 1. They sure look similar, but are very different beasts.
To give a slightly more technical explanation: There is no character that can serve as the identity element when performing concatenation. This is different from integers, where 0 serves as the identity element for addition.