C# Strings
C# Strings
Strings are used for storing text.
A string variable contains a collection of characters surrounded by double quotes:
Example
Create a variable of type string and assign it a value:
string greeting = "Hello";
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String Length
A string in C# is actually an object, which contain properties and methods that can perform certain operations on strings. For example, the length of a string can be found with the Length property:
Example
string txt = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
Console.WriteLine("The length of the txt string is: " + txt.Length);
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Other Methods
There are many string methods available, for example ToUpper() and ToLower(), which returns a copy of the string converted to uppercase or lowercase:
Example
string txt = "Hello World";
Console.WriteLine(txt.ToUpper()); // Outputs "HELLO WORLD"
Console.WriteLine(txt.ToLower()); // Outputs "hello world"
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C# counts positions from zero.
0 is the first position in a
string, 1 is the second, 2 is the third ...
-->
String Concatenation
The + operator can be used between strings to combine them. This is called concatenation:
Example
string firstName = "John ";
string lastName = "Doe";
string name = firstName + lastName;
Console.WriteLine(name);
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Note that we have added a space after "John" to create a space between firstName and lastName on print.
You can also use the string.Concat() method to concatenate two strings:
Example
string firstName = "John ";
string lastName = "Doe";
string name = string.Concat(firstName, lastName);
Console.WriteLine(name);
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String Interpolation
Another option of string concatenation, is string interpolation,
which substitutes values of variables into placeholders in a string. Note that
you do not have to worry about spaces, like with concatenation:
Example
string firstName = "John";
string lastName = "Doe";
string name = $"My full name is: {firstName} {lastName}";
Console.WriteLine(name);
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Also note that you have to use the dollar sign ($) when using the string interpolation method.
String interpolation was introduced in C# version 6.
Access Strings
You can access the characters in a string by referring to its index number
inside square brackets [].
This example prints the first character in
myString:
Example
string myString = "Hello";
Console.WriteLine(myString[0]); // Outputs "H"
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Note: String indexes start with 0: [0] is the first character. [1] is the second
character, etc.
This example prints the second character (1) in
myString:
Example
string myString = "Hello";
Console.WriteLine(myString[1]); // Outputs "e"
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You can also find the index position of a specific character in a string, by using the IndexOf() method:
Example
string myString = "Hello";
Console.WriteLine(myString.IndexOf("e")); // Outputs "1"
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Another useful method is Substring(), which extracts the characters from a string,
starting from the specified character position/index, and returns a new string. This method is often used together with IndexOf() to get the specific character position:
Example
// Full name
string name = "John Doe";
// Location of the letter D
int charPos = name.IndexOf("D");
// Get last name
string lastName = name.Substring(charPos);
// Print the result
Console.WriteLine(lastName);
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Special Characters
Because strings must be written within quotes, C# will misunderstand this string,
and generate an error:
string txt = "We are the so-called "Vikings" from the north.";
The solution to avoid this problem, is to use the backslash escape character.
The backslash (\) escape character turns special characters into string characters:
| Escape character |
Result |
Description |
| \' |
' |
Single quote |
| \" |
" |
Double quote |
| \\ |
\ |
Backslash |
The sequence \" inserts a double quote in a string:
Example
string txt = "We are the so-called \"Vikings\" from the north.";
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The sequence \' inserts a single quote in a string:
The sequence \\ inserts a single backslash in a string:
Other useful escape characters in C# are:
Adding Numbers and Strings
WARNING!
C# uses the + operator for both addition and concatenation.
Remember: Numbers are added. Strings are concatenated.
If you add two numbers, the result will be a number:
Example
int x = 10;
int y = 20;
int z = x + y; // z will be 30 (an integer/number)
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If you add two strings, the result will be a string concatenation:
Example
string x = "10";
string y = "20";
string z = x + y; // z will be 1020 (a string)
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