How to initialize a char array with double quotes (not printable escape characters) in C++

Derek Todd 0

Hi,



I am trying to initialize a character array with double quotes inside of the array.  I am never going to print the array out, so I do not need the printable escape characcter \".  I want to be able to read and compare the double quote inside of the array in the program.  Is there a way to do this.  The char array is very large so initializing the char array like this will take up to much time:



char hello[6] = { 'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '/0' };



Here is a small portion of the character array I am trying to initialize:

	char BankgothicFont[] = {

"char id = "39" x = "252" y = "70" width = "3" height = "7" xoffset = "1" yoffset = "2" >"

"<char id = "40" x = "58" y = "49" width = "6" height = "12" xoffset = "2" yoffset = "5" >"

"<char id = "41" x = "65" y = "48" width = "6" height = "12" xoffset = "1" yoffset = "5" >"

"<char id = "42" x = "94" y = "109" width = "8" height = "8" xoffset = "2" yoffset = "6" >"

"<char id = "43" x = "48" y = "35" width = "13" height = "13" xoffset = "2" yoffset = "4" >"

"<char id = "44" x = "181" y = "105" width = "5" height = "7" xoffset = "2" yoffset = "12" >"

};



I have already tried using the \" escape character, but it is stored in the array as \".  I want to just store the double quote char ".  Is there a way to do this?  Thanks for your help.



D

YujianYao-MSFT 4,281 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-02-22T08:36:34.26+00:00

Hi Derek Todd,

Is there any update on this issue? If Reza Aghaei's reply is helpful, please mark it as answer. It will also help others to solve a similar issue.

2 answers

Reza Aghaei 4,936 Reputation points MVP

2023-02-03T20:02:52.65+00:00
It doesn't have anything to do with printable or non-printable. \ is escape character that you need to use to escape " in a string.

Both declarations are valid and do the same thing:

#include <iostream> int main() { char Hi1[] = { '"' , 'H', 'i', '"' , '\0' }; char Hi2[] = { "\"Hi\"" }; std::cout << Hi1; std::cout << Hi2; }

For more information, take a look at String and character literals.
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Reza Aghaei 4,936 Reputation points MVP

2023-02-03T20:26:41.3733333+00:00

You can also try this to make sure "\"" and '"' are the same:

#include <iostream> int main() { char Hi1[] = { '"','\0' }; char Hi2[] = { "\"" }; std::cout << ((int)Hi1[0] == (int)Hi2[0]); }

Derek Todd 0 Reputation points

2023-02-03T23:29:08.1966667+00:00

Hi Reza,

I understand what you are saying. But, I want to do string comparisons inside of my program. After initializing the character array with the """ data, the array looks like this in memory:

char Hi2[] --> "Hi"

I want to be able to do character comparisons inside of the program like this:

for( int i = 0; i < 7; i++)

{

if (Hi2[i] == '"')

perform an action

}

So, I really don't want the \ inside of the character array in memory.

The problem started after I made a program that reads data from a text file. I want to hard code the text file into the program, so that it does'nt need the text file to run. And so that noone can change the text file in a text editor. I have already wrote the parsing code to load the data from the text file successfully. And now I would like to use the same parsing code to load the hard coded text file, but I cannot put a double quote inside of the character array. I just want the " character and not the extra \ that comes with the " escape character.

Do you know a way to do this? Thanks for the reply :)

Derek Todd 0 Reputation points

2023-02-03T23:29:30.45+00:00

I made a program that loads a text file into a character array inside of the program for character comparisons. I want to hard code the text file into the program, so that the user cannot modify the text file. I already programmed the text parser when reading from a text file successfully. I want to use the same text file for the hard coded text file.

In memory the data looks like this in the variable:

Hi2[] --> "Hi"

I want it to look like this:

Hi2[] --> "Hi"

So that I can do char comparisons like this:

if(Hi[2] == '"')

perform an action

Do you know of any way to Initialize the character array so that it looks like the way I want in memory? Thanks for your help :)

Reza Aghaei 4,936 Reputation points MVP

2023-02-03T23:37:21.7666667+00:00

There's no additional \ in the character or string in the memory. "\"" is a string which has " and \0 . quite similar to {'"', '\0'}. The memory representation of them and the binary form of them is equal. In all string of number comparisons also they are equal. Look at this example:

char Hi1[] = { '"','\0' }; char Hi2[] = { "\"" }; std::cout << ((int)Hi1[0] == (int)Hi2[0]);

It prints out 1, which means '"' and \" are equal.

Derek Todd 0 Reputation points

2023-02-04T00:27:48.1933333+00:00

Let me take a look at the raw string literals. I thought the text parser would work whether the text file was hard coded or not, but thats not the case. Thanks!

Reza Aghaei 4,936 Reputation points MVP

2023-02-04T00:29:08.4266667+00:00

No worries. to reply please use add comment. Also feel free to mark the answer as accepted once you are happy with it :)

Reza Aghaei 4,936 Reputation points MVP

2023-03-19T22:26:37.45+00:00

Any update on this?
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WayneAKing 4,921 Reputation points

2023-02-04T00:57:25.5066667+00:00
I have already tried using the " escape character, but it is stored in the array as "

How did you determine that the backslash is stored in the array?

If you are looking at the array in the IDE debugger then you need to be aware that it will add the backslash to the display when showing escaped characters. However if you look at each element in the array you will see that only a quote character (dec 34, hex 22) is at that location in the array.

char arry[] = "123\"456";

Wayne
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