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Inside the String

Explore string fundamentals in C#, including how to initialize and access characters, concatenate strings, and perform string manipulations such as reversing strings, shifting characters, and checking for palindromes. This lesson helps you develop a foundational understanding of handling text data in your C# programs.

We'll cover the following...

Collection

A collection is a general term used to group multiple values into a single unit. We use collections all the time in the real world―a book is a collection of pages, a train is a collection of train cars, and a wardrobe is a collection of clothes.

String

A string is a collection of characters, mostly treated as a single unit. A string is used to store text values like a name, address, message, etc.

Initializing the string

The following program demonstrates the initialization of a string:

C#
class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string string1 = "It is a string";
        System.Console.WriteLine(string1);
    }
}

In line 5, we declare a string using double quotes "".

Accessing the characters in a string

C# allows us to access individual characters inside a string through an integer index number. To do this, we enclose the index number in square brackets after the string variable name, as shown in the following program:

C#
class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string String1 = "Educative";
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1);
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1[0]);
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1[1]);
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1[2]);
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1[3]);
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1[4]);
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1[5]);
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1[6]);
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1[7]);
        System.Console.WriteLine(String1[8]);
    }
}

The code above displays the individual characters of a string on separate lines, one by one. The first character is at the 0 index, and the index moves forward along the string in linear increments, as illustrated in the following figure:

The same program can be rewritten using loops, as demonstrated below, to perform the same task:

C#
class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string String1 = "Educative";
        int length = 9;
        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
        {
            System.Console.WriteLine(String1[i]);
        }
    }
}

Concatenation

Joining two strings with the help of the + operator is called concatenation, as illustrated in the following code:

C#
class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string str1 = "Hello";
        string str2 = "Educative";
        string str3 = str1 + str2;
        string str4 = str1 + " " + str2;
        System.Console.WriteLine("str1: " + str1);
        System.Console.WriteLine("str2: " + str2);
        System.Console.WriteLine("str3: " + str3); // Concatenated without space
        System.Console.WriteLine("str4: " + str4); // Concatenated with space
    }
}

In the code above:

  • Line 7: We concatenate str1 and str2 and store the result in str3. It has joined the two words without a space.
  • Line 8: We concatenate str1, " ", and str2 and store the result in str4. It has joined the two words with a space.

Practice for string manipulation

Here are a few example programs to practice using strings in C#. Clicking the “Show Solution” button will display a program that solves the respective problem. You can copy and paste the given solution into the code widget to make sure the output of your solution matches the given solution. There can be several ways of writing correct solutions in programming.

Print the characters backward

Write a program that displays the characters of a string backward, line by line.

Sample input

"Educative"

Sample output

e
v
i
t
a
c
u
d
E
C#
class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string String1 = "Educative";
        // Write your code here
    }
}

Left shift the characters in a string

Write a program that shifts the characters of a string to the left and replaces the last position with a dot.

Sample input

myString = "Educative"

Sample output

ducative.
C#
using System;
class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string str1 = "Educative";
        // Write your code here
    }
}

Reverse the string

Write a program that stores the string into another string in reverse order.

Sample input

"Educative"

Sample output

evitacudE
C#
class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string str1 = "Educative";
        // Write your code here
    }
}

Palindrome test

A palindrome is a sequence of characters that reads the same backward and forward. Write a program that checks if a string is a palindrome. The length of the string is restricted to five characters.

Sample input 1

"level"

Sample output 1

Palindrome

Sample input 2

"leve"

Sample output 2

Not Palindrome
C#
class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string str = "level";
        // Write your code here
    }
}