Library Function strcpy in String Class

January 21, 2023

Library Function strcpy of string.h Header File in C

On this page we will discuss about library function strcpy in string class which is used in C.
The C header file string.h contains a set of functions that can be used for performing various manipulation operations on strings. The strcpy function copies a string from one location(source) to another(destination).

Library Function strcpy in String Class used in C

In C programming language the strcpy function is included in string.h header file.

This function copies the string pointed by source into the memory pointed by destination and returns a pointer to the resulting string.

Note: It is important to ensure that the destination array is large enough to hold the copied string, including the null terminator. If the destination array is not large enough, the strcpy function can cause a buffer overflow, which can have serious security consequences.

Declaration of strcpy function

 char *strcpy(char *dest, const char *src);

Parameters of strcpy function

The strcpy function takes two parameters:

Parameter	Description
source	It is a pointer to a source character array (src).
destination	It is a pointer to a destination character array (dest).

Return value of strcpy function

The strcpy function returns a pointer to the destination character array. This allows you to use the strcpy function as the target of an assignment.

Tokens in C

Bitwise Operators in C

malloc() in C

Pointers in C

Conditional statement Program in C

Implementation of Library Function string.h strcpy

Example 1:

Run

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int main()
{
    // Initializing the two strings
    char src[30];
    char dest[30];

    printf("Enter the first string (src): ");
    gets(src);

    printf("Enter the second string(dest): ");
    gets(dest);

    printf("\nCopying first string into second... \n\n");
    // copy the contents of src to dest
    strcpy(dest, src); 

    printf("First string (src) = %s\n", src);
    printf("Second string (dest) = %s\n", dest);

    printf("\nCopying \"PrepInsta\" string into src ... \n\n");
    // copy PrepInsta to src
    strcpy(src, "PrepInsta"); 

    printf("\nCopying \"Prime\" string into dest ... \n\n");
    // copy Prime to dest
    strcpy(dest, "Prime"); 

    // Displaying the strings 
    printf("The first string (src) = %s\n", src); 
    printf("The second string (dest) = %s\n", dest);

    return 0;
}

Output:

Enter the first string (src): Hello
Enter the second string(dest): World

Copying first string into second... 

First string (src) = Hello
Second string (dest) = Hello

Copying "PrepInsta" string into src ... 

Copying "Prime" string into dest ... 

The first string (src) = PrepInsta
The second string (dest) = Prime

Note You should also be aware that the strcpy function does not check for null pointers or the length of the source string, so you should ensure that the pointers are valid and that the source string is null-terminated before calling strcpy.

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