How to remove all occurrences of a given character from string in C?

Question

I\'m attempting to remove a character from a string in C. The problem I am having with my code is that it removes the first instance of the character from the string but als

Answer 1

The problem is that when you encounter the first character that matches c, you insert a null character right there. That means you're essentially cutting off the rest of the string.

What you need to do is when you find a matching character, move the following characters back one position. Then you need to insert the null character at the very end depending on how many characters you have removed.

Answer 2

You can do it like this:

void remove_all_chars(char* str, char c) {
    char *pr = str, *pw = str;
    while (*pr) {
        *pw = *pr++;
        pw += (*pw != c);
    }
    *pw = '\0';
}

int main() {
    char str[] = "llHello, world!ll";
    remove_all_chars(str, 'l');
    printf("'%s'\n", str);
    return 0;
}

The idea is to keep a separate read and write pointers (pr for reading and pw for writing), always advance the reading pointer, and advance the writing pointer only when it's not pointing to a given character.

Answer 3

C defines a string as "a contiguous sequence of characters terminated by and including the first null character"

Answer 4

If you remove the characters in place you will have to shift the rest of the string one place to the left every time you remove a character, this is not very efficient. The best way is to have a second array that takes the filtered string. For example you can change your code like this.

int i;
char str1[30] = "Hello", *ptr1, c = 'l';
char str2[30] = {0}, *ptr2;
ptr1 = str1;
ptr2 = str2;
for (i=0; i<strlen(str1); i++)
{
    if (*ptr1 != c) *ptr2++=*ptr1;
    ptr1++;
}
printf("%s\n", str2);

Answer 5

i know that it is a type of duplicate answer, but this code is function's version for solving the problem. I thought that as the questioner was a beginner, he might learn much from decomposed version of problem.

int del_x_char(char *p, int x)
{
    char *q;
    x=first_occurance(p, 'i')/*you can replace any character that you want delete with 'i'*/
    q=p+x;
    while(*q=*(q+1))
        q++;
    *q='\0';
    return 0;
}
int first_occurance(char *q, char phar)
{
    int i=0;
    while(*q)
    {   
        if(*q++==phar)
            return i;
        i++;
    }
    return -1;
}

Answer 6

char str1[30] = "Hello", *prt1, c = 'l';
char str2[30], *prt2;
prt1 = str1;
prt2 = str2;
while(*prt1 != 0)
{
    if(*prt1 != c)
    {
         *prt2 = *prt1;
         prt2++;  
    }
    prt1++;
}
*prt2 = '\0';