Check if Char Array contains a char in C++

This tutorial will discuss about a unique way to check if char array contains a char in C++.

To check if a char contains a specific character, iterate over all the characters of char array and check if any character matches with the given character. As soon as a match is found, break the loop and mark that the specified char array contains the specified character.

We have created a separate function to check if a char array contains a character,

// Check if a char array contains a character
bool contains(
        const char * arr,
        size_t len,
        const char& ch)
{
    bool result = false;
    // Iterate over the char array
    for(int i = 0; i < len; i++)
    {
        // Check if element at ith index in array
        // is equal to the given character
        if (arr[i] == ch)
        {
            // Match found
            result = true;
            break;
        }
    }
    return result;
}

We can use this function to directly check if char array contains a character or not.

Let’s see the complete example,

#include <iostream>
#include <string.h>

// Check if a char array contains a character
bool contains(
        const char * arr,
        size_t len,
        const char& ch)
{
    bool result = false;
    // Iterate over the char array
    for(int i = 0; i < len; i++)
    {
        // Check if element at ith index in array
        // is equal to the given character
        if (arr[i] == ch)
        {
            // Match found
            result = true;
            break;
        }
    }
    return result;
}

int main()
{
    char mainStr[50] = "This is a sample text";
    char ch = 'x';

    // Get the numberof characters in char array
    size_t len = strlen(mainStr) ;

    // Check if Char Array contains a character
    if(contains(mainStr, len, ch))
    {
        std::cout<<"Char Array contains the specific character \n";
    }
    else
    {
        std::cout<<"Char Array does not contains the specific character \n";
    }

    return 0;
}

Output :

Char Array contains the specific character

Summary

Today we learned about several ways to check if char array contains a char in C++. Thanks.