Why String?

[AspDotNetDev]

I was just thinking that it seems a bit odd that "string" is so commonly used by programmers to refer to some text. I would think "text" would be more appropriate. If we are using "string" just because it refers to a string of characters (aka, a sequence of characters), then why not also call numbers "strings" (as they are strings/sequences of digits and some other characters)? Any theories as to why "string" prevailed?

Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

[Roger Wright]

I think it's an unconscious desire to return to the good old days of BASIC where a variable was identified as containing text characters by using the suffix $. The art of programming has never recovered from the damage done by constructs like, >10 DATA "MY", "TEXT", "DATA" >20 READ A$, B$, C$ >30 LPRINT A$, B$, C$ >50 GOTO 10 >9999 END >RUN Back in the day, A$ was even pronounced, "A-string." :-D

Will Rogers never met me.

[Richard Andrew x64]

AspDotNetDev wrote:

Any theories as to why "string" prevailed?

Well if we called ints strings then how would we differentiate between ints and strings? Another reason is that numeric data types are treated atomically by the CPU, whereas a string is simply a sequence of bytes of arbitrary length.

The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

[Lost User]

Back in the day, Computers were made of rope and wood , and each character was knotted onto a length of string. Sometimes the string would unravel. Hence the early programmers mantra - did it compile? I'm a frayed knot.

MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

[Brisingr Aerowing]

:laugh:

public class SysAdmin : Employee
{

 public override void DoWork(IWorkItem workItem)
 {
      if (workItem.User.Type == UserType.NoLearn){
         throw new NoIWillNotFixYourComputerException(new Luser(workItem.User));
      }else{
           base.DoWork(workItem);
      }
 }

}

[AspDotNetDev]

Sounds like quite the yarn. :)

Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

[Brisingr Aerowing]

String Theory?[^]

public class SysAdmin : Employee
{

 public override void DoWork(IWorkItem workItem)
 {
      if (workItem.User.Type == UserType.NoLearn){
         throw new NoIWillNotFixYourComputerException(new Luser(workItem.User));
      }else{
           base.DoWork(workItem);
      }
 }

}

[Brisingr Aerowing]

:laugh:

public class SysAdmin : Employee
{

 public override void DoWork(IWorkItem workItem)
 {
      if (workItem.User.Type == UserType.NoLearn){
         throw new NoIWillNotFixYourComputerException(new Luser(workItem.User));
      }else{
           base.DoWork(workItem);
      }
 }

}

[AspDotNetDev]

That hurts my membrane so much I feel like a p-brane, but lucky for me I think you're just stringing me along this thread.

Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

[Brisingr Aerowing]

:laugh: I didn't even know there was an official string theory website!

public class SysAdmin : Employee
{

 public override void DoWork(IWorkItem workItem)
 {
      if (workItem.User.Type == UserType.NoLearn){
         throw new NoIWillNotFixYourComputerException(new Luser(workItem.User));
      }else{
           base.DoWork(workItem);
      }
 }

}

[_Damian S_]

He's just trying to rope you in!

Silence is golden... but duct tape is silver!! Booger Mobile - My bright green 1964 Ford Falcon - check out the blog here!! | If you feel generous - make a donation to Camp Quality!!

[Richard Andrew x64]

C'mon, cut him some slack.

The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

[AspDotNetDev]

Thanks, I can't get tied up at the moment.

Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

[Fernando A Gomez F]

I once read in a book, which was about learning C programming, that the name string was chosen because in C there is no text data type, but an array of characters. An array could be seen as a "chain" of characters, or a "string" of characters (one right after the other). In Spanish, by the way, the name is "cadena de caracteres" which translates to "character chain" rather than string. Don't know if this is true though.

[Peter_in_2780]

Because you could never tell how long it is. Cheers ;P Peter

Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994.

[Jason Hooper]

Because even the best C programmers end up hanging themselves with them at some point in time.

Jason

[PIEBALDconsult]

AspDotNetDev wrote:

they are strings/sequences of digits

No they're not -- unless you use ToString.

AspDotNetDev wrote:

Any theories as to why "string" prevailed?

Because in BASIC they are designated by a $ which is a lot like an S and they who use BASIC are hard to teach.

[Mike Hankey]

Oh my eyes.....noooooooooooo

VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1

[Lost User]

Hope I pulled the wool over your eyes ;)

MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

[Amarnath S]

My first acquaintance with "strings" was in the pre-computer days (early eighties, in India - there were no or very very few computers then; the nearest one was a Casio calculator), when we did physics experiments with standing waves or stationary waves. We had to find nodes, also called stationary points. So, when I had to first program with strings using MFC, it took some time to unlearn the wave part, and get used to strings within quotes.