String (computer science)

In computer programming, a string is traditionally a sequence of characters, either as a literal constant or as some kind of variable. The latter may allow its elements to be mutated and the length changed, or it may be fixed (after creation). A string is generally considered as a data type and is often implemented as an array data structure of bytes (or words) that stores a sequence of elements, typically characters, using some character encoding. String may also denote more general arrays or other sequence (or list) data types and structures. Depending on the programming language and precise data type used, a variable declared to be a string may either cause storage in memory to be statically allocated for a predetermined maximum length or employ dynamic allocation to allow it to hold a variable number of elements. When a string appears literally in source code, it is known as a string literal or an anonymous string. In formal languages, which are used in mathematical logic and theoretical computer science, a string is a finite sequence of symbols that are chosen from a set called an alphabet. A primary purpose of strings is to store human-readable text, like words and sentences. Strings are used to communicate information from a computer program to the user of the program. A program may also accept string input from its user. Further, strings may store data expressed as characters yet not intended for human reading. Example strings and their purposes: A message like "file upload complete" is a string that software shows to end users. In the program's source code, this message would likely appear as a string literal. User-entered text, like "I got a new job today" as a status update on a social media service. Instead of a string literal, the software would likely store this string in a database. Alphabetical data, like "AGATGCCGT" representing nucleic acid sequences of DNA. Computer settings or parameters, like "?action=edit" as a URL query string. Often these are intended to be somewhat human-readable, though their primary purpose is to communicate to computers.