Setting whole array of chars to a value

Question

Let's say we have: char someArray[4]; filled with {'a','b','c','d'} And I want to set all 4 entries to 'f' or any other char really. Instead of doing individually someArray[0] = 'f' (...) is there a way to set them all to a value?

Answer 1

Only because this an array of chars you can use memset :

memset(someArray, 'f', sizeof(someArray));

If you had an array of something else (say int ) this method will not necessarily work for you as it sets the specified number of bytes (for a char array this is equivalent to the size of the array) to the 2nd parameter's value. Thus if you try to do this with an int array and use a non-zero value memset will not assign that non-zero value to all int s in the array, but rather every byte for the number of bytes specified.

Answer 2

You can use the standard library function memset. Eg

memset(someArray, 'f', 4);

Answer 3

man memset(3) .

char someArray[4];
memset(someArray, 'f', sizeof (someArray));