Teaching Lesson Plan 10

Subject: Computer Science Grade Level: 11

Lesson Title: Exploring String Functions in C

Objective: Students will be able to:

1. Understand the concept of strings in C programming.
2. Learn about different string functions available in the C standard library.
3. Apply string functions to manipulate and process strings in C programs.

Materials Needed:

1. Whiteboard and markers or presentation slides or grade 11 computer science book
2. Examples of code snippets demonstrating string functions
3. Computers with programming environments installed (optional, for practical exercises)

Lesson Duration: 50 minutes

Procedure:

1. Introduction to Strings (5 minutes):
   • Begin the lesson by defining strings as sequences of characters terminated by a null character ('\0').
   • Explain the importance of strings in programming for representing text data.
   • Discuss how strings are stored in memory as arrays of characters.
2. Overview of String Functions (10 minutes):
   • Introduce the concept of string functions as pre-defined functions provided by the C standard library for manipulating strings.
   • Discuss the advantages of using string functions for common string operations.
   • Mention that string functions are declared in the <string.h> header file.
3. Commonly Used String Functions (30 minutes):
   • Present a list of commonly used string functions, such as:
     • strlen(): Returns the length of a string.
     • strcpy(): Copies one string to another.
     • strcat(): Concatenates (appends) one string to another.
     • strcmp(): Compares two strings.
     • strchr(): Searches for a character in a string.
     • strstr(): Searches for a substring in a string.
   • Explain the syntax and parameters of each function and provide examples to illustrate their usage.
   • Discuss error handling and potential pitfalls when using string functions.
4. Practical Exercise (10 minutes):
   • If computers are available, provide a programming task involving the use of string functions.
   • Alternatively, distribute paper-based exercises or worksheets for students to practice using string functions.
   • Encourage students to work individually or in pairs to solve the exercises.
5. Conclusion (5 minutes):
   • Summarize the key points covered in the lesson, emphasizing the importance of string functions in C programming.
   • Encourage students to explore additional string functions and experiment with them in their programming projects.
   • Provide resources for further learning, such as online documentation or tutorials on string functions in C.

6. Assignment

1. Which function would you use to determine the length of a string in the standard C library?
   • a) strlen()
   • b) strcpy()
   • c) strcat()
   • d) strcmp()
2. What is the value of length after executing stringLength("Hello")?
   • a) 3
   • b) 4
   • c) 5
   • d) 6

1. In the stringCopy function, which statement correctly copies a character from source to destination?
   • a) destination = source;
   • b) destination[i] = source[i];
   • c) *destination = *source;
   • d) strncpy(destination, source, strlen(source));