"We’ve previously used string literals when using the standard input and output functions, printf() and scanf(). You can also create static strings (as static arrays) using the standard assignment operator. Some examples:\n\nchar firstName[] = \"Tom\";\n\nchar lastName[] = \"Waits\";\n\nA string in C is achieved by using a char array. However, the string is terminated by a null-terminating character, \\0. Though an array may have space for additional characters, they are irrelevant if the null terminator precedes them.\n\nThis syntax can only be used when creating static strings (they are allocated on the stack and locally scoped). The compiler is able to scan the string literal and determine how many characters are needed and even inserts the null-terminating character for us. Thus, the length of the two strings in the example are 3 and 5 respectively, but the array size created for them will be 4 and 6 respectively to accommodate the null-terminating character. Static strings have the same limitations as static arrays. Since they are allocated on the stack, they cannot be returned from a function."