2. Strings

🧸 ELI5: A string is just an array of letter-beads on a necklace string. "CAT" is 3 beads in a row: C, A, T.

🌍 Real life: A text message. A license plate. A word in your favorite book.

📝 Pseudocode:

word = "cat"
for each letter in word:
    print(letter)

🐹 Go:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	word := "cat"
	for i, letter := range word {
		fmt.Printf("bead %d is %c\n", i, letter)
	}
}

🇨 C (deep dive: real-life-c-guide.md §7):

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    const char *word = "cat";       // in C, a "string" IS just an array of letter-beads + '\0'
    for (int i = 0; word[i] != '\0'; i++) {
        printf("bead %d is %c\n", i, word[i]);
    }
    return 0;
}

⏱️ Complexity: Reading a character by position = O(1). Scanning the whole word = O(n).