Written: August 15, 2026
Deleting characters in C means rewriting the string without library erase helpers—perfect pointer/index practice.
This walkthrough keeps the logic small and readable so you can type it, run it, and then change one input at a time to see what happens.
What you will build
Walk the string with a read index and a write index; copy only characters that should stay, then terminate with ‘\0’.
- Read a string and a character to delete
- Scan with i (read) and j (write)
- Copy s[i] to s[j] when it is not the target
- Write the final null terminator at s[j]
Working C example
include <stdio.h>
void delete_char(char s, char ch) {
int i, j = 0;
for (i = 0; s[i] != '\0'; i++) {
if (s[i] != ch) {
s[j++] = s[i];
}
}
s[j] = '\0';
}
int main(void) {
char s[200], ch;
printf("Enter string: ");
if (!fgets(s, sizeof s, stdin)) return 1;
/ strip newline if present /
for (int k = 0; s[k]; k++) if (s[k] == '\n') s[k] = '\0';
printf("Character to delete: ");
if (scanf(" %c", &ch) != 1) return 1;
delete_char(s, ch);
printf("Result: %s\n", s);
return 0;
}How the logic works
Read the program top to bottom: includes and main first, then the statements that change variables, then the print that proves the result.
If your output looks wrong, print the variables before and after the critical lines. That single habit catches most beginner bugs faster than rewriting the whole file.
Test deleting a character that does not exist and deleting every character—both should leave a valid (possibly empty) string.
Keep learning
If this walkthrough on Delete a Character from a Given String in C helped, open the code again and change one input or assumption. Small experiments beat rereading the same example.
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