I was just trying to see how to check for the null terminating character in the char * array but I failed. I can find the length using the for loop procedure where you keep on checking each element, but I wanted to just use the while loop and find the null terminating string. I never seem to exit the while loop. Any reason why this is so?
char* forward = "What is up"; int forward_length = 0; while (*(forward++)!='/0') { forward_length++; printf("Character %d", forward_length); } You have used '/0' instead of '\0'. This is incorrect: the '\0' is a null character, while '/0' is a multicharacter literal.
Moreover, in C it is OK to skip a zero in your condition:
while (*(forward++)) { ... } is a valid way to check character, integer, pointer, etc. for being zero.
The null character is '\0', not '/0'.
while (*(forward++) != '\0') To make this complete: while others now solved your problem :) I would like to give you a piece of good advice: don't reinvent the wheel.
size_t forward_length = strlen(forward); 
Your '/0' should be '\0' .. you got the slash reversed/leaning the wrong way. Your while should look like:
while (*(forward++)!='\0') though the != '\0' part of your expression is optional here since the loop will continue as long as it evaluates to non-zero (null is considered zero and will terminate the loop).
All "special" characters (i.e., escape sequences for non-printable characters) use a backward slash, such as tab '\t', or newline '\n', and the same for null '\0' so it's easy to remember.
'\0'not'/0'