C Program to Insert an Element in an Array

In this article, you will learn and get code about inserting an element in an array in the following ways:

Let's first create a program that asks the user to enter 5 array elements and an element that has to be inserted at the end of the array, as shown in the program given below:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
int main()
{
    int arr[10], i, element;
    printf("Enter 5 Array Elements: ");
    for(i=0; i<5; i++)
        scanf("%d", &arr[i]);
    printf("\nEnter Element to Insert: ");
    scanf("%d", &element);
    arr[i] = element;
    printf("\nThe New Array is:\n");
    for(i=0; i<6; i++)
        printf("%d  ", arr[i]);
    getch();
    return 0;
}

This program was built and run in the Code::Blocks IDE. Here is its sample run:

c program insert element in array

Enter any five numbers as five array elements, say 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50, and then enter an element, say 60, to insert at the end of the array. Here is the sample run:

insert element in array c

The block of code given below:

for(i=0; i<5; i++)
    scanf("%d", &arr[i]);

is used to receive the input (as 5 array elements) from the user. When the value of i becomes 5, the condition of the for loop evaluates to false because 5 is not less than 5. So using the statement,

arr[i] = element;

The value of the element gets initialized to arr[5]. because i's last value is 5. Therefore, the element gets stored at the last index, or at the end of the given array.

Insert an Element in a Specific Position

This program inserts an element at a particular position. In this program, the user is allowed to define the size of an array.

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
int main()
{
    int arr[50], i, element, pos, size;
    printf("How many Element to Store in Array ? ");
    scanf("%d", &size);
    printf("Enter %d Array Elements: ", size);
    for(i=0; i<size; i++)
        scanf("%d", &arr[i]);
    printf("\nEnter Element to Insert: ");
    scanf("%d", &element);
    printf("\nAt what position ? ");
    scanf("%d", &pos);
    for(i=size; i>=pos; i--)
        arr[i] = arr[i-1];
    arr[i] = element;
    size++;
    printf("\nThe New Array is:\n");
    for(i=0; i<size; i++)
        printf("%d  ", arr[i]);
    getch();
    return 0;
}

Let's suppose the user has entered:

Then the new array looks like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 60, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Here is its sample run:

insert element at position c

As you can see from the sample run given above, elements from the given position (where the new element gets inserted) get shifted one index forward.

Based on the user input given above, the dry run of this program goes like this:

The same program in different languages

C Quiz


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