Values lossing in fscanf - c

The IDE I used is Clion.
I wanna read the Line-separated data stored in .txt file.
Each line contains firstname, surname, gender, ID and age, which are str, str, str, int and int.
StudentList.txt
Olivia SWANSON F 29001 20
Emma ONEILL F 7900 19
I try to use fscanf to read the data.
FILE *fp;
char fname[20];
char sname[20];
char gender[1];
int ID;
int age;
fp = fopen("C:\\Users\\Catlover\\Desktop\\DSA\\Program2\\StudentList.txt", "r");
while(fscanf(fp, "%s %s %s %d %d", fname, sname, gender, &ID, &age)!= EOF)
{
printf("%s,%s,%s,%d,%d\n", fname, sname, gender, ID, age);
}
fclose(fp);
return 0;
But the result it return looks like a little bit weird becasue it doesn't output the second value.
Result is
Olivia,,F,29001,20
Emma,,F,7900,19
Something shocks me is that the same code runned in PellesC lead to the correct result.
I used to learn C++ so there may exists some important rules in C but I didn't notice. Can anyone show that for me?

"%s" without width
Never use "%s" in a *scanf() without a width to indicate the max number of non-white-space characters to read and save. Recall that after reading, a null character is appended. Example: if the buffer size is 100, code can only read up to 99.
char gender[1]; is too small for "F".
Wrong check
fscanf(fp, "%s %s %s %d %d", ...) can return other values than 5 or EOF. As only 5 is acceptable, test against that.
Test open success
If fopen() fails, fscanf(), fclose() are bad
Other issues exist too*
But lets use start with fixing the above.
char fname[20 + 1];
char sname[20 + 1];
char gender[1 + 1];
int ID;
int age;
FILE *fp = fopen("C:\\Users\\Catlover\\Desktop\\DSA\\Program2\\StudentList.txt", "r");
if (fp) {
while(fscanf(fp, "%20s %20s %1s %d %d", fname, sname, gender, &ID, &age) == 5) {
printf("%s,%s,%s,%d,%d\n", fname, sname, gender, ID, age);
}
fclose(fp);
}
return 0;

You need to have space to accommodate null byte also.
char gender[1];
to
char gender[2];

Related

Using fgets and sscanf for taking a string from a file

i have a file.txt structured this way:
author, "title", genre, price, copies_inStock
R. Tolkien, "The lords of the rings", Fantasy, 65.50, 31
i tried using fgets and sscanf
FILE *fp = NULL;
char string[100];
char title[30], author[30], genre[30];
float price;
int copies=0;
fp = fopen("text.txt", "r");
while(!feof(fp)) {
fgets(string, 100, fp);
sscanf(string, "%[^,],%[^,],%[^,],%f[^,],%d[^ ]", autore, titolo, genere, &prezzo, &copie);
}
fclose(fp);
printf("%s %s %s %.2f %d\n", author, title, genre, price, copies);
OUTPUT
R. Tolkien "The lord of the rings" fantasy 65,50 0
Why it don't access to the variable copies?
There are better ways? Thanks
The format specifiers on this line are incorrect
sscanf(string, "%[^,],%[^,],%[^,],%f[^,],%d[^ ]", autore, titolo, genere, &prezzo, &copie);
It should be
sscanf(string, "%[^,], %[^,], %[^,],%f,%d", autore, titolo, genere, &prezzo, &copie);
The additional spaces are to filter leading whitespace - it is not automatic with %[] (or with %c).
The %f and %d were a sort of mangled hybrid of what they should be. The conversion of those stops at the first character that cannot be used, without your intervention.
Side note: you really must check the result of scanf() function family: the number of successful conversions made.
"%f[^,]" is legal, yet certainly not what OP wants.
"%f" scans for a float, then "[^,]" scans for that 4 character sequence.
There are better ways?
Use " %n" to check scanning success. It records the offset of the scan.
Use width limits like 29 in %29[^,] to not overfill the char array.
Use a space before %29[^,] to consume optional leading whitespace.
Money is always tricky.
Do not use while(!feof(fp)). Check return from fgets().
char string[100];
char title[30], author[30], genre[30];
double price;
int copies;
FILE *fp = fopen("text.txt", "r");
if (fp) {
while(fgets(string, sizeof string, fp)) {
int n = 0;
sscanf(string, " %29[^,], %29[^,], %29[^,],%lf ,%d %n",
author, title, genre, &price, &copies, &n);
// If n==0, scan was incomplete
// If string[n], string has extra garbage
if (n == 0 || string[n]) {
fprintf(stderr, "Bad <%s>\n", string);
} else {
printf("%s %s %s %.2f %d\n", author, title, genre, price, copies);
// Robust code here would do additional work:
// Trim trailing string whitespace. Range checks on numeric values, etc.
}
}
fclose(fp);
}

Issues with sscanf in C

I am writing a program that could read a text with csv format and I am having this issue where the sscanf only parses the whole thing as one string when it is separated by ','.
For example, a code snippet below
char str[100] = "Alex,2933,89,";
char name[50] = "";
int id;
double mark;
sscanf(str, "%s,%d,%lf,", name, &id, &mark);
printf("%s\n", name);
printf("%d\n", id);
printf("%f\n", mark);
Output was:
Alex,2933,89,
896
0.000000
Which is clearly not the expected output.
But when str is edited to str = "Alex 2933 89 ", the code is giving me the correct output.
The working code:
char str[100] = "Alex 2933 89 ";
char name[50] = "";
int id;
double mark;
sscanf(str, "%s %d %lf ", name, &id, &mark);
printf("%s\n", name);
printf("%d\n", id);
printf("%f\n", mark);
Correct Output:
Alex
2933
89.000000
Can I know how do I fix this?
%s stops at white space, the fact that you put a , in the format string does not change this behavior. You should use the %[^,] conversion specification.
Change the code this way:
char str[100] = "Alex,2933,89,";
char name[50] = "";
int id;
double mark;
if (sscanf(str, "%49[^,],%d,%lf,", name, &id, &mark) == 3) {
printf("%s\n", name);
printf("%d\n", id);
printf("%f\n", mark);
}
Note however that %[^,] cannot parse empty fields. If the CSV line may contain empty fields, such as ,23,89.0, sscanf() will fail to convert name because no character matches the %[^,] specification. If you have such lines in the source file, you should parse the string fields manually with strchr() or strcspn().

Reading and writing binary files in C

These are 2 separate applications.
In the first one, I tried to store employee details like name, age and salary in the binary file named emp.bin.
In the second application, I tried to view the contents of the file but in place of the name, only the first character appears.
I tried printing each character separately, and it turns out that there's 3 null characters '\n' after each letter in the name that is why it is not printing after the first character.
"Write" application code:
//Receives records from keyboard and writes them to a file in binary mode
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
FILE *fp;
char another = 'Y';
struct emp
{
char name[40];
int age;
float bs;
};
struct emp e;
fp = fopen("emp.bin", "wb");
if (fp == NULL)
{
puts("Cannot open the file.");
return 1;
}
while(another == 'Y')
{
printf("Enter the employee name, age and salary: ");
scanf("%S %d %f", e.name, &e.age, &e.bs);
while(getchar() != '\n');
fwrite(&e, sizeof(e), 1, fp);
printf("Add another record? (Y/N)");
another = getchar();
}
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}
"Read" application code:
//Read records from binary file and displays them on VDU
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
int main()
{
FILE *fp;
struct emp
{
char name[40];
int age;
float bs;
} e;
fp = fopen("emp.bin", "rb");
if (fp == NULL)
{
puts("Cannot open the file.");
return 1;
}
while (fread(&e, sizeof(e), 1, fp) == 1)
{
printf("\n%s \t %d \t $%.2f\n", e.name, e.age, e.bs);
}
fclose(fp);
}
Here's the input and output:
How can I correct this code to make it print the whole name?
The problem is in the "writer" application, even before the actual write is performed.
When you get data from the user
scanf("%S %d %f", e.name, &e.age, &e.bs);
you use format %S (capital letter "S". Format specifiers are case sensitive!). As we can read in the printf man page
S
(Not in C99, but in SUSv2.) Synonym for ls. Don't use.
this leads us to %ls format specifier that is described in the following way
s
[...] If an l modifier is present: The const wchar_t * argument is expected to be a pointer to an array of wide characters. Wide characters from the array are converted to multibyte characters
Talking about Windows source we have:
S
Opposite-size character string, up to first white-space character (space, tab or newline). [...]
When used with scanf functions, signifies wide-character array; when used with wscanf functions, signifies single-byte-character array [...]
So, basically, you are reading characters from stdin and converting them to wide chars. In this case every character takes sizeof(wchar_t). Probably in your system this size is 4.
What you need is simply %s format specifier. And since your name array has size 40, I suggest using
scanf("%39s", e.name );
to get the name from user. In this way up to 39 characters will be written, being the 40th reserved to the string terminator '\0'.
As noted by Roberto in his answer, the problem is the %S conversion specifier, which is a typo, you should use %s.
Note however that there are other issues which might pose problems:
you should tell scanf() the maximum number of characters to read for the employee name, otherwise scanf() may write beyond the end of the destination array if input is too long.
if both programs run on separate systems with different endianness, the numbers will be incorrect on the receiving end because their bytes will be stored in the opposite order. For this reason, endianness should be specified and handled explicitly in binary files. Text format tends to be preferred for data transmission.
Here is a modified version:
//Receives records from keyboard and writes them to a file in binary mode
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
FILE *fp;
char another = 'Y';
struct emp {
char name[40];
int age;
float bs;
} e;
int c;
fp = fopen("emp.bin", "wb");
if (fp == NULL) {
puts("Cannot open the file.");
return 1;
}
while (another == 'Y') {
printf("Enter the employee name, age and salary: ");
if (scanf("%39s %d %f", e.name, &e.age, &e.bs) != 3)
break;
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF && c != '\n')
continue;
if (fwrite(&e, sizeof(e), 1, fp) != 1)
break;
printf("Add another record? (Y/N)");
another = getchar();
}
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}
"Read" application code:
//Read records from binary file and displays them on VDU
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
int main() {
FILE *fp;
struct emp {
char name[40];
int age;
float bs;
} e;
fp = fopen("emp.bin", "rb");
if (fp == NULL) {
puts("Cannot open the file.");
return 1;
}
while (fread(&e, sizeof(e), 1, fp) == 1) {
printf("\n%s \t %d \t $%.2f\n", e.name, e.age, e.bs);
}
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}

Why is my program stopping before reading the txt file?

My code keeps closing before reading the file, I made a comment where it closes. Does anyone know why it wont work? I showed it to my lecturer but she couldn't figure it out and then she had to leave so I was wondering if anyone here could figure it out!
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define RESULT_MAX = 100;
#define RESULT_MIN = 0;
int main()
{
int studentId;
char firstName[20];
char lastName[20];
int result;
FILE *fPtr;
if ((fPtr = fopen("student.txt", "w")) == NULL)
{
printf("File could not be opened\n");
//exit(0);
}
else
{
printf("Enter the Id, first name, last name and result\n");
scanf("%d %s %s %d", &studentId, firstName, lastName, &result);
while(!feof(stdin) )
{
fprintf(fPtr, "%d %s %s %d\n", studentId, firstName, lastName, result);
scanf("%d %s %s %d", &studentId, firstName, lastName, &result);
}
fclose(fPtr);
}//else end
// MY PROGRAM ENDS HERE AND WONT CONTINUE!
if ((fPtr = fopen("student.txt", "r")) == NULL)
{
printf("File could not be opened\n");
//exit(0);
}
else
{
printf("Id, first name, last name, result ");
fscanf(fPtr, "%d %s %s %d", &studentId, firstName, lastName, &result);
while(!feof(fPtr) )
{
printf("%d %s %s %d \n", studentId, firstName, lastName, result);
fscanf(fPtr, "%d %s %s %d", &studentId, firstName, lastName, &result);
}//end while
fclose( fPtr );
}//end if
}
the problem is actually the line: 'while(!feof(stdin) )'
because feof() only becomes valid when the program
tries to read past the end of the 'stdin' file.
This is something that cannot be accomplished
suggest
modifying the program to:
1) read into a local buffer[] array, in a loop,
2) using fgets() as the loop control
3) have a leading 'q' (or similar) as an indication of having read all input
4) output a prompt for every input line
5) if going to parse the fields, parse them using
strtok()/atoi() strncpy() strncpy() atoi()
or perhaps
sscanf()
6) check first char of input buffer[] for the end marker (the 'q' above)
to exit the input loop before parsing
there is a similar problem with the
loop reading the file
I.E. do not use feof() for loop control
rather use fgets()
to differentiate each line of input written to the file, modify
the fprintf(fPtr, ... ) format string to include a trailing '\n'

How to read specifically formatted data from a file?

I'm supposed to read inputs and arguments from a file similar to this format:
Add id:324 name:"john" name2:"doe" num1:2009 num2:5 num2:20
The problem is I'm not allowed to use fgets. I tried with fscanf but have no idea how to ignore the ":" and seperate the string ' name:"john" '.
If you know for sure the input file will be in a well-formed, very specific format, fscanf() is always an option and will do a lot of the work for you. Below I use sscanf() instead just to illustrate without having to create a file. You can change the call to use fscanf() for your file.
#define MAXSIZE 32
const char *line = "Add id:324 name:\"john\" name2:\"doe\" num1:2009 num2:5 num3:20";
char op[MAXSIZE], name[MAXSIZE], name2[MAXSIZE];
int id, num1, num2, num3;
int count =
sscanf(line,
"%s "
"id:%d "
"name:\"%[^\"]\" " /* use "name:%s" if you want the quotes */
"name2:\"%[^\"]\" "
"num1:%d "
"num2:%d "
"num3:%d ", /* typo? */
op, &id, name, name2, &num1, &num2, &num3);
if (count == 7)
printf("%s %d %s %s %d %d %d\n", op, id, name, name2, num1, num2, num3);
else
printf("error scanning line\n");
Outputs:
Add 324 john doe 2009 5 20
Otherwise, I would manually parse the input reading a character at a time or or throw it in a buffer if for whatever reason using fgets() wasn't allowed. It's always easier to have it buffered than not IMHO. Then you could use other functions like strtok() and whatnot to do the parse.
perhaps this is what you want ?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main()
{
char str[200];
FILE *fp;
fp = fopen("test.txt", "r");
while(fscanf(fp, "%s", str) == 1)
{
char* where = strchr( str, ':');
if(where != NULL )
{
printf(" ':' found at postion %d in string %s\n", where-str+1, str);
}else
{
printf("COMMAND : %s\n", str);
}
}
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}
If output of it will be
COMMAND : Add
':' found at postion 3 in string id:324
':' found at postion 5 in string name:"john"
':' found at postion 6 in string name2:"doe"
':' found at postion 5 in string num1:2009
':' found at postion 5 in string num2:5
':' found at postion 5 in string num2:20

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