How would I scanf an input of "2 & 3"?
Currently, I have it set up as
char expr[10]={};
printf("Enter the expression:");
scanf("%s", expr);
And at the moment it is just grabbing the 2.
With scanf, the entry must be limited to the size of the buffer -1. In your case 9. To include white-space characters we use %[^\n], that means all the characters except '\n', which therefore makes %9[^\n]
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
char expr[10];
printf("Enter the expression: ");
scanf("%9[^\n]", expr);
puts(expr);
return 0;
}
If you have other entries in a row, you should also purge the keyboard buffer to get out the characters entered in excess and the '\n' which has not been removed.
As manual page described: The input string stops at white space or at the maximum field width, whichever occurs first.
If you want to read a line from console, you can search "c get line" in google, you will get more results.
for example: founction getline()
Related
I know that adding a space in front of %c in scanf() will scan my second character; however, if two letters were inputted in the first character, it will input the second letter into the second character. How do I scan a single character only?
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
char firstch, secondch;
printf("Enter your first character: ");
scanf("%c", &firstch);
printf("Enter your second character: ");
scanf(" %c", &secondch);
printf("\n Fisrt character : %c \n Second character : %c \n", firstch, secondch);
return 0;
}
This is my result after running:
Enter your first character: ab
Enter your second character:
First character : a
Second character : b
I only want to read the first character 'a', but the second letter 'b' was inputted right away before I enter my second character.
When you are reading a line of user-input, use a line-oriented input function like fgets() or POSIX getline(). That way the entire line of input is read at once and you can simply take the first character from the line. Say you read a line into the array used as buffer called buf, e.g.
#define MAXC 1024 /* if you need a constant, #define one (or more) */
int main (void) {
char buf[MAXC]; /* buffer to read each line into */
You can simply access the first character as buf[0], or since buf[0] is equivalent to *(but + 0) in pointer notation, you can simply use *buf to get the first character.
As a benefit, since all line-oriented functions read and include the '\n' generated by the user pressing Enter after the input, you can simply check if the first character is '\n' as a way of indicating end-of-input. The user simply presses Enter alone as input to indicate they are done.
Using a line-oriented approach is the recommended way to take user input because it consumes and entire line of input each time and what remains in stdin unread doesn't depend on the scanf conversion specifier or whether a matching failure occurs.
Using " %c%*[^\n]" is not a fix-all. It leaves the '\n' in stdin unread. That's why you need the space before " %c". Where it is insidious is if your next input uses a line-oriented function after your code reading characters is done. Unless you manually empty the '\n' from stdin, before your next attempted line-oriented input, that input will fail because it will see the '\n' as the first character remaining in stdin.
A short example using fgets() for a line-oriented approach would be:
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAXC 1024 /* if you need a constant, #define one (or more) */
int main (void) {
char buf[MAXC]; /* buffer to read each line into */
for (;;) { /* loop continually */
fputs ("enter char: ", stdout); /* prompt for input */
/* read/validate line, break on EOF or [Enter] alone */
if (!fgets (buf, sizeof buf, stdin) || *buf == '\n')
break;
printf (" got: %c\n\n", *buf); /* output character read */
}
}
Where you simply take input continually isolating the first character as the value you want until the user presses Enter alone to break the read-loop.
Example Use/Output
$ ./bin/fgetschar
enter char: a
got: a
enter char: ab
got: a
enter char: a whole lot of stuff you don't have to deal with using fgets()
got: a
enter char: banannas
got: b
enter char: cantelopes
got: c
enter char:
Look things over and let me know if you have further questions.
Using a space before the %c will skip whitespace before scanning the next non-whitespace character. %c itself just scans a single character -- the next character in the input after whatever else was scanned or skipped previously.
So the question is, what do you want to do? Do you want to skip over all extraneous input on the line after the first character (up to newline?) fgets or scanf("%*[^\n]"); scanf("%c"); will do that (but be careful -- if firstch was itself a newline, this will skip the next line.) Do you want to check the input and make sure it is exactly one character on a line? If so, use fgets (not scanf) and check that the line read is exactly two characters (a character and a newline). Or perhaps you really want to read keystrokes without having the user hit Enter after esch one? That requires changing the input source setup, which is OS dependent.
I'm still new to C coding, and I've found a suitable answer to my problem by using scanf("%*[^\n]");
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
char firstch, secondch;
printf("Enter your first character: ");
scanf(" %c%*[^\n]", &firstch);
printf("Enter your second character: ");
scanf(" %c%*[^\n]", &secondch);
printf("\n First character : %c \n Second character : %c \n", firstch,
secondch);
return 0;
}
Results after running:
Enter your first character: ab
Enter your second character: c
First character : a
Second character : c
Thanks to #Eraklon #Chris Dodd #David C. Rankin
using the cprogrammingsimplified tutorial for writing my own stringcompare.
Finished reformatting it and ran it.
works fine for single words,
But
typing space bar skips the second scan and immediately outputs
'words aren't the same'
anyone any idea how to allow the use of even a single space bar?
Thanks in advance.
#include <stdio.h>
int mystrcmp(char s1[], char s2[]);
int main(){
char s1[10], s2[10];
int flag;
printf("Type a string of 10\n\n");
scanf("%s",&s1);
printf("type another string of 10 to compare\n\n");
scanf("%s",&s2);
flag = mystrcmp(s1,s2);
if(flag==0)
printf("the words are the same\n\n");
else
printf("the words are not the same\n\n");
return 0;
}
int mystrcmp(char s1[], char s2[]){
int l=0;
while (s1[l] == s2[l]) {
if (s1[l] == '\0' || s2[l] == '\0')
break;
l++;
}
if (s1[l] == '\0' && s2[l] == '\0')
return 0;
else
return -1;
}
Use fgets() to read full lines, rather than scanf() to read space-separated words.
Remember that fgets() will include the linefeed in the string, though.
It is not strcmp that wouldn't allow space bar, it's scanf with %s format specifier. The input is truncated at the space, so the second string that you read is actually the continuation of the first string.
You can fix this by using %9[^\n] instead of %s in your format specifier:
printf("Type a string of 10\n\n");
scanf("%9[^\n]",s1); //s1 is char [10]
printf("type another string of 10 to compare\n\n");
scanf("%9[^\n]",s2); //s2 is char [10]
9 limits input to nine characters, because you are using a ten-character buffer.
Many answers have told you that scanf("%s",s1) only reads word by word. This is because by default scanf("%s",s1) is delimited by all white spaces, this includes \t, \n, <space>, or any other you can think of.
What scanf("%[^\n]s",s1) does is set the delimiter to \n. So in effect reads all other spaces.
#dasablinklight has also specified a 9 before the '[^\n]' this denotes that scanf() takes 9 values from input buffer.
IMO scanf() is a really nice function due to it's hidden features. I suggest you read more about it in it's documentation.
The problem is that if you type abc def on the first line, the first scanf("%s", s1) (no ampersand required — it should be absent) reads abc and the second reads def. And those are not equal. Type very very and you'd find the words are equal. %s stops reading at a space.
Your buffers of size 10 are too small for comfort.
Fix: read lines (e.g. char s1[1024], s2[1024];) with fgets() or POSIX's getline(), remove trailing newlines (probably: s1[strcspn(s1, "\n")] = '\0'; is a reliable way to do it) and then go ahead compare the lines.
I have the below code. I was thinking I should input only one character at a time. But even if I give a string like hello as input in one line, it accepts correctly. Why is this? Is it related to standard input buffer flushing issue?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <malloc.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main()
{
char sourceString [100];
int index=0;
printf("Enter the characters one by one enter * to stop\n");
do
{
scanf("%c",&sourceString[index]);
index++;
} while (sourceString[index-1]!='*');
index=0;
while (sourceString[index]!='*')
{
printf("%c",sourceString[index]);
index++;
}
printf("\n");
return(0);
}
When you enter a string and press ENTER, the whole string goes into the input buffer stdin.
Next, as per the property of %c format specifier, as mentioned in the C11 standard, chapter §7.21.6.2, fscanf()
Matches a sequence of characters of exactly the number specified by the field
width (1 if no field width is present in the directive).
It will match (and scan and store) the first entry (char) in the buffer leaving the rest of the buffer content unchanged.
As you're running the scanf() in a loop, the next call will again go and read from the input buffer ( and continue as long as their is content pending in the stdin buffer).
What's wrong here? It's accepting one character at a time, no matter how many characters there are and putting one character at a time into an array until a condition is met. This is just a (more complicated) way to input a string with an asterisk (*) acting like a null-terminator ('\0').
By the way, you should check the bounds in your first loop. Add something like this or your program will crash with a segfault when the input string gets bigger than 100 characters.
do {
// your code here
} while ((sourceString[index-1]!='*') && (index < 100));
When using scanf you need to terminate the input with a whitespace character(e.g. \n). The scanf will finish reading input when you enter a newline. However since you have a loop it will keep reading input until you enter "*".
I am trying to write a function that gets a string of letters, either capital letters or small letters, and prints 2 other strings, one with only the capitals, and one only with the small letters. for example:
input: AaBbCcDD
Output: Capital string is ABCDD, non capital is abc
My code is not working correctly, it seems to skip over the last letter. To test it, I wrote the following code:
int length;
printf("Please enter length of string\n");
scanf("%d",&length);
string=create_string(length);
scan_string(string,length);
printf("The string entered is: \n");
print_string(string,length);
Where create_string is:
char* create_string(int size)
{
char* string;
string=(char*)malloc(size*sizeof(char));
return string;
}
Scan string is:
void scan_string(char* string, int size)
{
int i;
printf("Please enter %d characters\n",size);
for(i=0;i<size;i++)
scanf("%c",string+i);
}
And print string is
void print_string(char* string,int size)
{
int i;
for(i=0;i<size;i++)
printf("%c ",*(string+i));
}
When I try even just to print the string I entered, this is what I get, after I input aaAAB
The output is a a A A.
it skipped over the B.
The problem is with the scanf that reads characters using %c: it follows the scanf that reads the length using %d, which leaves an extra '\n' character in the buffer before the first character that you get.
If you modify the output to put quotes around your characters, you would actually see the \n:
void print_string(char* string,int size)
{
int i;
for(i=0;i<size;i++)
printf("'%c' ",*(string+i));
}
This prints
'
' 'a' 'a' 'A' 'A'
(demo on ideone)
You can change your first scanf to read '\n' as below. This will read the extra '\n'
scanf("%d\n", &length);
I think your code is unnecessarily elaborated. To read a string the function fget() with parameter stdin is a simpler choice.
For example, I wuold not ask to the user for the length of the string.
Perhaps it is better to use a buffer with fixed length, and to restrit the user to enter a string with the length less than which you have been previously stipulated.
#define MAXLEN 1000
char buffer[MAXLEN] = "";
fgets(buffer, MAXLEN, stdin);
If the user attempts to enter a string with more than MAXLEN characters, it would be necessary to handle the end-of-line in some way, but I think this is out of topic.
So, in general, let us suppose that MAXLEN is large enough such that buffer contains the \n mark.
Now, a call to your function print_string() can be done.
However, it would be better to do this:
printf("%s", buffer);
I think that you probably need to take in account the C convention for strings: a string is a char array whose last element is marked with the character '\0' (null character, having always code 0).
Even if you want to insist in your approach, I think that scanf() is a bad choice to read individual characters. it is more easy to use getchar(), instead.
By using scanf() you have to broke your brain figurating out all the stuff around the behaviour of scanf(), or how to handle the read of characters, and so on.
However, getchar() reads one char at a time, and that's (almost) all. (Actually, the console commonly not returns the control to the user until an end-of-line \n has been read).
string[i] = getchar();
The problem is because the scanf does not eat the "\n". Hence there is still one '\n' remaining at your first input. This will be counted at the next scanf.
Try to put an additional getchar() right after your first scanf.
printf("Please enter length of string\n");
scanf("%d",&length);
getchar(); // remove '\n'
string=create_string(length);
On Windows,
char c;
int i;
scanf("%d", &i);
scanf("%c", &c);
The computer skips to retrieve character from console because '\n' is remaining on buffer.
However, I found out that the code below works well.
char str[10];
int i;
scanf("%d", &i);
scanf("%s", str);
Just like the case above, '\n' is remaining on buffer but why scanf successfully gets the string from console this time?
From the gcc man page (I don't have Windows handy):
%c: matches a fixed number of characters, always. The maximum field width says how
many characters to read; if you don't specify the maximum, the default is 1. It also does not skip over initial whitespace characters.
%s: matches a string of non-whitespace characters. It skips and discards initial
whitespace, but stops when it encounters more whitespace after having read something.
[ This clause should explain the behaviour you are seeing. ]
Having trouble understanding the question, but scanf ignores all whitespace characters. n is a whitespace character. If you want to detect when user presses enter you should use fgets.
fgets(str, 10, stdin);