How to print a string based on the postion in c? - c

Question

I am working on a question which requires me to print a string given a field-number at that position. The strings should be read from a file.
file.txt
C is a language.
lex lexical analyser
(blank line)
gcc is good
If the field-number is 2 (i.e the second word in the sentence). The program should output
is
lexical
(NULL)
is
I wrote a function but don't think its the correct way and that it would work for all cases. It should handle extra blanks or newlines.
while (fgets(buffer, MAX, file) != NULL) {
for (int i = 1; i < strlen(buffer); i++) {
if (count == field_number - 1) {
int j = i;
while (j < strlen(buffer) && buffer[j] != ' ') {
printf("%c", buffer[j++]);
}
printf("\n");
count = 0;
break;
}
if (buffer[i] == ' ' && buffer[i - 1] != ' ') {
count++;
}
}
}
I am a beginner. This code should be easy to understand.

Answer 1

This should work for all the cases,
int main() {
//FILE* file = fopen(__FILE__, "r");
//int field_number = 2;
int new_line = 0; // var to keep track of new line came or not
int word = 0;
int count = 0;
char c, prev_c;
while ((c = fgetc(file)) != EOF) {
// printf("[%c]", c);
// if a new line char comes it means you entered a new line
if(c == '\n') {
// you have to print the new line here on the output to handle
// empty line cases
printf("\n");
new_line = 1; // when line changes
word = 0; // no word has come in this new line so far
count = 0; // count becomes 0
} else if( c == ' ' && prev_c != ' ') {
if(word)
count++;
if(count == field_number) // if count exceeds field_number
new_line = 0; // wait till next line comes
} else if (new_line && count == field_number - 1) {
printf("%c", c);
} else {
word = 1; // fi a not new line or non space char comes, a word has come
}
prev_c = c;
}
return 0;
}