Problems with arrays within structures and files in C - c

I'm trying to store information of the name of a lesson and the day(s) I have that lesson using structures in C. Storing the name hasn't been an issue. The problem occurs when I try and store multiple days (weekdays as integers, ie. Monday = 1) in an array.
This is what I have:
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
struct lessons{
char name[20];
int day[3];
};
changelessons(){
int i, k;
struct lessons give[1], receive[1];
FILE *fptr;
fptr = fopen("lessons","wb");
fflush(stdin);
printf("\n\t ~ Change lessons ~");
printf("\n\nWhat's the lesson called?: ");
gets(give[0].name);
printf("\nHow many days do you have it?\n");
scanf("%d", &k);
for(i = 0; i < k; i++); { // Asks the weekday number for each day you have the lesson
printf("What day is lesson %d?: ", i);
scanf("%d", &give[0].day[i]);
}
fwrite(give, sizeof(give), 1, fptr);
fclose(fptr);
fptr = fopen("lessons", "rb");
fread(receive, sizeof(receive), 1, fptr);
printf("\n\t ~ Updated information: ~\n\nLesson name: %s\nDay: %d", receive[0].name, receive[0].day[1]);
for(i = 1; i < k; i++); { // Prints the extra weekdays if there are any
printf(", day: %d", receive[0].day[i]);
}
printf("\n\n");
fclose(fptr);
}
showlessons(){
struct lessons give[1], receive[1];
FILE *fptr;
fptr = fopen("lessons", "rb");
fread(receive, sizeof(receive), 1, fptr);
printf("\t ~ Current information: ~ \n\nLesson name: %s\nDay: %d\n\n", receive[0].name, receive[0].day[0]);
}
int main(){
showlessons();
changelessons();
return 0;
}
Also, in the first for loop it only ever loops once regardless of what k equals.
Thanks in advance for any help!

for(i = 0; i < k; i++);
should be
for(i = 0; i < k; i++)
The extra semi colon is a problem. Your loop code is not part of a loop. The semi colon terminates the loop.

nicomp pointed out the most obvious error.
But I would also like to point out a few issues I have with your code:
fflush(stdin); This is wrong, undefined behaviour. fflush is used to
flusg output streams, stdin is an input stream. See Using
fflush(stdin).
I know that in Windows fflush(stdin) clears the input buffer, but I strongly
recommend not to use it, because you lose portability when relaying on features
available only in one OS. If you don't care about portability, then use it. If
you use that because scanf left stuff in the input buffer, use this instead:
int c;
while((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF);
This is portable.
Never ever use gets in 2018. gets is an unsafe, dangerous functions that
has been deprecated in C99 and for good reasons: it doesn't take the size of the
buffer into consideration and if the text entered is longer than the buffer can
store, it will overflow the buffer. This is an accident waiting to happen. So,
never ever use gets again. Use fgets instead and if you don't want to have
a newline, you can remove it:
fgets(give[0].name, sizeof give[0].name, stdin);
give[0].name[sizeof(give[0].name) - 1] = 0; // remove possible newline
Why do you declare an array of struct lessons with dimension 1? What's the
point? You don't need an array for this. You could write it like this:
struct lessons give, receive;
...
printf("\n\nWhat's the lesson called?: ");
fgets(give.name, sizeof give.name, stdin);
give.name[strcspn(give.name, "\n")] = 0;
...
fwrite(&give, sizeof give, 1, fptr);
fclose(fptr);
...
fptr = fopen("lessons", "rb");
fread(&receive, sizeof receive, 1, fptr);
Also don't forget to check the return values of fwrite and fread.
Check the return value of fopen, if it returns NULL, you cannot use
fread or fwrite. Print an error value and return/exit.
stdout is buffered and when you write to it with printf, it won't
necessarily print the characters on screen right away. An exception is when
stdout is connected to a terminal and a newline is written with printf. For
user interaction this is great, because the user would see the output
immediately. That's why most people print a newline along the text.
If you don't do that but you still want that the user immediately sees the
output, then this time you should use fflush:
printf("What day is lesson %d?: ", i);
fflush(stdout);
scanf("%d", &give[0].day[i]);
I don't know if there's a guarantee that scanf flushes stdout when it's
connected to a terminal, regardless it is good practice to use fflush(stdout)
when you don't print a newline at the end.

Related

Difference between "gets(s);" and "scanf("%s", s);" in C

I am writing a program that allows users to enter five names and sorts the names in Alphabet order, two adjacent names seperated by a newline character. Here is my code:
void sortWords(char s[][100], int n){
int i, j;
char *str;
for(i = 0; i < n-1; i++){
for(j = n- 1; j > i; j--){
if(strcmp(s[j], s[j-1]) == -1){
strcpy(str, s[j]);
strcpy(s[j], s[j-1]);
strcpy(s[j-1], str);
}
}
}
}
int main(){
char s[5][100];
int i;
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++){
fflush(stdin);
//gets(s[i]); // when I use this statement, my program doesn't work
scanf("%s", s[i]);
}
sortWords(s, 5);
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++){
printf("%s ", s[i]);
}
return 0;
}
When I changed the "scanf" in function main to "gets", after I have entered 5 names, the program just didn't print anything. Can anyone explain it for me, because normally, when I change one of them to the other function, I just have same results.
allows users to enter five names
Names usually have a space between the parts of the full name. scanf("%s", s) does not read a full name, but only part of a name.
Code has many other problems too.
Difference between "gets(s);" and "scanf("%s", s);" in C
One reads a line the other reads a word.
gets(), since C11 (2011) is no longer part of the C standard library.
Both are bad as they do not limit input and so can suffer buffer overflow.
The obsolete gets() would read and save a line - input unto and including the '\n'. The '\n' is read, but not saved. If the prior input operation left a '\n' in stdin, then gets() reads a short line of "\n" and saves as "".
scanf("%s", s) reads and discards any number of leading white-space characters (perhaps multiple '\n') and then reads and saves non-white-spaces. A following white-space stops the reading, but it is returned to stdin for the next input function.
With common input, scanf("%s", s) typically the leaves the final '\n' in stdin for the next input operation. gets() consumes it.
Both append a null character to s if any reading occurred.
gets() returns a pointer. scanf() returns a conversion count.
Recommendations
Do not use either gets(s) nor scanf("%s", s) in production code. To read a line, research fgets(). To read a word, research using a width like char s[100]; scanf("%99s", s);.
Best to test the return value of I/O functions.
Do not mix fgets()/gets() with scanf() functions until you understand why that is bad.
Other
if(strcmp(s[j], s[j-1]) == -1) is poor. strcmp() returns some negative, zero or some positive to indicate order. Better to use if(strcmp(s[j], s[j-1]) < 0).
strcpy(str, s[j]); is bad as pointer str has not been assigned a value. Better as char str[100]; strcpy(str, s[j]);.
gets() reads a line, scanf("%s") reads a word, and both should not be used.
for details, read #chuxReinstateMonica's answer.

User Input being skipped

still making my way through C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide.
I am at the example about Structures and I cannot figure out what is going wrong. When I compile and run the code, the first two questions run fine, but after it prompts for "How much did the book cost?", when I enter the input for this one, the next two questions get posted together. I have no idea why. I think I have the code written as shown in the book. I have read online that gets is not code but I am not sure why at this point. Any guidance would once again be greatly appreciated!
//This header file defines a structure for information about a book
struct bookInfo {
char title[40];
char author[25];
float price;
int pages;
};
/*This program gets the bookInfo structure by including structurePractice.h
and asks the user to fill in three structures and then prints them*/
//First, include the header file
#include "structurePractice.h"
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int ctr;
struct bookInfo books[3]; //Array of 3 structure variables
//Get information about each book from the user
for (ctr = 0; ctr < 3; ctr++)
{
printf("What is the name of the book #%d?\n", (ctr+1));
gets(books[ctr].title);
puts("Who's is the author? ");
gets(books[ctr].author);
puts("How much did the book cost? ");
scanf(" $%f", &books[ctr].price);
puts("How many pages are in the book? ");
scanf(" %d", &books[ctr].pages);
getchar(); //Clears last newline for next loop
}
//Print a header line and then loop through and print the info
printf("\n\nHere is the collection of books: \n");
for (ctr = 0; ctr < 3; ctr++)
{
printf("#%d: %s by %s", (ctr+1), books[ctr].title, books[ctr].author);
printf("\nIt is %d pages and costs $%.2f", books[ctr].pages, books[ctr].price);
printf("\n\n");
}
return (0);
}
You have a typo in your scanf.
scanf(" $%f", &books[ctr].price);
^
|
here
That says you want a $ followed by a decimal number. If the user does not input a dollar sign, scanf will read nothing. The input will remain on the input buffer. It will be read by the next scanf.
This is one of the many problems with scanf. Because scanf mixes up reading input with parsing input, if the input does not match the expected format it will remain in the input buffer. Instead, read and parse separately with fgets (not gets) and sscanf. It's also important to check that the input was read else books[ctr].price will contain garbage.
// Declare a buffer once outside the loop. Reuse it for each fgets call.
// BUFSIZ is a constant for the natural I/O buffer size of your platform.
char buf[BUFSIZ];
puts("How much did the book cost? ");
// Read only as much as the buffer can handle. This is what makes fgets safe,
// and gets unsafe.
fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), stdin);
// sscanf returns the number of items matched. Check if they all matched.
if( sscanf(buf, " %f", &books[ctr].price) != 1) {
printf("Sorry, '%s' doesn't look like a price.", buf);
// Set it to something or else it will be garbage.
books[ctr].price = 0;
}
A real program would loop until it gets valid input. The important thing is to read the buffer, then parse it, and check if the parsing worked. Later on you might write a little function to package up this prompting code.

Read empty file and the output is symbol

i am new in c. So in my university, i just learn about file in c. and i got a task. If i put an empty file in my project directory, and read it. The output are symbols (i dont know what symbol it is). So here is the code, please help
player dota[100];
FILE *fp;
fp = fopen("soal09.txt", "r");
if(fp == NULL)
{
printf("Error Opening The File!!\n");
return 0;
}
else
{
while(!feof(fp))
{
fscanf(fp, "%[^ ] %d %d\n", &dota[idx].name, &dota[idx].score, &dota[idx].num);
idx++;
}
}
fclose(fp);
do
{
enter();
menu();
printf("Input your choice [1..5]: ");
scanf("%d", &choose); fflush(stdin);
if(choose == 1)
{
system("cls");
enter();
printf("%-20s %-15s %s\n", "Player Name", ": Average Score", ": Number of Playing");
printf("====================================================================\n");
for(int i = 0; i < idx; i++)
{
printf("%-20s %-15d %d\n", dota[i].name, dota[i].score, dota[i].num);
}
printf("\nPress Enter to Continue...");
getchar();
}
getchar();
return 0;
}
and the output is ╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠ -858993460
Thank you ^^
The end-of-file indicator that is checked by feof() is only set after a previous file I/O operation has failed. You must attempt an I/O operation to find out if you have reached the end of the file. So, with an empty file, your code attempts to read the file, the end-of-file indicator is set, no values are read into the first struct, but idx is incremented, so it looks like you have added data for a player. But the fields of the first struct are uninitialized, so you are seeing garbage. Also note that dota[idx].name is presumably an array of chars, so it decays to a pointer to char when passed to fscanf(). Using &dota[idx].name, as you have, is wrong, though it might appear to work. It does cause the compiler to emit a warning, and you should have these enabled (I always use at least gcc -Wall -Wextra -pedantic).
You should not use feof() to control file I/O loops. One simple solution is to use the return value of fscanf() to control the loop:
while(fscanf(fp, "%[^ ] %d %d\n",
dota[idx].name, &dota[idx].score, &dota[idx].num) == 3) {
idx++;
}
This will only update a player struct if three assignments are made by the call to fscanf(). But, the problem with this simple solution is that it doesn't handle malformed input well. If a line of the data file is missing a field, the struct will be incorrectly filled, and the loop will terminate, even if there are more lines in the file to read. Also, since no field width is specified for the string conversion, a long name could crash your program.
A better solution uses fgets() to read the lines of the file into a buffer, and then uses sscanf() to extract the information from the buffer:
#include <string.h> // for strcpy()
...
char buffer[1000];
int line = 0;
char temp_name[100];
int temp_score, temp_num;
while(fgets(buffer, sizeof(buffer), fp)) {
++line;
if (sscanf(buffer, "%99[^ ] %d %d\n",
temp_name, &temp_score, &temp_num) == 3) {
strcpy(dota[idx].name, temp_name);
dota[idx].score = temp_score;
dota[idx].num = temp_num;
++idx;
} else if (buffer[0] != '\n') {
fprintf(stderr, "Bad input in line %d\n", line);
}
}
Here, a generous buffer is declared to accept a line of text from the file, and temporary variables are declared to hold the values to be stored in the struct fields. I have chosen a size of 100 for temp_name, but this should match the size of the string array in your actual struct. Note that the string conversion in sscanf() has a field width of 99, so that at most 99 non-space (not non-whitespace, and why aren't you just using %99s here?) characters are matched, leaving space for the '\0' to be added.
fgets() will return NULL when it reaches the end of the file, so the loop will continue until that happens. For each line that is read, a line counter is incremented. Then sscanf() is used to read data into the temporary variables. The value returned from sscanf() is checked to be sure that 3 assignments were made, and if so, then the data is copied into the struct, and idx is incremented. Note that strcpy() is needed to copy the string from temp_name to dota[idx].name.
If the value returned from sscanf() indicates that something other than 3 assignments were made, there is a check to see if buffer holds an empty line. If not, an error message is printed to stderr providing the line number of the bad input in the file.
A couple of further comments. Your do loop appears to be missing the associated while(). And you use fflush(stdin) after the scanf() inside the do loop. fflush()is meant to flush output streams. The behavior of fflush() on input streams is explicitly undefined in the C Standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011 7.21.5.2/2), though I believe that Microsoft deviates from the Standard here. Nevertheless, you should not use fflush(stdin) in portable C code. Instead, use something like this:
int c;
...
scanf("%d", &choose);
while ((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF)
continue; // discard extra characters
This code reads characters from the input stream until either a '\n' or EOF is reached, clearing any characters left behind by the previous call to scanf() from the input stream.

Scanf and a manual function to get string when they work together

I have a trouble with scanf and a manual function to get string in the input.
Here is my manual function to get a line of string in input (I also get the [nl] character):
void getln(char *a) {
int i,c;
i=0;
do {
c=getchar();
a[i]=(char)c;
i++;
} while(c!='\n');
}
Then, I using it like this (char hs.school[40]; char hs.pc[20]; int hs.age;):
printf("Import age: ");
scanf("%d",&hs.age);
printf("Import personal code: ");
getln(hs.pc);
printf("Import school: ");
getln(hs.school);
The output:
Import age: 18
Import personal code: Import school: Vo Thi Sau
Why the getln call right after scanf call is ignored? (But the next getln works well)
Can you explain me the details and suggest me how to fix this bug. Thanks!
Edited:
Here is my full code that take the user inputs and export that inputs back to the screen, which is run well after I did a little trick, but I decide to make a question, mainly for expanding my knowlegde ^_^ Thanks for your answers.
#include<stdio.h>
void getln(char *);
void putstr(char *);
int main(void) {
struct Student {
struct Fullname {
char first[10],middle[20],last[10];
}fu;
struct Native {
char social[30],district[30],province[30];
}na;
struct Score {
double maths,physics,chemistry;
}sc;
char pc[20],school[40];
int age;
}hs;
printf("Import stage:\n");
printf("- Import full name:\n");
printf("++ First name: ");
getln(hs.fu.first);
printf("++ Middle name: ");
getln(hs.fu.middle);
printf("++ Last name: ");
getln(hs.fu.last);
printf("- Import native living place:\n");
printf("++ Social: ");
getln(hs.na.social);
printf("++ District: ");
getln(hs.na.district);
printf("++ Province: ");
getln(hs.na.province);
printf("- Import school: ");
getln(hs.school);
printf("- Import personal code: "); // I have done a little trick
getln(hs.pc); // before I post the question,
printf("- Import age: "); // which swaped these two stage,
scanf("%d",&hs.age); // but it's works like a charm ^_^
printf("- Import scores:\n");
printf("++ Mathematics: ");
scanf("%lf",&hs.sc.maths);
printf("++ Physics: ");
scanf("%lf",&hs.sc.physics);
printf("++ Chemistry: ");
scanf("%lf",&hs.sc.chemistry);
printf("\nExport stage:\n");
printf("- Full name: ");
putstr(hs.fu.first);
printf(" ");
putstr(hs.fu.middle);
printf(" ");
putstr(hs.fu.last);
printf(".\n");
printf("- Native living place: ");
putstr(hs.na.social);
printf(", ");
putstr(hs.na.district);
printf(", ");
putstr(hs.na.province);
printf(".\n");
printf("- School: ");
putstr(hs.school);
printf(".\n");
printf("- Personal code: ");
putstr(hs.pc);
printf(".\n");
printf("- Age: %d.\n",hs.age);
printf("- Scores (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry): %.2lf, %.2lf, %.2lf.\n",hs.sc.maths,hs.sc.physics,hs.sc.chemistry);
return 0;
}
void getln(char *a) {
int i,c;
i=0;
do {
c=getchar();
a[i]=(char)c;
i++;
} while(c!='\n');
}
void putstr(char *a) {
int i;
i=0;
while(a[i]!='\n') {
putchar(a[i]);
i++;
}
}
After taking input hs.age you pressed in Enter, which is a \n character. So your getln() is called but the loop is broken just after one iteration as c contains '\n'. if you print hs.pc, there will be a new line in your output screen.
You are not clearing the input buffer. So in this newline will be placed after the first input given to scanf. So getchar will get the new line as a input. So loop will quit.
Use this line after the scanf.
int c;
if ( scanf("%d",&hs.age) != 1 ) {
printf("Invalid Input\n");retrun 0; }
while((c=getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF );
It will clear the input buffer. Then it will ask the second input from the user.
Your getln call isn't skipped, it is taking the newline character left in stdin (the input buffer) as its input and it reads '\n' as c, assigns it to a[i], checks whether c is a '\n' char and exits.
To solve the initial problem, you need to clear the input buffer before calling getln. You can either do that with the while loop as suggested in the other answer, or you can craft a proper format string for scanf that will consume the newline, emptying the buffer. (not foolproof), but an alternative scanf would be:
scanf(" %d%*c",&hs.age);
Which would skip all whitespace before the number (including any newlines), read the decimal value, and then read and discard the newline. Note: this only works for a number without trailing characters. Entering 13abc would leave bc\n in stdin. The while loop in this case is more flexible as it reads all characters until a newline is encountered and is probably the better choice:
scanf(" %d",&hs.age);
while ((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF);
As for your getln function, it only needs to read each character into a[i]. There isn't a real need for c. You will also want the same checks on your input so that no newline is left. You will also want to check i against the maximum lengths of a minus 1. I would suggest a #define MAXS 128 for the maximum string length for your input. That would allow something to test i against to prevent writing beyond the end of your string.
Here is an alternative to your getln. Note: it is type int allowing it to return the length of the line read so you can determine what to do if it has reached MAXS (as there will still be characters in stdin at that point). As a general rule, if you are doing something in a function when there is a potential for error, it is better to return a value indicating success/failure/problem:
#define MAXS 128
...
int getln (char *a)
{
size_t i = 0;
while ((a[i] = getchar()) != '\n' && a[i] != EOF)
{
i++;
if (i == MAXS - 1)
{
a[i] = 0;
break;
}
}
return i;
}
Can you explain me the details ...
I'll try not to use confusing terms such as buffer.
You probably already know that "%d" corresponds to a set of decimal digit characters which get transformed into an int. When you press 'Enter' as others have suggested, the '\n' character is transmitted via stdin. '\n' isn't a decimal digit character, so it gets placed back onto the stream for your getln function to discover later on...
In reality, your "getln call right after scanf call" probably isn't ignored; it's probably just reading the trailing '\n' and seeing an empty line.
That is assuming the other problem isn't coming into play. getln can't see how many bytes a points to, so it can't tell when it's about to overflow, and hence makes no attempt to prevent buffer overflows... You've basically rewritten gets. If your input is lengthy enough, then I suppose this could also cause your problem... A buffer overflow is undefined behaviour, and the consequences of using undefined behaviour are undefined.
On the topic of undefined behaviour, since getln isn't technically producing a string, I do hope you're not using it as input for a standard string function later on...
Also on the topic of undefined behaviour, what do you suppose might happen if the user enters something that isn't a set of decimal digits? scanf conveys input errors via the return value... so never ignore the return value. You can (and should, at some point) find more information about this in the scanf manual.
... and suggest me how to fix this bug.
It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to discard user input, but unfortunately you can't expect a solution that results in better user experience without blowing your code size (and this explanation) well out of proportion.
You can discard the remainder of the line (which is probably just a '\n') following the set of decimal digits using scanf like so: scanf("%*[^\n]"); getchar();... Following the "%d" scanf call, of course... You could even merge the two together, like so:
if (scanf("%d%*[^\n]", &hs.age) != 1) {
puts("ERROR: EOF or file access error.");
exit(0);
}
getchar();
Unfortunately, if your user uses the spacebar key rather than enter, he or she probably won't find out about the problems with this until it's slightly too late...
As for the buffer overflow problem, I recommend using fgets rather than gets. fgets also has failure modes, which are conveyed via the return value and the contents of the array. The return value is used to convey EOF and file access errors, and the presense (or rather lack of) of a '\n' in the return value is used to convey when the input line was too large to store in the array. We can notify the user of the overflow (which I'm sure they'll appreciate) and discard the excess using the same scanf trick used earlier...
if (fgets(hs.pc, sizeof hs.pc, stdin) == NULL) {
puts("ERROR: EOF or file access error.");
exit(0);
}
size_t size = strcspn(hs.pc, "\n");
if (hs.pc[size] != '\n') {
printf("WARNING: MAXIMUM SIZE OF %zu EXCEEDED! LINE TRUNCATED.\n", sizeof hs.pc - 1);
scanf("%*[^\n]");
getchar();
}
hs.pc[size] = '\0';
I suppose it would make sense to wrap these solutions into functions, except that the functions would then promote the discarding of user input. Nonetheless, the later one is lengthy enough that you'd most likely benefit from abstraction...
void getln(char *a, size_t a_size) {
if (fgets(a, a_size, stdin) == NULL) {
puts("ERROR: EOF or file access error.");
exit(0);
}
size_t size = strcspn(a, "\n");
if (a[size] != '\n') {
printf("WARNING: MAXIMUM SIZE OF %zu EXCEEDED! LINE TRUNCATED.\n", a_size - 1);
scanf("%*[^\n]");
getchar();
}
a[size] = '\0';
}
... and now you can use that like so: getln(hs.pc, sizeof hs.pc);

fgets() isn't prompting user a second time

Here is how the code's written.
int main()
{
char enteredName[30];
char stringNum[4];
char continueLetter = 0;
int continueProgram = 0;
int enteredAge;
int i;
do
{
memset(enteredName,'\0', 30);
printf("Please enter a name: ");
fgets(enteredName, 29, stdin);
printf("\n\nNow please enter your age: ");
fgets(stringNum, 3, stdin );
for(i = 0; i < 30; i++)
{
if (enteredName[i] == '\n')
{
enteredName[i] = '\0';
break;
}
}
for(i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
if (stringNum[i] == '\n')
{
stringNum[i] = '\0';
break;
}
}
enteredAge = atol(stringNum);
} while();
When I run through the loop a second time, I'm not able to enter a new name into the char array, it just goes to the next prompt (the age). Unless this issue involves linked lists, the problem seems to be with something else. Could you help me find the error? Thanks!
Your second fgets call leaves characters (specifically the newline) waiting to be read from stdin if you enter a two digit age.
Increase the length parameter to match the array size:
fgets(stringNum, 4, stdin);
Or better:
fgets(stringNum, sizeof stringNum, stdin);
You probably want to do the same for enteredName.
From the fgets(3) man page:
The fgets() function reads at most one less than the number of characters
specified by size from the given stream and stores them in the string
str.
You don't need to reserve the extra array entry for the null-terminator like you're doing - fgets will handle that correctly on its own.
The problem is,you are not flushing the input buffer that is why the fgets() takes you directly to the second prompt asking age.This is common problem encountered,just add fflush(stdin);//my compiler supports itafter fgets();.Here is the code which has worked for me hope it works for you too :
EDIT: There is one very useful post providing information regarding fflush().As it is described that fflush is basically meant to be called to an output stream.Although some compilers provide support for flushing stdin,this is considered an undefined behavior.While having another look at the program, I found out that using sizeof can work wonders and is valid, So, I have modified the program for better. The use of sizeof is also described in one of the answers here.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
int main()
{
char enteredName[30];
char stringNum[4];
int continueProgram=0;
int i;
while(continueProgram<3)
{
setbuf(stdout,NULL);
printf("Please enter a name: ");
fgets(enteredName, sizeof enteredName, stdin);
printf("\n\nNow please enter your age: ");
fgets(stringNum,sizeof stringNum, stdin );
for(i = 0; i < 30; i++)
{
if (enteredName[i] == '\n')
{
enteredName[i] = '\0';
break;
}
}
for(i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
if (stringNum[i] == '\n')
{
stringNum[i] = '\0';
break;
}
}
//enteredAge = atol(stringNum);
continueProgram++;
}
return 0;
}
The problem is that you don't know whether the string that has been read contains a newline or not. If it doesn't contain a newline, then this is going to be read by the next call to fgets, leaving an empty string in it. To prevent it, check if the line contains a newline character at the end. If not just read it using getchar() and Voila!!(Note that this solution is valid only to your problem, not in general). This code is to be added after reading the stringNum string.
if(stringNum[strlen(stringNum)-1]!='\n')
{
getchar();
}
This was happening because, if the age is a double digit, then fgets is going to read until the last digit and not the newline character. So,you need to read it in case the last char is not \n. If the age is a single digit, the the original program works fine.
You try this following piece of code:
if(stringNum[strlen(arr)-1]=='\n')
stringNum[strlen(arr)-1]='\0';
else
while(getchar()!='\n');
Whenever you enter a two digit age, the newline character which you insert while pressing enter gets stored in the buffer.
What this above piece of code is doing is that, it will check whether the last character of your storage is filled with a newline character, if yes, then it will replace it with the null terminator.
Else, it will keep reading from the buffer until and unless the newline character is removed from the buffer.
PS: If you are using borland then you will have fflush(stdin) to flush out any extra character from the buffer as indicated by PHlFounder, but if you happen to use gcc then this method is very good.
Also you can create a function or macro for this piece of code and call it every time you need, for eg.
void function(char * arr)
{
if(arr[strlen(arr)-1]=='\n')
arr[strlen(arr)-1]='\0';
else
while(getchar()!='\n')
}

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