Terminate an array input taking when input is -1 without using break? - c

Question

I am taking input in an array of length 100 using scanf in a loop. After 20 numbers, if I enter -1, I want the loop to exit, i.e finish taking input and continue with the rest of the program. I am doing something like this
for(i=0;i<100;i++)
{
scanf("%d", &input[i]);
if(input[i] == -1)
{
break;
}
}
I heard, it is bad practice to use break statements even though this code works perfectly fine. So I was wondering what is a more efficient way to end the loop when -1 is entered. I tried
for(i=0;scanf("%d",&input[i])!=-1;i++)
also
fori(i=0;i<100;i++){
do
{scanf("%d", &input[i]);
}while(input[i]!=-1
}
Neither of these don't work

Answer 1

The second expression of the for loop is a free-form boolean expression. In this case you could add your condition there. However in this case it wouldn't look exactly nice. For example
for(i=0; i < 100 && (i < 1 || input[i - 1] != -1); i++)
{
scanf("%d", &input[i]);
}
I.e. if we have already input one value, check the value and that must be inequal to -1 for the loop to continue
Another would be to use a synthetic flag variable:
int loop_again = 1;
for (i = 0; loop_again && i < 100; i++) {
scanf("%d", &input[i]);
if(input[i] == -1)
{
loop_again = 0;
}
}
All in all, these both look way uglier than just using the break statement for the very thing that it was invented for.
Note that you also should check the return value of scanf itself!

Answer 2

it is bad practice to use break statements
As Ancient Greeks said, "Pan Metron Ariston", which means that everything that is used with balance is great. This applies here too, and your code as is, is good to go. The only thing to be worried about is not checking the return value of scanf().
Now if you really insist on changing your approach, then please refer to Haapala's answer, we got there first.

Answer 3

You can use a while loop and check for -1 in the input in the loop conditional. Note that you should always check the value returned by scanf(). In the posted code, non-numeric input results in no value being stored in input[]; this may lead to undefined behavior later if the code attempts to use an indeterminate value.
Here is an example. Note that the loop conditional first checks whether the array index has grown too large, then checks the return value from scanf() to be sure that a number was entered, then checks to see if -1 was entered. In the case of non-numeric input, the loop is terminated.
#include <stdio.h>
#define INPUT_SZ 100
int main(void)
{
int input[INPUT_SZ];
size_t i = 0;
while (i < INPUT_SZ && scanf("%d", &input[i]) == 1 && input[i] != -1) {
++i;
}
puts("You entered:");
for (size_t j = 0; j < i; j++) {
printf("%d\n", input[j]);
}
return 0;
}
Sample interaction:
2 4 6 8 -1
You entered:
2
4
6
8

Answer 4

You can simply change the value of counter variable to max, then it'll automatically come out of loop.
#include<stdio.h>
#define MAX 10
int main()
{
int ar[MAX], i, count;
for(i=0; i<MAX; i++)
{
scanf("%d", &ar[i]);
if(ar[i]==-1)
{
count=i--; //this is your new MAX. Not mandatory but will be useful if you need to access array elements
i=MAX;
}
}
//printing array
for(i=0; i<count; i++)
{
printf("Element %d: %d\t", i+1, ar[i]);
}
return 0;
}
Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Use a do-while loop
int i=0;
do{
if(scanf("%d", &input[i++]) != 1)
{
if(i>0)
--i; // Decrementing i if an integer is not provided
int ch;
while ((ch = getchar()) != '\n' && ch != EOF) // Wasting the buffer
;
}
}while(input[i-1] != -1 && i<=99);