function to get words and put them in array - c

Question

I need to write a C function that gets from the user the number of the words that he wants to enter, then the function has to scan the word from the user and but them in the array.
For example:
Program:
number of words:
User:
3
hi
my
name
(between every word there is enter) then the function has to put these words in
string array (the size of the array must be defined by malloc and the max size of the string is 100 (could be less)).
int main()
{
int n;
printf("Please enter the number of words: \n");
if (scanf("%d",&n)!=1)
return 0;
char *name;
name = malloc((sizeof(char)*100*n));
int c;
int i;
int m;
for (i = 0; i < n && ((c=getchar()) != EOF );i++)
{
name[i] = c;
}
finds_themin(&name, m); //I know this work
return 0;
}

Answer 1

You need to setup a pointer to pointer.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<string.h>
int main(){
char **s;
int n;
char buffer[64];
fgets(buffer,64,stdin);
n=strtol(buffer,NULL,10);// I avoid using scanf
s=(char **)malloc(sizeof(char*)*n);// you need to declare a pointer to pointer
/*
'PtP s' would look like this:
s[0]=a char pointer so this will point to an individual string
s[1]=a char pointer so this will point to an individual string
s[2]=a char pointer so this will point to an individual string
....
so you need to allocate memory for each pointer within s.
*/
int i;
for(i=0;i<n;i++){
s[i]=(char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*100);// length of each string is 100 in this case
}
for(i=0;i<n;i++){
fgets(s[i],100,stdin);
if(strlen(s[i])>=1){// to avoid undefined behavior in case of null byte input
if(s[i][strlen(s[i])-1]=='\n'){ // fgets also puts that newline character if the string is smaller than from max length,
s[i][strlen(s[i])-1]='\0'; // just removing that newline feed from each string
}
else{
while((getchar())!='\n'); //if the string in the command line was more than 100 chars you need to remove the remaining chars for next fgets
}
}
}
for(i=0;i<n;i++){
printf("\n%s",s[i]);
}
for(i=0;i<n;i++){
free(s[i]); //avoiding leaks
}
free(s);
}

Answer 2

As you need to store an array of strings you need an array of char* or char** to point each string (char array).
char **name;
name = malloc(n); // to store n strings.
Then in the loop use fgets to read the input as a line. Also, you need to allocate the memory for each new char array.
fflush(stdin);
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
name[i] = malloc(100); // allocating memory for string.
fgets (name[i], 100, stdin); // 100 is the max len
}
You can then simply iterate over the char** array, the ith index will point to the ith string.
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
// printf("%s", name[i]);
}