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.
Related
I have to finnish a college project, and a part of my code is acting strangely.
The goal of that part is to get an user input of an integer and store it in a variable so that i can use it later, however if the user inputs a character I have to ask for the number again.
I used the scanf function to get the user input and put it inside a while loop to continuously ask for the input in case it's invalid.
The problem is that when a user inputs a character, the code freaks out and starts running the while loop without stopping in the scanf to get the user input.
It makes sense that the loop condition is always true but the strange part is that it doesn't stop to read new inputs.
I deconstructed my code in order to replicate the problem to make it easier to debug.
I know that there are some useless variables but in my original code they are useful, I just kept them there to make it look similar to the original.
I can only use scanf to get user input, despite knowing them, in this project I am only allowed to use scanf. I can't use scanf's format to get characters, only numerical types are allowed in this project.
C11 is the version of the standart we are using in classes.
I'm sory if the solution for this is a dumb thing, I'm not good at C and I'm having some difficultlies this semester...
Thanks in advance.
while (!verification) {
printf(">>>"); //write values in here
check = scanf("\n%d", &var); //input a number and store the number of valid inputs
if (check) verification = 1; //if the input is a number then the while condition should turn to false with this statement
printf("var = %d, check = %d, verification = %d\n", var, check, verification); //printing all variables
}
If the user does not input an integer there are characters left in the input stream after the call to scanf. Therefor you need to read to end of line before making the next attempt to read an integer. Otherwise scanf will try to read the same non-integer characters again and again. Here is an example:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
int ch, i, n;
n = scanf("%d", &i);
while (n == 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "wrong input, integer expected\n");
do {
ch = getchar();
} while ((ch != EOF) && (ch != '\n'));
n = scanf("%d", &i);
}
if (n == 1) {
printf("%d\n", i);
} else { /*n == EOF*/
fprintf(stderr, "reading input failed\n");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
return 0;
}
Don't use scanf() to read input from the user.
It's really only meant for reading data that's known to be in a particular format, and input from a user... often isn't.
While you do correctly check the return value of scanf("%d"), and could fix the case where the input isn't a number, you'll still have problems if the input is either an empty line, or a number followed by something else (123 foobar).
In the case of an empty line scanf() will continue waiting for non-whitespace characters. This is probably confusing, since users will expect hitting enter to do something.
In the case there's trailing stuff after the number, that stuff stays in the input buffer, and the next time you read something, it gets read. This is again probably confusing, since users seldom expect their input to one question to also act as input to another.
Instead, read a full line with fgets() or getline(), then run sscanf() or strtol() on that. This is much more intuitive, and avoids the disconnect caused by scanf() consuming input lines only partially (or consuming more than one line). See also e.g. scanf() leaves the new line char in the buffer
Here, using getline() (POSIX, even if not in standard C. Use fgets() instead if getline() is not available):
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
char *line = NULL;
size_t len = 0;
int result;
printf("Please enter a number: ");
while (1) {
if (getline(&line, &len, stdin) == -1) {
/* eof or error, do whatever is sensible in your case */
return 1;
}
if (sscanf(line, "%d", &result) != 1) {
printf("That didn't seem like number, please try again: ");
continue;
}
break;
}
printf("You entered the number %d\n", result);
}
The problem is you must discard offending input when the conversion fails.
Here is a simple solution using only scanf() as instructed:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int n;
for (;;) {
printf("Enter an number: ");
switch (scanf("%d", &n)) {
case 1:
/* successful conversion */
printf("The number is %d\n", n);
return 0;
case 0:
/* conversion failure: discard the rest of the line */
scanf("*[^\n]"); // discard characters before the newline if any
scanf("*1[\n]"); // optional: discard the newline if present
printf("Invalid input. Try again\n");
continue;
case EOF:
/* input failure */
printf("Premature end of file\n");
return 1;
}
}
}
I'm having some hard time trying to recognise an empty line on the standard input in C. I'm having the following code:
char *line = NULL;
int done = 0;
while (!done) {
scanf("%m[^\n]", &line);
if (line != NULL)
//do something with line
else
done = 1;
scanf("\n");
free(line);
The lines are supposed to be user's commands. Let's say that he is only allowed to call
insert something
delete something
or
exit
In any other case the program should output, let's say, "command not allowed". I can do that in every case except one - when there's an empty line on the input - I don't know how I can recognise one. I would appreciate some help on that.
Instead of using scanf(), used fgets() or *nix getline().
scanf() is designed to read formatted data - it works marginally well with lines.
fgets() is designed to read a line (0 or more characters up to and including a final '\n') and converting that to a C string by appending a null character '\0' to the destination buffer.
char line[100];
while (!done) {
// scanf("%m[^\n]", &line);
if (fgets(line, sizeof line, stdin) == NULL) {
// EOF or input error occurred, for now let us just clear line
line[0] = 0;
}
// get rid of potential trailing \n
line[strcspn(line, "\n")] = 0;
if (line[0])
//do something with line
else
done = 1;
}
All of the information in this answer was extracted from man scanf.
The %[ format code will not match an empty string:
[ Matches a nonempty sequence of characters from the specified set of accepted characters
Remember that scanf has a very useful return value:
These functions return the number of input items successfully matched and assigned, which can be fewer than provided for, or even zero in the event of an early matching failure.
You should always check the return value of scanf, because the output arguments have unspecified values if the corresponding input item couldn't be successfully matched.
In this case, the return value will tell you whether there was a non-empty string preceding the newline character.
As presented, your code has a memory leak (assuming that more than one line is read), because the m modifier causes memory to be allocated, without ever looking at the value originally stored in the corresponding argument. So if the argument held the address of previously allocated storage, it will be overwritten with the address of the newly-allocated storage and the previous allocation will leak.
The loop should be:
while (!done) {
line = NULL; /* Not strictly necessary */
if (scanf("%m[^\n]", &line) == 1) {
/* Do something with line */
free(line);
} else {
/* Handle an empty line */
}
/* skip trailing newline. See below. */
getchar();
}
scanf("\n") does not only skip a single newline character. It is not different from scanf(" "); any whitespace in a scanf format:
matches any amount of white space, including none, in the input.
If you just want to skip the single newline character, use getchar().
I execute my program from shell like that :
$main.exe < input.txt
in input.txt I have digits (Count of these digits is unknown)
in my program I doing something like :
while(1)
{
int xCoordinate, yCoordinate;
scanf("%d %d", &xCoordinate, &yCoordinate);
......
}
How can I break this loop when there is no value to read?
Assuming that the input is consistent, you can do it like this:
if (scanf("%d %d", &xCoordinate, &yCoordinate) != 2) break;
The reason this would work is that scanf family of functions return the number of entries that they assigned. In your code, you want scanf to assign two items; if EOF is reached instead, a value smaller than 2 would be returned.
Note: that this approach will break at the first spot where the input file is not consistent with the format that you expect. For example, if your input has a string in place of one of the numbers, the loop would exit after making a failed attempt to interpret that string as a number.
You have to separate the "reading from a file (or stdin)" from the "parsing the line I read. You will get terribly wrong answers if the data is not perfectly what you expect.
You get fine control with something like
char buffer[BUFSIZ];
int xCoordinate, yCoordinate;
while(fgets(buffer, BUFSIZ, stdin) != NULL) {
if(sscanf(buffer, "%d %d", &xCoordinate, &yCoordinate) != 2) {
fprintf(stderr, "parsing error\n")
exit(1);
}
}
Even this leaves a bit to be desired because if fgets returns NULL it can either mean EOF or "read error" but it is far more robust than scanf and keeps to the spirit of the original.
Relevant code snippet:
char input [1024];
printf("Enter text. Press enter on blank line to exit.\n");
scanf("%[^\n]", input);
That will read the whole line up until the user hits [enter], preventing the user from entering a second line (if they wish).
To exit, they hit [enter] and then [enter] again. So I tried all sorts of while loops, for loops, and if statements around the scanf() involving the new line escape sequence but nothing seems to work.
Any ideas?
Try this:
while (1 == scanf("%[^\n]%*c", input)) { /* process input */ }
As was yet pointed out, fgets() is better here than scanf().
You can read an entire line with fgets(input, 1024, stdin);
where stdin is the file associated to the standard input (keyboard).
The function fgets() reads every character from the keyboard up to the first new-line character: '\n' (obtained after pressing ENTER key, of course...).
Important: The character '\n' will be part of the array input.
Now, your next step is to verify if all the characters in the array input,
from the first to the '\n', are blanks.
Besides, note that all the characters after the first '\n' in input are garbage, so you have not to check them.
Your program could be as follows:
char input[1024];
printf("Enter text. Press enter on blank line to exit.\n");
while (1) {
if (fgets(input, 1024, stdin) == NULL)
printf("Input Error...\n");
else {
/* Here we suppose the fgets() has reached a '\n' character... */
for (char* s = input; (*s != '\n') && isspace(*s); s++)
; /* skipping blanks */
if (*s == '\n')
break; /* Blank line */
else
printf("%s\n", input); /* The input was not a blank line */
}
}
That code must be written inside your main() block and,
more importantly, it is necessary to include the header <ctype.h> before all,
because the isspace() function is used.
The code is simple: the while is executed for ever, the user enter a line in each iteration, the if sentences checks if some error has happened.
If everything was fine, then a for(;;) statement is executed, which explores the array input to watch if there are just blanks there... or not.
The for iterations continue up to the first new-line '\n' is found, or well, a non-blank character appears.
When for terminates, it means that the last analyzed character, which is held in *s, is a newline (meaning that all earlier characters were blanks), or not (meaning that at least there is some non-blank character in input[], so input is a normal text).
The "ethernal" while(1) is broken only in case that a blank-line is
read (see the break statement in 11th line).
OP says "To exit, they hit [enter] and then [enter] again"
unsigned ConsecutiveEnterCount = 0;
for (;;) {
char buffer[1024];
if (fgets(buffer, sizeof(buffer), stdin) == NULL) {
break; // handle error or EOF
}
if (buffer[0] == '\n') {
ConsecutiveEnterCount++;
if (ConsecutiveEnterCount >= 2 /* or 1, not clear on OP intent */) {
break;
}
}
else ConsecutiveEnterCount = 0;
// Do stuff with buffer;
}
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
char arr[40];
int i;
for( i = 0; i < sizeof(arr); i +=2 ){
scanf("%c%c",&arr[i],&arr[i+1]);
if( arr[i] == '\n' && arr[i+1] == '\n' )
break;
}
printf("%s", arr);
return 0;
}
... I tried all sorts of while loops, for loops, and if statements around the scanf() involving the new line escape sequence but nothing seems to work.
It seems you tried everything that you shouldn't have tried, prior to reading! A C programmer is expected to read manuals lest they want to run into undefined behaviour which causes headaches like the one you've experienced. To elaborate, you can't learn C by guessing like you can Java.
Consider this your lesson. Stop guessing and start reading (the fscanf manual)!
According to that manual:
[ Matches a non-empty sequence of bytes from a set of expected bytes (the scanset).
The emphasis is mine. What you seem to be describing is an empty sequence of bytes, which means that the match fails. What does the manual say about matching failures?
Upon successful completion, these functions shall return the number of successfully matched and assigned input items; this number can be zero in the event of an early matching failure. If the input ends before the first conversion (if any) has completed, and without a matching failure having occurred, EOF shall be returned. If an error occurs before the first conversion (if any) has completed, and without a matching failure having occurred, EOF shall be returned...
Again, the emphasis is mine... This is telling you that like most other C-standard functions, you need to check the return value! For example, when you call fopen you then write some idiom along the lines of if (fp == NULL) { /* handle error */ }.
Where's your error handling? Note that the return value isn't merely a binary selection; where n conversions are performed, there are n+2 possible return values in the range of: EOF, 0 .. n. You should understand what each of those means, before you try to use fscanf.
My objective is to change the delimiter of scanf to "\n".
I tried using scanf("%[^\n]s",sen); and works fine for single inputs.
But when i put the same line inside a for loop for multiple sentences it gives me garbage values.
Does anyone know why?
Here's my code:
char sen[20];
for (i=0;i<2;i++)
{
scanf("%[^\n]s",sen);
printf("%s\n",sen);
}
Consider this (C99) code:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
char buffer[256];
while (scanf("%255[^\n]", buffer) == 1)
printf("Found <<%s>>\n", buffer);
int c;
if ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
printf("Failed on character %d (%c)\n", c, c);
return(0);
}
When I run it and type in a string 'absolutely anything with spaces TABTABtabs galore!', it gives me:
Found <<absolutely anything with spaces tabs galore!>>
Failed on character 10 (
)
ASCII (UTF-8) 1010 is newline, of course.
Does this help you understand your problem?
It works in this case (for a single line) but if I want to take multiple lines of input into an array of arrays then it fails. And I don't get how scanf returns a value in your code?
There are reasons why many (most?) experienced C programmers avoid scanf() and fscanf() like the plague; they're too hard to get to work correctly. I'd recommend this alternative, using sscanf(), which does not get the same execration that scanf() and fscanf() do.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
char line[256];
char sen[256];
while (fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin) != 0)
{
if (sscanf(line, "%255[^\n]", sen) != 1)
break;
printf("Found <<%s>>\n", sen);
}
int c;
if ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
printf("Failed on character %d (%c)\n", c, c);
return(0);
}
This reads the line of input (using fgets() which ensures no buffer overflow (pretend that the gets() function, if you've heard of it, melts your computer to a pool of metal and silicon), then uses sscanf() to process that line. This deals with newlines, which are the downfall of the original code.
char sen[20];
for (i=0;i<2;i++)
{
scanf("%[^\n]s",sen);
printf("%s\n",sen);
}
Problems:
You do not check whether scanf() succeeded.
You leave the newline in the buffer on the first iteration; the second iteration generates a return value of 0 because the first character to read is newline, which is the character excluded by the scan set.
The gibberish you see is likely the first line of input, repeated. Indeed, if it were not for the bounded loop, it would not wait for you to type anything more; it would spit out the first line over and over again.
Return value from scanf()
The definition of scanf() (from ISO/IEC 9899:1999) is:
§7.19.6.4 The scanf function
Synopsis
#include <stdio.h>
int scanf(const char * restrict format, ...);
Description
2 The scanf function is equivalent to fscanf with the argument stdin interposed
before the arguments to scanf.
Returns
3 The scanf function returns the value of the macro EOF if an input failure occurs before
any conversion. Otherwise, the scanf function returns the number of input items
assigned, which can be fewer than provided for, or even zero, in the event of an early
matching failure.
Note that when the loop in my first program exits, it is because scanf() returned 0, not EOF.
%[^\n] leaves the newline in the buffer. %[^\n]%*c eats the newline character.
In any case, %[^\n] can read any number of characters and cause buffer overflow or worse.
I use the format string %*[^\n]%*c to gobble the remainder of a line of input from a file. For example, one can read a number and discard the remainder of the line by %d%*[^\n]%*c. This is useful if there is a comment or label following the number, or other data that is not needed.
char sen[20];
for (i=0;i<2;i++)
{
scanf("%[^\n]s",sen);
printf("%s\n",sen);
getchar();
}
Hope this helps ... actually "\n" remains in stream input buffer... Ee need to flush it out before scanf is invoked again
I know I am late, but I ran into same problem after testing C after a long time.
The problem here is the new line is considered as input for next iteration.
So, here is my solution, use getchar() to discard the newline the input stream:
char s[10][25];
int i;
for(i = 0; i < 10; i++){
printf("Enter string: ");
scanf("%s", s[i]);
getchar();
}
Hope it helps :)
While using scanf("%[^\n]", sen) in a loop, the problem that occurs is that the \n stays within the input buffer and is not flushed. As a result next time, when the same input syntax is used, it reads the \n and considers it as a null input. A simple but effective solution to address this problem is to use:
char sen[20];
for (i=0;i<2;i++)
{
scanf("%[^\n]%*c",sen);
printf("%s\n",sen);
}
%*c gets rid of the \n character in the input buffer.