I am working on a practice problem from my textbook by kernigan and ritchie (again for practice, not for credit).
The problem states to write a program that prints a histogram of the lengths of words in its input.
I want to do this by printing a "_" for every char that I read. However, I'm having a lot of trouble reading chars.
Right now, my program looks like this:
int main(){
int c;
char str[100];
scanf("%s", str);
printf("|");
while((c = getchar()) != EOF){
putchar(c);
printf("_");
}
printf("|");
return 0;
}
main compiles. However When I try to use it and give it a word (of any length), it simply prints:
|
_
and then the cursor moves right next to the underscore. What am I doing wrong? Why is the underscore printed after the "|" rather than next to it, as I didn't use \n ?
The output you see is because the scanf("%s", str) line captures the word you input up to the default delimiter character which is space and then goes on to print '|' character then attempts to read more from stdin.
If you had entered say mylong word do you like it? then ctrl-z
You would see:
| _w_o_r_d_ _d_o_ _y_o_u_ _l_i_k_e_ _i_t_?_
_^Z
|
This is because the characters word do you like it? are still in the stream to be processed.
If you only enter a single word without spaces then you will see what you observed.
The two lines:
char str[100];
scanf("%s", str);
could be removed and then you won't be capturing the word and doing nothing with it.
Alternatively, if you want to use scanf you could change like this:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
char str[100];
char* p = str;
scanf("%s", str);
printf("|");
while (*p != NULL) {
putchar(*p++);
printf("_");
}
printf("|");
return 0;
}
This code prints each character in str, interspersing with the _ character.
Related
While trying different things with getchar I figured out that it usually only safes on character in an variable. Somehow when I use a while loop the behaviour changes and it returns more characters if the input is more than one.
Here is my example code for "normal" behaviour. putchar() return only one character even more are put in:
#include <stdio.h>
main() {
char c;
printf("Type a character in here: ");
c = getchar();
printf("You just typed : ");
putchar(c);
}
Somehow when I want to use it in a while loop the putchar() function returns more than one character if more are put in:
Here is the second part:
#include <stdio.h>
void print_input();
main() {
char c;
printf("Type a character in here: ");
c = getchar();
printf("You just typed : ");
putchar(c);
print_input();
}
void print_input() {
char ch = 'x';
while (ch != '#') {
ch = getchar();
putchar(ch);
}
return;
}
Additional question:
While running this in debugger the behaviour somehow is different than if I try this in runtime. Why is that so?
When you enter multiple chars and hit enter, the program will see that whole input (because it's line buffered). So multiple calls to getchar will return subsequent characters and remove them from the stream:
Try to play with this:
char c;
char d;
printf("Type chars in here: ");
c = getchar();
d = getchar();
printf("C: %c \n", c);
printf("D: %c", d);
This is duplicated with:
How is the "getchar()" function able to take multiple characters as input?
You can read more there.
I am in the process of writing a C program that parses a string and tokenizing it by breaking the string characters into words that are seperated by white space. My question is when i run my current program:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main()
{
char input[20];
printf("Please enter your word:\n");
scanf("%c", &input);
printf("%c", input[1]);
return 0;
}
If i was to enter the word "This", i would expect to get back "h" when i run the program but instead i get a downwards pointing arrow. However, when the input is set to print out input[0] i get back a "T".
Edit: I have modified my code so that it prints out the whole string now which i will show below
int main()
{
char input[20];
printf("Please enter your words:\n");
scanf("%s", input);
printf("%s", input);
return 0;
}
My goal is to be able to break that string into chars that i can search through to find whitespace and thus being able to isolate those words for example, if my input was "This is bad" i'd like the code to print out
This
is
bad
Edit:
I have modified my code to fit one of these answers but the problem i run into now is that it won't compile
int main()
{
char input[20];
printf("Please enter your words:\n");
size_t offset = 0;
do
{
scanf("%c", input + offset);
offset++;
}
while(offset < sizeof(input) && input[offset - 1] != '\n');
}
printf("%c", input[]);
return 0;
Problems:
1) scanf("%c", input); only set the first element of the array input.
2) printf("%c", input[1]); prints the second element of the array input, which has uninitialized data in it.
Solution:
Small state machine. No limit on string size like 20.
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int ch = fgetc(stdin);
while (ch != EOF) {
while (isspace(ch)) {
// If only 1 line of input allowed, then add
if (ch == '\n') return 0;;
ch = fgetc(stdin);
}
if (ch != EOF) {
do {
fputc(ch, stdout);
ch = fgetc(stdin);
} while (ch != EOF && !isspace(ch));
fputc('\n', stdout);
}
}
return 0;
}
scanf("%c", &input); does not do what you think it does.
First of all, %c scans only a single character: http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstdio/scanf/
Second, array's name is already a pointer to it's first element, so stating &input you make a pointer to a pointer, so instead of storing your character in array's first element you store it in pointer to the array which is a very bad thing.
If you really want to use scanf, I recommend a loop:
size_t offset = 0;
do
{
scanf("%c", input + offset);
offset++;
}
while(offset < sizeof(input) && input[offset - 1] != '\n');
Using scanf("%s", input") leaves you vulnerable to buffer overflow attacks if the word is longer than 20 characters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_overflow
In my example I assumed, that you want to finish your word with a newline character.
EDIT: In scanf documentation is also a good example:
scanf("%19s", input);
It scans no more than 19 characters, which also prevent buffer overflow. But if you want to change input size, you have to change it two places.
You can use
char * strtok ( char * str, const char * delimiters );
to tokenize your string. If you have your input in input[] array and want to tokenize the string accoring to whitespace character, you can do the following :
char *ptr;
ptr = strtok(input, " ");
while(ptr != NULL) {
printf("%s\n", ptr);
ptr = strtok(NULL, " ");
}
Only the first call to strtok() requires the character array as input. Specifying NULL in the next calls means that it will operate on the same character array.
Your scanf only picks up the first character, input[1] contains random garbage. Use scanf("%19s", input) instead.
I'm trying to write code to count how many times a string repeats inside another one. (If there is some easier approach, please let me know.)
Here is the code that I have now:
int getStringLenght (char str[]) {
int lenghtOfTheString;
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
if(str[i] == '\0') {
lenghtOfTheString = i;
break;
}
}
return lenghtOfTheString;
}
int main()
{
printf("Type a string: ");
char T[1024];
scanf("%s",&T);
char P[100];
printf("Type a substring: ");
scanf("%s",&P);
printf("%s",P);
int stringSize = getStringLenght (P);
int occurences = 0;
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
int j;
if(T[i] == P[0]) {
for (j = 0;j<10;j++) {
char c1 = T[i+j];
char c2 = P[j];
if(c1 != c2) {
break;
}
if(j == stringSize-1) {
occurences++;
//printf("string iguais em i = %d",i);
}
}
}
}
printf("\nThe substring %s was found %d times", P, occurences);
return 0;
}
The app compiles. When I type "banana", for example, on the first scanf, and then "na" on the second, the app comes out with the right answer. But, if I type "banana and milk" on the first scanf, it automatically interprets the second scanf as "and", even when I don't type anything but "banana and milk ENTER"
What's happening?
scanf's "%s" conversion only reads characters until it encounters white-space (e.g., space, new-line, or tab). When you enter more than one word, it reads the first. The second call reads the second, and so on.
If you want to read an entire line, you usually want to use fgets instead (scanf can do the job as well, but it's a little trickier, and uses a feature of which many are unaware, so they often find it difficult to understand).
You don't understand how scanf works. http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/clibrary/cstdio/scanf/ %s will only read one string, terminated by white space. If you want to keep reading strings, or read a line, you have to keep using scanf until one of your strings ends in a new line or EOF, or use another function, like fgets.
You have to remember that many functions are already implemented. This is why your getStringLength (you have typo in it's name) is needless. You can simply check the string's length using strlen function from string.h. What is more when you import this file you also have access to strstr function which finds the first occurrence of a given substring in a string. Try to use them instead of reinventing the wheel ;)
That is a standart problem with scanf. There are 3 ways to fix this:
1: Call fflush after each scanf:
scanf("%s", some_string); // you don't need to write &some_string because giving a array to a function automatically converts it to a pointer
fflush(stdin);
fflush() isn't available on every system.
2: Putting scanf in a loop:
do
scanf("%s", somestring);
while (getchar() != '\n');
3: Don't use scanf! Use fgets and sscanf!
char buffer[100]; // buffer for fgets()
fgets(buffer, 100, stdin); // read a line from stdin (standart input) into buffer
sscanf(buffer, "%s", some_string); // convert buffer in any format you want
I have program that asks to enter a string (mystring) and a char (ch). Then it deletes all entered chars (ch) from the string (mystring). For example "abcabc" and char 'a' then the result shoud be "bcbc".
-When I use scanf the program works nicely if the string does not have spaces. If I enter "abc abc abc" It reads and processes only the first 3 letters (until space).
Then I was advised to use gets(mystr); because it can read all the stirng. But when I use gets the result is the same as the input string and nothing happens.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#define N 100
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char mystr[N] ,result[N];
char ch;
int i,k;
k=0;
printf("enter string \n");
//gets(mystr);///////////////////////////
//scanf("%s",&mystr);///////////////////
printf("enter char \n");
scanf("%c",&ch);
scanf("%c",&ch);
for ( i = 0; i <= strlen(mystr); i++ )
{
if (mystr[i] != ch)
{
result[k]=mystr[i];
k++;
}
}
puts(result);
system("pause");
return 0;
}
scanf("%c",&ch);
scanf("%c",&ch);
That second scanf is your problem. It's picking up the new-line character that you enter after the letter you want to remove (and overwrites the previous value of ch).
Get rid of it.
Please note, as the man page says:
Never use gets(). Because it is impossible to tell without knowing the data in advance how many
characters gets() will read, and because gets() will continue to store characters past the end of
the buffer, it is extremely dangerous to use. It has been used to break computer security. Use
fgets() instead.
hmm - not sure what the problem is - use getstr, but not scanf for the string, and it works for me in visual studio
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char mystr[N] ,result[N];
char ch;
int i,k;
k=0;
printf("enter string \n");
gets(mystr);///////////////////////////
//scanf("%s",&mystr);///////////////////
printf("enter char \n");
scanf("%c",&ch);
// scanf("%c",&ch);
for ( i = 0; i <= strlen(mystr); i++ )
{
if (mystr[i] != ch)
{
result[k]=mystr[i];
k++;
}
}
puts(result);
system("pause");
return 0;
}
Use this one:
char temp[2];
scanf("%1s",temp);
ch = temp[0];
and use gets
scanf when used with chars has some problems (it gets the "old" new line). Here we "cheat" a little and we use scanf to get a string that can have up to one character. A string of 1 character clearly needs a second character for the terminator, so an array of 2 characters.
Be aware that using a scanf for the character to search, you won't be able to insert the space character.
Note that gets is an "evil" function. You can easily do buffer overruns using it (it doesn't check that the buffer is big enough). The "right" way to do it is normally: fgets(mystr, N, stdin); (the "file" variant of gets has a maximum number of characters that can be read and will append a \0 at the end). Note that if you insert 150 characters in a fgets, 99 will go to your string (because you gave 100 of max size), 1x \0 will be appended and the other characters will remain in the buffer "ready" for the next scanf/gets/fgets... (to test it, reduce the buffer to a smaller value, like 5 characters, and do some tests)
You can use fgets() as suggested by xanatos with a small hack, so you can reliably handle return characters. Just change the '\n' to '\0' in the string obtained using fgets.
And in your program, you forgot to terminate the new string with a '\0'.
So here's the code you're looking for.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<string.h>
#define N 100
int main(int argc,char **argv){
char string[N],str1[N];
char ch;
int i,k = 0;
fgets(string,N,stdin);
string[strlen(string)-1] = '\0';
scanf("%c",&ch);
printf("\n%s , %c",string,ch);
for (i=0;i<=strlen(string);i++)
if(string[i] != ch)
str1[k++] = string[i];
str1[k] = '\0';
printf("\n%s , %s\n",string,str1);
return 0;
}
I have weird string that I want to inspect by printing its characters one by one. How can this be done?
I'm worried in case it has any special characters that may obstruct its printing. Can they be 'escaped'?
You could loop over the string, printing the characters one by one, and conditionally choosing to print the character or an escape sequence:
char *str, // the original string
*tmp;
for(tmp = str; *tmp; tmp++)
{
printf((iscntrl(*tmp) ? "%02x\n" : "'%c'\n"), *tmp);
}
This prints one character per line, with control characters printed in hex format.
An alternative way to see special characters:
./a.out | hexdump -C
hexdump
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
int i, count=0;
char c[30];
printf("Enter a Char string:");
scanf("%s", &c[i]);
for(count=0; count<c[30]; )
{
printf("%c", c[i]);
count=+2;
}
return 0;
}