Why I can't input my name with gets? - c

Question

Here's the part of my code:
Problem: It skips the input of "please enter your name" to "please enter your marks"
What I tried: flushall(); _flushall(); - which worked yesterday somehow, and trying to place these functions between printf,scanf..
student *Create_Class(int size) {
int i, j;
int idStud, nameStud, markStud;
student *classStudent;
classStudent = (student*)malloc(size * sizeof(student));
for (i = 0; i < size; i++) {
classStudent[i].name = (char*)malloc(51 * sizeof(char));
int numOfmarks = 4;
printf("Please enter your name: ");
gets(classStudent[i].name);
_flushall(); //tried _flushall() and it worked yesterday.. tried fflush(NULL) too.
printf("\nPlease enter 4 marks: ");
for (j = 0; j < numOfmarks; j++) {
scanf("%d", &classStudent[i].marks[j]);
}
Avg_Mark(&classStudent[i]);
}
return classStudent;
}
EDIT: (FULL CODE)
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <conio.h>
typedef struct {
char *name;
int marks[4];
float avg;
} student;
student *Create_Class(int);
void Avg_Mark(student*);
void Print_One(student*);
void exStudents(student *s, int size);
int main() {
int size, i;
student *arr;
printf("\nEnter the number of students: \n");
scanf("%d", &size);
arr = Create_Class(size);
exStudents(arr, size);
for (i = 0; i < size; i++)
free(arr[i].name);
free(arr);
getch();
}
student *Create_Class(int size) {
int i, j;
int idStud, nameStud, markStud;
student *classStudent;
classStudent = (student*)malloc(size * sizeof(student));
for (i = 0; i < size; i++) {
classStudent[i].name = (char*)malloc(51 * sizeof(char));
int numOfmarks = 4;
int sizeOfName;
printf("Please enter your name: \n");
_flushall();
fgets(classStudent[i].name,50,stdin);
sizeOfName = strlen(classStudent[i].name);
printf("Please enter 4 marks: ");
for (j = 0; j < numOfmarks; j++) {
scanf("%d", &classStudent[i].marks[j]);
}
Avg_Mark(&classStudent[i]);
}
return classStudent;
}
void Avg_Mark(student *s) {
int i, numOfMarks = 4, sum = 0;
for (i = 0; i < numOfMarks; i++) {
sum += s->marks[i];
}
s->avg = (sum / 4.0);
}
void Print_One(student *s) {
printf("The average of %s is %f", s->name, s->avg);
}
void exStudents(student *s, int size) {
int flag = 1;
while (size > 0) {
if (s->avg > 85) {
Print_One(s);
flag = 0;
}
s++;
size--;
}
if (flag)
printf("\n There're no students with above 85 average.");
}

Answer 1

As you have already been told in comments, the solution is to use a two-step approach: Read lines first, then scan these lines as appropriate. This reflects how users are going to answer your prompts, namely by providing the information and then hitting enter.
Here's a variant of your code which does that. I've also changed the main function, because it also used scanf and I've added a function to strip white space from the string input by fgets. (This function requires the <ctype.h> header.)
#include <ctype.h>
int main()
{
char line[80];
int size, i;
puts("Enter the number of students:");
if (fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin) == NULL) exit(1);
if (sscanf(line, "%d", &size) == 1 && size > 0) {
student *arr = Create_Class(size);
exStudents(arr, size);
for (i = 0; i < size; i++) free(arr[i].name);
free(arr);
}
return 0;
}
/*
* strip white space from beginning and end of string
*/
char *strip(char *str)
{
size_t l = strlen(str);
while (l > 0 && isspace((unsigned char) str[l - 1])) l--;
str[l] = '\0';
while (isspace((unsigned char) *str)) str++;
return str;
}
/*
* Create students and prompt user for input
*/
student *Create_Class(int size)
{
int i;
student *classStudent = malloc(size * sizeof(student));
for (i = 0; i < size; i++) {
char line[80];
char *p;
int okay = 0;
puts("Please enter your name:");
if (fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin) == NULL) exit(1);
p = strip(line);
classStudent[i].name = malloc(strlen(p) + 1);
strcpy(classStudent[i].name, p);
while (!okay) {
int j = 0;
okay = 1;
puts("Please enter 4 marks:");
if (fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin) == NULL) exit(1);
p = line;
while (p && j < 4) {
char *tail;
int m = strtol(p, &tail, 10);
if (p == tail) break;
if (m < 1 || m > 100) {
puts("Illegal mark.");
okay = 0;
}
classStudent[i].marks[j++] = m;
p = tail;
}
if (j < 4) {
printf("Expected 4 marks, but got %d.\n", j);
okay = 0;
}
}
Avg_Mark(&classStudent[i]);
}
return classStudent;
}
Please refrain from flushing buffers wihout reason. When a new-line character is written, stdout is flushed, so make it a rule to terminate all your strings with a new-line. New-lines at the beginning of strings instead of at the end are a sign of untidy output.

Answer 2

SOLUTION:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <conio.h>
typedef struct { //struct decleration
char *name;
int marks[4];
float avg;
} student;
//functions decleration
student *Create_Class(int);
void Avg_Mark(student*);
void Print_One(student*);
void exStudents(student *s, int size);
int main() {
/*variable declerations*/
int i, size;
char line[80];
student *arr;
/*Input number of students*/
printf("\nEnter the number of students: \n");
fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin);
sscanf(line, "%d", &size);
/*Get name of students, marks, and calculate average above 85*/
arr = Create_Class(size);
exStudents(arr, size);
/*Free memory*/
for (i = 0; i < size; i++)
free(arr[i].name);
free(arr);
getch();
}
student *Create_Class(int size) { /*Get names of each student, and their 4 marks.*/
/*Variable declerations*/
int i, j;
char line[51];
student *classStudent;
/*Dynamic allocation to assign structure to every student*/
classStudent = (student*)malloc(size * sizeof(student));
/*Get name of students and their 4 marks*/
for (i = 0; i < size; i++) {
/*Variable decleration and dynamic allocation of 51 chars*/
classStudent[i].name = (char*)malloc(51 * sizeof(char));
int numOfmarks = 4;
int sizeOfName;
/*Input name of student*/
printf("Please enter your name: \n");
scanf("%s", classStudent[i].name);
/*Input marks of student*/
printf("Please enter 4 marks: ");
for (j = 0; j < numOfmarks; j++) {
scanf("%d", &classStudent[i].marks[j]);
}
/*Calculate average, and print averages of students above 85*/
Avg_Mark(&classStudent[i]);
}
return classStudent;
}
/*Calculate averages of students*/
void Avg_Mark(student *s) {
int i, numOfMarks = 4, sum = 0;
for (i = 0; i < numOfMarks; i++) {
sum += s->marks[i];
}
s->avg = (sum / 4.0);
}
/*Print average (if bigger than 85)*/
void Print_One(student *s) {
printf("The average of %s is %0.1f\n", s->name, s->avg);
}
/*Check whether the average is bigger than 85*/
void exStudents(student *s, int size) {
int flag = 1; //flag to check if there are any students with avg above 85
while (size > 0) {
if (s->avg > 85) {
Print_One(s); //Print the average
flag = 0; //We found atleast one student with avg > 85
}
s++; //Advance to next student
size--;
}
if (flag)
printf("\n There're no students with above 85 average.");
}

Answer 3

The problem in your code is that scanf does not consume the new-line returned by the user in:
scanf("%d", &size);
So when the program reaches:
fgets(classStudent[i].name,50,stdin);
the remaining new-line in stdin is received before the user can type anything.
A solution is to replace the initial scanf call by fgets and atoi calls.
char size_str[5];
fgets(size_str,5,stdin);
size = atoi(size_str);
A combination of fgets and sscanf also works also fine in general to first process user inputs and then convert it.
The variant with sscanf is:
char size_str[5];
fgets(size_str,5,stdin);
sscanf(size_str,"%d\n",&size);
Note that it might be safe to stop the program if the value entered is too large. Here we allow from 0 up to 999.
Note also that you have to do the same change some lines below.
instead of:
scanf("%d", &classStudent[i].marks[j]);
write:
char mark_str[5];
fgets(mark_str,5,stdin);
sscanf(mark_str,"%d\n",&classStudent[i].marks[j]);
Hope this helps.