Trouble finding end of string - c

Question

Uni project below.
In the // ### section I have added a check for whether an additional space is needed to make sure the last character lines up at the end.
However, the check is there to find the end of string, but it appears to be stopping at the first space..
Output
Enter the width of the column : 40
Enter a line a text : the black cat
* * * *** Num = 4
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890
the black cat
Am I missing something and am actually ending the string early? Or is my check flawed?
/*
Write a program that reads in the width of the columns in a newspaper and then a line of text.
Justify the line of text to fit into a column of that width.
When your program is running, the screen should look something like this:
Enter the width of the column: 40
Enter a line of text: Good morning how are you?
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890...
Good morning how are you?
The justification is done by counting the number of gaps in the text. In the above example, there are 4 gaps.
Then each gap must have spaces added to it.
The number of extra spaces must be shared out as evenly as possible.
In the above example, the first three gaps have 5 spaces each and the last gap has 4 spaces.
Notes:
1. If the text is longer than the column then you must report an error – don't try and break it into two lines!
2. Assume that the text will have more than one word in it.
3. Note the header line consisting of 123456789012345678.... this is useful to check your result.
You can make this header line as long as you like – 70 spaces would be a useful length.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
int width, length, difference, n, x, b;
int num, i, spaces, words, requiredSpaces;
char sentence[100];
char temp[100];
int main () {
// reads in column width
printf ("Enter the width of the column : ");
scanf ("%d", &width);
getchar(); // used to remove Enter from the gets below
// reads in the string
while (true) {
printf("Enter a line a text : ");
gets(sentence);
length = strlen(sentence);
if (length > width) {
printf ("Error, please enter a line of text shorter than the column width\n");
} else {
break;
}
}
// calculates the difference between width and length
difference = width - length;
// printf ("length is %d\ndifference is %d\n", length, difference);
// count how many words
spaces = 0;
for (i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if (sentence[i] == ' ') {
spaces++;
}
}
words = spaces + 1;
// printf ("spaces %d\nwords %d\n", spaces, words);
// calculates the required spaces between each word
requiredSpaces = difference / spaces;
// printf ("Required spaces %d\n", requiredSpaces);
i = 0;
n = 0;
for (x = 0; x < words; x++) {
while (sentence[i] != ' ') {
if (sentence[i] == '\0') {
break;
} else {
temp[n] = sentence[i];
i++;
n++;
}
}
i++;
n++;
for (b = 0; b < requiredSpaces; b++) {
temp[n] = ' ';
n++;
}
}
n++;
temp[n] = '\0';
printf ("")
// ###################################################################################################################
// if an odd number of elements in the string, this will add one space to the first space gap
if (length % 2 == 1) {
// counts the number of the elements in the array
i = 0;
while (temp[i] != '\0') {
i++;
printf("* ");
}
i++; // this makes sure that the \0 is also moved up one
num = i;
}
printf (" *** Num = %d\n\n", num);
// ###################################################################################################################
i = 0;
printf ("1234567890123456789012345678901234567890\n");
while (i < width) {
printf ("%c", temp[i]);
i++;
}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

With this line
// calculates the difference between width and length
difference = width - length;
you seem to forget that length already includes a number of spaces.
With this line
// calculates the required spaces between each word
requiredSpaces = difference / spaces;
you seem to forget that some rounding may occur. You cant just add the same number of spaces after each word.
You have to calculate exactly how many spaces you need. Something like
spaces_needed = width - length + words - 1; // + words - 1 because that is the
// number of spaces already in the string
Then you need to distribute that number of spaces into words-1 holes. Not necessarily the same number of spaces in each.
For instance with 3 words and length equal 13 you'll need a total of 29 spaces (40 - 13 + 3 - 1). You only have two holes so you must place 15 in one and 14 in the other.
tip
When you have the spaces_needed you do
spaces_to_add_after_each_word_except_the_last = spaces_needed/(words-1);
remaining_spaces_to_distribute = spaces_needed % (words-1);
The variable remaining_spaces_to_distribute tells how many extra spaces you need to add. Put 1 after the first word. Another after the second word and so on until you have added all the extra spaces.