Recursive function to convert string to integer in C - c

Question

I have the following working code; it accepts a string input as the function parameter and spits out the same string converted to a decimal.
I'm not going to bother accounting for negative inputs, although I understand that I can set a boolean flag to true when the first indexed character is a "-". If the flag switches to true, take the total output and multiply by -1.
Anyway, I'm pretty stuck on where to go from here; I'd like to adjust my code so that I can account for a decimal place. Multiplying by 10 and adding the next digit (after converting that digit from an ASCII value) yields an integer that is displayed in decimal in the output. This obviously won't work for numbers that are smaller than 1. I understand why (but not really how) to identify where the decimal point is and say that "for anything AFTER this string index containing a decimal point, do this differently"). Also, I know that instead of multiplying by a power of 10 and adding the next number, I have to multiply by a factor of -10, but I'm not sure how this fits into my existing code...
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int num = 0;
int finalValue(char *string1) {
int i = 0;
if (string1[i] != '\0') {
if (string1[i]<'0' || string1[i]>'9') {
printf("Sorry, we can't convert this to an integer\n\n");
}
else {
num *= 10;
num += string1[i] - '0';
//don't bother using a 'for' loop because recursion is already sort-of a for loop
finalValue(&string1[i+1]);
}
}
return num;
}
int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
printf("string to integer conversion yields %i\n",(finalValue("99256")));
return 0;
}
I made some adjustments to the above code and it works, but it's a little ugly when it comes to the decimal part. For some reason, the actual integer output is always higher than the string put in...the math is wrong somewhere. I accounted for that by subtracting a static amount (and manually multiplying by another negative power of 10) from the final return value...I'd like to avoid doing that, so can anybody see where my math / control flow is going wrong?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
//here we are setting up a boolean flag and two variables
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
double num = 0;
double dec = 0.0;
int flag = 0;
double final = 0.0;
double pow(double x, double y);
//we declare our function that will output a DOUBLE
double finalValue(char *string1) {
//we have a variable final that we will return, which is just a combination of the >1 and <1 parts of the float.
//i and j are counters
int i = 0;
int j = 0;
//this will go through the string until it comes across the null value at the very end of the string, which is always present in C.
if (string1[i] != '\0') {
//as long as the current value of i isn't 'null', this code will run. It tests to see if a flag is true. If it isn't true, skip this and keep going. Once the flag is set to TRUE in the else statement below, this code will continue to run so that we can properly convert the decimal characers to floats.
if (flag == TRUE) {
dec += ((string1[i] - '0') * pow(10,-j));
j++;
finalValue(&string1[i+1]);
}
//this will be the first code to execute. It converts the characters to the left of the decimal (greater than 1) to an integer. Then it adds it to the 'num' global variable.
else {
num *= 10;
num += string1[i] - '0';
// This else statement will continue to run until it comes across a decimal point. The code below has been written to detect the decimal point and change the boolean flag to TRUE when it finds it. This is so that we can isolate the right part of the decimal and treat it differently (mathematically speaking). The ASCII value of a '.' is 46.
//Once the flag has been set to true, this else statement will no longer execute. The control flow will return to the top of the function, and the if statement saying "if the flag is TRUE, execute this' will be the only code to run.
if (string1[i+1] == '.'){
flag = TRUE;
}
//while this code block is running (before the flag is set to true) use recursion to keep converting characters into integers
finalValue(&string1[i+1]);
}
}
else {
final = num + dec;
return final;
}
return final;
}
int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
printf("string to integer conversion yields %.2f\n",(finalValue("234.89")));
return 0;
}

Answer 1

I see that you have implemented it correctly using global variables. This works, but here is an idea on how to avoid global variables.
A pretty standard practice is adding parameters to your recursive function:
double finalValue_recursive(char *string, int flag1, int data2)
{
...
}
Then you wrap your recursive function with additional parameters into another function:
double finalValue(char *string)
{
return finalValue_recursive(string, 0, 0);
}
Using this template for code, you can implement it this way (it appears that only one additional parameter is needed):
double finalValue_recursive(char *s, int pow10)
{
if (*s == '\0') // end of line
{
return 0;
}
else if (*s == '-') // leading minus sign; I assume pow10 is 0 here
{
return -finalValue_recursive(s + 1, 0);
}
else if (*s == '.')
{
return finalValue_recursive(s + 1, -1);
}
else if (pow10 == 0) // decoding the integer part
{
int digit = *s - '0';
return finalValue_recursive(s + 1, 0) * 10 + digit;
}
else // decoding the fractional part
{
int digit = *s - '0';
return finalValue_recursive(s + 1, pow10 - 1) + digit * pow(10.0, pow10);
}
}
double finalValue(char *string)
{
return finalValue_recursive(string, 0);
}

Answer 2

Also keep track of the occurrence of the decimal point.
int num = 0;
const char *dp = NULL;
int dp_offset = 0;
int finalValue(const char *string1) {
int i = 0;
if (string1[i] != '\0') {
if (string1[i]<'0' || string1[i]>'9') {
if (dp == NULL && string1[i] == '.') {
dp = string1;
finalValue(&string1[i+1]);
} else {
printf("Sorry, we can't convert this to an integer\n\n");
} else {
} else {
num *= 10;
num += string1[i] - '0';
finalValue(&string1[i+1]);
}
} else if (dp) {
dp_offset = string1 - dp;
}
return num;
}
After calling finalValue() code can use the value of dp_offset to adjust the return value. Since this effort may be the beginning of a of a complete floating-point conversion, the value of dp_offset can be added to the exponent before begin applied to the significand.
Consider simplification
//int i = 0;
//if (string1[i] ...
if (*string1 ...
Note: using recursion here to find to do string to int is a questionable approach especially as it uses global variables to get the job done. A simply function would suffice. Something like untested code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
long long fp_parse(const char *s, int *dp_offset) {
int dp = '.';
const char *dp_ptr = NULL;
long long sum = 0;
for (;;) {
if (*s >= '0' && *s <= '9') {
sum = sum * 10 + *s - '0';
} else if (*s == dp) {
dp_ptr = s;
} else if (*s) {
perror("Unexpected character");
break;
} else {
break;
}
s++;
}
*dp_offset = dp_ptr ? (s - dp_ptr -1) : 0;
return sum;
}

Answer 3

Figured it out:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
//here we are setting up a boolean flag and two variables
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0
double num = 0;
double dec = 0.0;
int flag = 0;
double final = 0.0;
double pow(double x, double y);
int j = 1;
//we declare our function that will output a DOUBLE
double finalValue(char *string1) {
//i is a counter
int i = 0;
//this will go through the string until it comes across the null value at the very end of the string, which is always present in C.
if (string1[i] != '\0') {
double newGuy = string1[i] - 48;
//as long as the current value of i isn't 'null', this code will run. It tests to see if a flag is true. If it isn't true, skip this and keep going. Once the flag is set to TRUE in the else statement below, this code will continue to run so that we can properly convert the decimal characers to floats.
if (flag == TRUE) {
newGuy = newGuy * pow(10,(j)*-1);
dec += newGuy;
j++;
finalValue(&string1[i+1]);
}
//this will be the first code to execute. It converts the characters to the left of the decimal (greater than 1) to an integer. Then it adds it to the 'num' global variable.
else {
num *= 10;
num += string1[i] - '0';
// This else statement will continue to run until it comes across a decimal point. The code below has been written to detect the decimal point and change the boolean flag to TRUE when it finds it. This is so that we can isolate the right part of the decimal and treat it differently (mathematically speaking). The ASCII value of a '.' is 46.
//Once the flag has been set to true, this else statement will no longer execute. The control flow will return to the top of the function, and the if statement saying "if the flag is TRUE, execute this' will be the only code to run.
if (string1[i+1] == 46){
flag = TRUE;
finalValue(&string1[i+2]);
}
//while this code block is running (before the flag is set to true) use recursion to keep converting characters into integers
finalValue(&string1[i+1]);
}
}
else {
final = num + dec;
return final;
}
return final;
}
int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
printf("string to integer conversion yields %.2f\n",(finalValue("234.89")));
return 0;
}