Fixing a letter frequency analyser in C - c

Question

I'm new to programming and I need some help in getting my program to work because I am kind of stuck at the moment. It's suppose to count the frequency of a letter and other characters for an input text file then print out the results but nothing happens when I do insert a file (but it does compile). This is what I have so far. I think its because I don't return the results of the array back into the main function so it can print out, but I am not sure how to do this. Would you need to use malloc (e.g. int *alphabetCount = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int)*ALPHABET_SIZE);) for the array then free it later?
Any help would be appreciated!
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define ALPHABET_SIZE 26
#define FIRST_LC_LETTER 'a'
#define LAST_LC_LETTER 'z'
#define FIRST_UC_LETTER 'A'
#define LAST_UC_LETTER 'Z'
int freqAnalysis (int inputChar);
int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
int inputChar = getchar();
int position = 0;
char alphabet [ALPHABET_SIZE] = {'a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j',
'k','l','m','n','o','p','q','r','s','t','u','v','w','x','y','z'};
int alphabetCount [ALPHABET_SIZE];
freqAnalysis (inputChar);
while (position < ALPHABET_SIZE) {
printf ("Letter %c: %d\n",alphabet[position],alphabetCount[position]);
position++;
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
int freqAnalysis (int inputChar) {
int counter;
int numbers;
int spaces;
int specialChar;
int alphabetCount [ALPHABET_SIZE];
while (counter < ALPHABET_SIZE) {
counter = 0;
alphabetCount [counter] = 0;
counter ++;
}
while (inputChar != EOF) {
if (inputChar >= FIRST_LC_LETTER && inputChar <= LAST_LC_LETTER) {
alphabetCount [inputChar - FIRST_LC_LETTER] ++;
} else if (inputChar>=FIRST_UC_LETTER && inputChar<=LAST_UC_LETTER) {
alphabetCount [inputChar - FIRST_UC_LETTER] ++;
} else if (inputChar >= 0 && inputChar <= 9) {
numbers = 0;
numbers ++;
} else if (inputChar == ' ') {
spaces = 0;
spaces ++;
} else {
specialChar = 0;
specialChar ++;
}
}
printf ("Numbers: %d\nSpaces: %d\n Special characters: %d\n", numbers,
spaces, specialChar);
}

Answer 1

Here is a similar approach to consider. It has been written to remove dependencies from all libc header files except stdio.h. Rather than calling the character classification functions in ctype.h it relies on the ASCII values for each of the characters to set the alphabetCount indexes. Neither approach is better/worse than the other, they just illustrate different ways of approaching the same problem with the various tools available.
#include <stdio.h>
#define ALPHABET_SIZE 26
void freqAnalysis (FILE *fp, int *cnt);
int main (void)
{
int position = 0;
char *alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
int alphabetCount[ALPHABET_SIZE] = {0};
printf ("\nThe frequency analysis of the input characters:\n\n");
freqAnalysis (stdin, alphabetCount);
for (position = 0; position < ALPHABET_SIZE; position++)
printf (" %c/%c : %d\n", alphabet[position] - 32,
alphabet[position], alphabetCount[position]);
return 0;
}
void freqAnalysis (FILE *fp, int *cnt)
{
int c, numbers, spaces, specialChar;
c = numbers = spaces = specialChar = 0;
while ((c = fgetc (fp)) != '\n' && c != EOF)
{
if (c >= 'A' && c <= 'Z')
cnt[c - 'A']++;
else if (c >= 'a' && c <= 'z')
cnt[c - 'a']++;
else if (c >= '0' && c <= '9')
numbers++;
else if ( c == ' ' )
spaces++;
else
specialChar++;
}
printf (" Numbers : %d\n Spaces : %d\n Special : %d\n\n", numbers, spaces, specialChar);
}
Output
$ ./bin/charcount <<<"The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over 1001 Lazy Dogs."
The frequency analysis of the input characters:
Numbers : 4
Spaces : 8
Special : 1
A/a : 1
B/b : 1
C/c : 1
D/d : 1
E/e : 2
F/f : 1
G/g : 1
H/h : 1
I/i : 1
J/j : 1
K/k : 1
L/l : 1
M/m : 1
N/n : 1
O/o : 4
P/p : 1
Q/q : 1
R/r : 2
S/s : 2
T/t : 1
U/u : 2
V/v : 1
W/w : 1
X/x : 1
Y/y : 1
Z/z : 1

Answer 2

policy of modified to be processed by passing a file handle and an secured array in main.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#define ALPHABET_SIZE 26
#define FIRST_LC_LETTER 'a'
#define FIRST_UC_LETTER 'A'
void freqAnalysis(FILE *fin, int counter[]);
int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
int position;
char alphabet[ALPHABET_SIZE] = {'a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j',
'k','l','m','n','o','p','q','r','s','t','u','v','w','x','y','z'};//unused
int alphabetCount[ALPHABET_SIZE] = {0};
freqAnalysis(stdin, alphabetCount);
for (position = 0; position < ALPHABET_SIZE; position++){
printf ("Letter %c: %d\n", alphabet[position], alphabetCount[position]);
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
void freqAnalysis(FILE *fp, int alphabetCount[]) {
int inputChar;
int numbers , spaces, specialChar;
numbers = spaces = specialChar = 0;
while((inputChar=fgetc(fp)) != EOF) {
if(islower(inputChar)){
alphabetCount[inputChar - FIRST_LC_LETTER]++;
} else if(isupper(inputChar)) {
alphabetCount[inputChar - FIRST_UC_LETTER]++;//this relies on order of character codes.
} else if(isdigit(inputChar)) {
numbers++;
} else if(inputChar == ' ') {//isspace(inputChar)
spaces++;
} else {
specialChar ++;
}
}
printf("Numbers: %d\nSpaces: %d\nSpecial characters: %d\n", numbers,
spaces, specialChar);
}