Could anyone please explain to me why my while loop won't end when i enter character 'Q'? It kept on looping even though i set my boolean value to false when the user enter 'Q', it supposed to end after that scanf for char input.
My code:
#include <stdio.h>
typedef int bool;
#define true 1
#define false 0
int main(void) {
char input;
char output;
bool tf = true;
printf("Welcome to the Coder!\n");
while (tf) {
printf("Choose Input (H,A,B,Q) : ");
scanf_s(" %c\n", &input);
if (input == 'Q') {
tf = false;
}
else {
printf("Choose Output (H,A,B) : ");
scanf_s(" %c\n", &output);
}
}
return 0;
}
The problem is the weird case of scanf_s. Accord to MSDN, you read single characters using this syntax:
scanf_s(" %c", &input, 1);
Remove the \n from scanf_s and add the 1 parameter so it knows to read only 1 character.
I am suspecting that you are entering small letter q on your console:
I would suggest you to change your code to:
if (input == 'Q' || input == 'q') {
tf = false;
}
You should add if
(input == 'Q' || input == 'q')
Also why did you add typedef int bool;? This was unneeded.
I replace scanf_s to scanf because my compiler doesn't recognize it(accidentally solving problem.
because it is better. When I compile this there was no errors.
Compiled - > Compiled Code
Related
I'm having a problem with multiple characters while using a while loop. I'm writing a code that would direct the user to a new function based on the input of either "y" or "n". When I scanf for one character it works fine; however, when the user types in multiple characters the while loop repeats.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char x;
printf("type in letter n or y\n");
scanf("%c", &x);
while (x!= 'Y' && x!='N' && x!= 'n' && x!='y')
{
printf("Invalid, please type Y/N to continue: \n");
scanf(" %c", &x);
}
if (x== 'Y' || x == 'y')
{
printf("y works");
}
if (x =='N' || x =='n')
{
printf("n works");
}
}
For example, if I type in hoyp, it would say "Invalid, ..." 2 times and then the "y works" would be written on the third line. How can the code be changed so that the invalid would only be said once, and the user must input again to allow the program to continue?
This is how scanf behaves. It keeps reading in all the characters you've entered. You can accept a string as input first using fgets and extract and check only its first character. fgets allows you to specify the exact number of characters to be read. I have first declared a char array of size 4096. This will work when the input is up to 4095 characters. You can adjust the size as per your needs.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char x, buffer[4096];
printf("type in letter n or y\n");
fgets(buffer, 4096, stdin);
x = buffer[0];
while (x!= 'Y' && x!='N' && x!= 'n' && x!='y')
{
printf("Invalid, please type Y/N to continue: \n");
fgets(buffer, 4096, stdin);
x = buffer[0];
}
if (x== 'Y' || x == 'y')
{
printf("y works");
}
if (x =='N' || x =='n')
{
printf("n works");
}
}
Here is my approach to the problem:
I have used fgets() instead of scanf(). See why
here.
I have used the suggestion by users jamesdlin and M.M in this question to solve the repeated printing issue when the input is more than one character or if the input is empty. I encourage you to read the whole thread to know more about this issue.
(Optional) Used some extra headers for better code readability in the loop conditions. I think the fgets() could be used in the condition of the while() but I got used to the pattern I have written below.
Edit: added a condition to reject inputs with length > 1. Previously, inputs that starts with 'y' or 'n' will be accepted (and are interpreted as 'y' or 'n' respectively) regardless of their length.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <ctype.h>
void clearInput();
int main()
{
// allocate space for 'Y' or 'N' + '\n' + the terminator '\0'
// only single inputs will be accepted
char _inputbuff[3];
char choice;
bool isValidInput = false;
while(!isValidInput) {
printf("Please enter your input[y/n]: ");
// use fgets() instead of scanf
// this only stores the first 2 characters of the input
fgets(_inputbuff, sizeof(_inputbuff), stdin);
// don't accept empty input to prevent hanging input
if(_inputbuff[0] == '\n') {
printf("Empty input\n");
// go back to the top of the loop
continue;
}
// input is non-empty
// if the allocated space for the newline does not
// contain '\n', reject the input
if(_inputbuff[1] != '\n') {
printf("Input is more than one char.\n");
clearInput();
continue;
}
choice = _inputbuff[0];
// printf("The input is %c\n", choice);
// convert the input to uppercase for a 'cleaner' code
// during input validation
choice = toupper(choice);
// the input is not 'Y' or 'N'
if(choice != 'Y' && choice != 'N') {
printf("Please choose from Y or N only.\n");
// go back to the top of the loop
continue;
}
// the input is 'Y' or 'N', terminate the loop
isValidInput = true;
}
// conditions for 'Y' or 'N'
if(choice == 'Y') {
printf("The input is Yes.\n");
return 0;
}
if(choice == 'N') {
printf("The input is No.\n");
return 0;
}
}
void clearInput() {
int _clear;
// clear input stream to prevent repeated printing of invalid inputs
while ((_clear = getchar()) != '\n' && _clear != EOF ) { }
}
(This is my first time answering a question and it has been a while since I have used C so feel free to give suggestions/corrections regarding my answer. Thanks!)
All of my code works great until I press the key to exit my program, which happens when I press'-'. I then get that error and I am not sure how to resolve it. Here is my code:
#define _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
int main() {
char rejected[2] = { 0 };
char input = 0;
char exitProgram = 0;
printf("Please enter three letters you want filtered\n");
for (int x = 0; x <= 2; x++) {
scanf("%s", &rejected[x]);
}
printf("Please enter a letter and I will tell you if it is filtered or not\n");
for (int y = 0; y <= 99; y++) {
scanf("%s", &input);
if (input == rejected[0] || input == rejected[1] || input == rejected[2]) {
printf("Filtered letter!\n");
}
else {
printf("Okay letter!\n");
}
if (y %5 == 0) {
printf("If you would like to exit this program, please enter '-'. If not, please enter '+'\n");
scanf("%s", &exitProgram);
if (exitProgram == '+') {
printf("Okay, continue having fun with my program!\n");
}
else if (exitProgram == '-') {
printf("Thank you for playing with my program!\n");
break;
}
}
}
return 0;
}
You're using scanf in three places with the %s format specifier, which is used to read a string, and in each of those places it is the incorrect one. Using the wrong format specifier invokes undefined behavior which can cause a crash.
First:
scanf("%s", &rejected[x]);
Here you're really want to read a single character, so you need the %c format specifier. This one accepts any character, including spaces and newlines, so you'll want to precede it with a space to consume any leftover newlines from the prior read:
scanf(" %c", &rejected[x]);
Second:
scanf("%s", &input);
input is an char, so you again want %c here:
scanf(" %c", &input);
Third:
scanf("%s", &exitProgram);
You're reading a character here, so use %c with a leading space as before:
scanf(" %c", &exitProgram);
You also have a problem here:
char rejected[2] = { 0 };
...
for (int x = 0; x <= 2; x++) {
scanf("%s", &rejected[x]);
}
The array rejected only contains 2 elements but you try to read in 3. This also invokes undefined behavior by writing past the end of the array. Change the size of the array to 3.
char rejected[3] = { 0 };
I'm creating a conversion project for letters/numbers ASCII table. My code is supposed to be 'interactive', so the user would type 'y' or 'n' to answer questions on the screen. However, it doesn't want to do this twice...
I have tried:
Just trying numbers instead of characters, but it's not exactly what I want
The %[\n]*c, and %[\n]c, and %[\n]*s ... technique but it doesn't help ;-;
Testing in a different project, but the only way I am able to do it is for multiple scanf()s to be in a row.
Here is the code:
printf("Would you like to convert a number today? \n");
printf("Please press Y or N \n");
scanf("%c", &input);
if (input == 'y' || input == 'Y') { //compare input if they said 'yes'
printf("\nThank you! \nWhat number?\n");
scanf("%d", &number);
flag = test(number);
if (flag == 0) { //if there is an equivalent letter
letter = conversion(number); //find the equivalent letter
printf("\nYour Number \t ASCII letter\n");
printf("%d\t %c\n", number, letter);
}
}
else if (input == 'n' || input == 'N') {
printf("\nWould you like to convert a letter instead? This time enter 0 or 1\!\n\n"); //problem here!!
printf("I wish I could say it was to \' Spice things up \' ...but it\'s not ;-; \n\n");
scanf("%d", &input2);
if (input2 == 0) { //this needs to be checking whether the user input Y/y
printf("Great choice adventurer!\n");
printf("What letter will it be today?\n\n");
//..I would go to a different funtion here ie: test2(letter)...
scanf("%d", &number); //I showed that it worked with multiple numbers, but I can't get this to work with multiple letters
printf("%d", number);
}
if (input2 == 1) { //this needs to be checking whether the user input N/n
printf("Difficult to please, I see...\n\n");
printf("I suggest you move on with that attitude!\n\n");
printf("Bye bye then\n");
}
}
else { //if they tried to break the code
printf("Sorry I did not recognise your command...please retry\n");
printf("Press Y or N next time!\n");
}
The first check works perfectly, I just want the second check to be like the first!
Some 'solutions' caused a overflow, which I don't want if possible
Even if someone could explain why this isn't working the way I intended would be very helpful!
I'm not sure what confuses you.
Use
char foo;
scanf(" %c", &foo);
for single characters, eg. letters and
int bar;
scanf("%d", &bar);
for numbers, integers. If you type a letter instead, scanf() will fail.
%[...] is for strings.
scanf() returns the number of successful conversions (or EOF), so for
int height;
int width;
scanf("%d %d", &height, &width);
it returns 2 if successful. It might return 1 if only height could be read.
So to check for errors on user input you should do:
int height;
int width;
if (scanf("%d %d", &height, &width) != 2) {
// handle the error, maybe exit the program.
}
Your code could look like that (without error handling):
#define _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS // you said Visual Studio? Without it you should get
// warnings about some functions being insecure.
#include <ctype.h> // isalpha() returns true if the value is a letter
#include <stdlib.h> // EXIT_SUCCESS
#include <stdio.h> // puts(), printf(), scanf()
int main(void)
{
for(;;) { // for-ever ... endless loop since the user exits by answering
// 'n' or 'N' two times
puts("Would you like to convert a number today?\nPlease press Y or N:");
char input;
if (scanf(" %c", &input) != 1) // We reached EOF ... end of file
break; // that's improbable for stdin,
// but input could be redirected to
// read from a file instead.
if (input == 'y' || input == 'Y') {
puts("\nThank you!\nWhat number?");
int number;
scanf("%d", &number);
if (isalpha((char unsigned)number)) // *)
printf("\nYour Number \t ASCII letter\n%d\t %c\n\n", number, number);
else
puts("Sorry, but that's not the ASCII code of a letter :(\n");
}
else if (input == 'n' || input == 'N') {
puts("\nWould you like to convert a letter instead?\nPlease press Y or N:");
scanf(" %c", &input);
if (input == 'y' || input == 'Y') {
puts("\nGreat choice adventurer!\nWhat letter will it be today?");
char letter;
scanf(" %c", &letter);
if (isalpha(letter))
printf("\nYour letter \t ASCII code\n%d\t %c\n\n", letter, letter);
else
puts("Sorry, but that's not a letter :(\n");
}
else if (input == 'n' || input == 'N') {
puts("\nDifficult to please, I see...\n\nI suggest you move on with that attitude!\n");
puts("Bye bye then.");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
}
else {
puts("Sorry I did not recognize your command... Please retry.");
puts("Press Y or N next time!\n");
}
}
}
*) isalpha() (and the other functions in <ctype.h>) expects a value that fits in a unsigned char or the value EOF. It has undefined behaviour for other values. Since we read user input into an int we cannot be sure that's the case so we have to cast the value to unsigned char before passing it to isalpha() (and friends).
Next time you ask a question please include your full code, including variable declarations, functions like test() and conversion() and #includes. But please, post an example that focuses on your problem at hand. All that dialog you included would not have been necessary.
So my code does the following:
Ask what's the option
If option is 1: Scan some numbers
If option is 2: Print those numbers
After each option, ask if user wanted to continue choosing (Y/N)
This is my main code
while(yesnocheck==1)
{
printf("What's your option?: ");
scanf("%d",&b);
switch(b){
case 1:
printf("How many numbers?: ");
scanf(" %d",&n);
a=(struct sv*)malloc(n*sizeof(struct sv));
for(int i=0;i<n;i++)
scanf("%d",&((a+i)->num));
break;
case 2:
for(int i=0;i<n;i++)
printf("%d\n",(a+i)->num);
break;
}
yesnocheck==yesnochecker();
}
And this is the yesnochecker function:
int yesnochecker()
{
char yesorno;
printf("Do you want to continue? (Y/N)");
while(scanf("%s",&yesorno))
{
if(yesorno=='Y')
return 1;
if(yesorno='N')
return 0;
printf("*Wrong input. Please reenter (Y/N): ");
}
}
So on dev C++, my code won't run correctly. After it's done option 1, when I enter "Y" then choose option 2, case 2 will display some weird numbers. However it works well on online C compilers.
And then, when I change the char yesorno in yesnochecker() function to char yesorno[2] and treat it as a string, the code does work.
Can someone shed some light?
It is a bad idea to read a char c with scanf("%s", &c);. "%s" requires a buffer to store a string. The only string which fits into a char is an empty string (consisting only of a terminator '\0' – not very useful). Every string with 1 character requires 2 chars of storage – 1 for the character, 1 for the terminator ('\0'). Providing a char for storage is Undefined Behavior.
So, the first hint was to use the proper formatter instead – "%c".
This is better as it removes the Undefined Behavior. However, it doesn't solve another problem as the following sample shows:
#include <stdio.h>
int cont()
{
char c; do {
printf("Continue (y/n): ");
scanf("%c", &c);
printf("Input %c\n", c);
} while (c != 'y' && c != 'n');
return c == 'y';
}
int main()
{
int i = 0;
do {
printf("Loop iteration %d.\n", ++i);
} while (cont());
/* done */
return 0;
}
Output:
Loop iteration 1.
Continue (y/n): y↵
Input 'y'
Loop iteration 2.
Continue (y/n):
Input '
'
Continue (y/n): n↵
Input 'n'
Live Demo on ideone
WTH?
The scanf("%c") consumes one character from input. The other character (inserted for the ENTER key) stays in input buffer until next call of any input function.
Too bad, without ENTER it is hard to confirm input on console.
A possible solution is to read characters until the ENTER key is received (or input fails for any reasons). (And, btw., getc() or fgetc() can be used as well to read a single character.):
#include <stdio.h>
int cont()
{
int c;
do {
int d;
printf("Continue (y/n): ");
if ((c = fgetc(stdin)) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "Input failed!\n"); return 0;
}
printf("Input '%c'\n", c);
for (d = c; d != '\n';) {
if ((d = fgetc(stdin)) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "Input failed!\n"); return 0;
}
}
} while (c != 'y' && c != 'n');
return c == 'y';
}
int main()
{
int i = 0;
do {
printf("Loop iteration %d.\n", ++i);
} while (cont());
/* done */
return 0;
}
Output:
Loop iteration 1.
Continue (y/n): y↵
Input 'y'
Loop iteration 2.
Continue (y/n): Hello↵
Input 'H'
Continue (y/n): n↵
Input 'n'
Live Demo on ideone
Please, note, that I changed the type for the read character to int. This is because getc()/fgetc() return an int which is capable to store any of the 256 possible char values as well as -1 which is returned in case of failing.
However, it isn't any problem to compare an int with a character constant (e.g. 'y'). In C, the type of character constants is just int (SO: Type of character constant).
This code is for game of craps.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <time.h>
int roll_dice(void);
bool play_game(void);
int main()
{
int i, ch,win = 0,lose = 0;
bool flag;
srand((unsigned)time(NULL));
do
{
flag = play_game();
if(flag)
{
printf("You win!");
win++;
}
else
{
printf("You lose!");
lose++;
}
printf("\n\nPlay again(Y/N)? ");
scanf("%c", &ch);
ch = getchar();
printf("\n");
}while(ch == 'Y' || ch == 'y');
printf("\nWins: %d Losses: %d",win,lose);
return 0;
}
int roll_dice(void)
{
return rand()%6 + rand()%6 + 2;
}
bool play_game(void)
{
int sum = roll_dice();
printf("You rolled: %d\n", sum);
if(sum == 7 || sum == 11)
return 1;
else if(sum == 2 || sum == 3 || sum == 12)
return 0;
else
{
int point = sum;
printf("Your point is: %d\n", point);
do
{
sum = roll_dice();
printf("You rolled: %d\n", sum);
if(sum == 7)
return 0;
}while(point != sum);
return 1;
}
}
I have problem only with code snippet
printf("\n\nPlay again(Y/N)? ");
scanf("%c", &ch);
ch = getchar();
printf("\n");
I have used, because it terminates after one iteration whatever user input Y or N. I thought I am doing wrong by placing ch = getchar() to eat up \n, I removed it and placed a space before conversion specifier and replaced it by " %c" which also did't work.When I replaced the conversion specifier by %d it works fine.
Is anything going wrong with this?
I visited this post and it is saying same thing I did.
The posted code has undefined behaviour because ch is of type int and the format specifier %c must match a char.
When I replaced the conversion specifier %d it works fine.
When you switch to %d the scanf() fails, because Y or y is not an int, so no input is consumed (apart from leading whitespace which discards the new line character on subsequent iterations of the loop) and the subsequent ch = getchar() actually reads the user entered character, and the code works by fluke. Always check the return value of scanf(), which returns the number of assignments made.
You convert the character with scanf(), and then overwrite it with getchar() immediately afterwards. I wouldn't expect it to work, unless you type "yy" before typing ENTER, but then your second confirmation would fail.
BTW, use the space in " %c".
scanf("%c", &ch);
ch = getchar();
And that's how you lost the previous char stored in ch. How about
ch = fgetc(stdin);
while (fgetc(stdin) != '\n')
;
instead?
printf("Play again? ");
scanf(" %c", &char);
this code works for me. The project is from K.N.King's "C programming : A modern approach" book. I met with this problem before and had the same problem. On page 224 there is a guess.c example project which includes exactly the same command "ask" ("play again"). And author used scanf(" %c", &command); (he used command instead of ch) and it did work. I remember I used it during the "game of craps" project but it did not work. Probably I missed something.
Overall, the expression above 100% does work.