Making an array of tokens and comparing it with another string - c

Question

I have an *input string from a console. That string might look like: show name year xxx.. and I need an output to look like this:
name: Adi
year: 1994 (for example)..
I have been trying to achieve this by using strtok() function, but I also need to compare every tokon with allowed keyywords(name, year...) if that word is not allowed, than the token needs to be skiped(deleted).. for example in this case it would skip show, and xxx.
Another problem is that I need those tokens in a form of an array in order to work with them and with a structs..
There should be no limit to number of words that could be entered in an input..
I hope you understood what I asked.. so, how to make tokens from a string using strtok or something else and make them be arrays or pointers, and how to compare those tokens with another string ( for example constant: #define NAME "name") and of there are some other inputs to skip(delete) them..
I would really appreciate it if you could help me with this.. Thanks..

Answer 1

I would avoid the array. It provides unnecessary overhead. What you're asking for could be accomplished with something like this:
void parseString(char * string) {
char * name = NULL;
char * year = NULL:
char * ptr = strtok(string, " ");
while (ptr != NULL) {
if (stricmp(ptr, "name") == 0) {
ptr = strtok(ptr, " ");
name = ptr;
/* do whatever with name */
} else if (stricmp(ptr, "year") == 0) {
ptr = strtok(ptr, " ");
/* do whatever with year */
year = ptr;
} /* else if ... */
ptr = strtok(ptr, " ");
}
This gives you a fair amount of flexibility. You check all the terms you need, you don't need to worry about how to allocate the array, and you can access values for settings if necessary.

Answer 2

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
char *tolowerstr(char *str){
char *p = str;
while((*p++ = tolower(*p)));
return str;
}
int cmp(const void *a, const void *b){
return strcmp(*(const char **)a, *(const char **)b);
}
bool isBanWord(const char *word){
static const char *table[] =
{ "fuck", "show", "xxx" };//sorted
char **ret, *key;
key = tolowerstr(strdup(word));
ret=bsearch(&key, table, sizeof(table)/sizeof(*table), sizeof(*table), cmp);
free(key);
return !!ret;//ret != NULL ? true : false;
}
//Create and return as a dynamic array of pointer to the copy of the word from a string.
//String passed is destroyed.
char **strToWords(char *str, size_t *size){
const char *delimiters = " .";
size_t count=0;
char **array = malloc(strlen(str)*sizeof(char*));//number of words < string length
if(array){
char *token=strtok(str, delimiters);
for(; token ;token=strtok(NULL, delimiters)){
if(!isBanWord(token))//skip ban word
array[count++] = strdup(token);
}
array[count] = NULL;//End mark
array=realloc(array, (count + 1)*sizeof(*array));//include NULL
}
*size = count;
return array;
}
typedef struct words {
char **words;
size_t n; //number of words
} Words;
void clearWords(Words *w){
size_t i;
for(i=0;i < w->n;++i)
free(w->words[i]);
free(w->words);
w->words = NULL;
w->n = 0;
}
void printWords(Words *w){
size_t i=0;
while(i < w->n){
printf("%s", w->words[i++]);
if(w->words[i])
putchar(' ');
}
putchar('\n');
}
int main(){//DEMO
char sentence[] = "show name year xxx.";//input string. Will be destroyed.
Words w;
w.words = strToWords(sentence, &w.n);
printWords(&w);//name year
clearWords(&w);
return 0;
}