How do I get rid of this new line? - c

Question

I created a program that asks the user to input their name, and then manipulates it in multiple ways. The final way that it manipulates it is by printing the users name backwards. For instance if the user entered John Doe, the program would print Doe John. The only problem I'm having at this point is stopping my program from putting an unnecessary new line between the last and first name.
Example:
I want Doe John on one line but I get
Doe
John
For my assignment I need to get rid of this extra line. How do I do this?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
void removeNewLine (char * userName, int charLenght)
{
int i=0;
do {
if (userName [i]=='\n')
{
userName [i]='\0';
}
i++;
} while (i<charLenght);
}
// This is going to tell me exactly how many real character are in my array
int myCounter (char * userName, int size)
{
int counter=0;
do
{
if(userName [counter]=='\0')
{
return counter; //I always thought that you needed to put your return at the end of the function, this is good to know that you don't need too
}
counter++;
}while (counter<size);
return -1;
}
int main ()
{
printf("Enter your first and last name\n");
char name [250]={'\0'};
char * space;
char *first=NULL, *last = NULL, *firstspace;
char *userName;
int numOfChars=0;
//Prevents the potential problem of an overflow = (sizeof(name)-1)
fgets(name,(sizeof(name)-1),stdin);
//This is what is actually doing the dirty work of removing the extra chars
removeNewLine(userName, numOfChars);
//This is going to count the number of characters that were input by the user
numOfChars = strlen(name)-1;
printf("You Entered: %s \n", name);
printf("There are %zu characters in your name including the space. \n", strlen(name));
char end;
int i;
end = strlen(name) -1;
printf("Your name backwards is");
for (i = end; i >= 0; --i)
{
printf("%c", name [i]);
}
printf("\nLooking for the space in your name \n", name);
firstspace=space=strchr(name, ' ');
*firstspace='\0';
while (space!=NULL)
{
printf("The space was found at character %d\n", space-name+1);
last = space+1;
space=strchr(space+1, ' ');
}
printf("%s%s", last, name);
*firstspace=' ';
//This is just to tell the user how many "real" characters were in there name
printf("\n There are %d actual characters in your name including the space", numOfChars);
}

Answer 1

Do little modification and Interchange these below two lines
removeNewLine(userName, numOfChars);
//This is going to count the number of characters that were input by the user
numOfChars = strlen(name)-1;
Like this
numOfChars = strlen(name); // first find the length of input.
removeNewLine(name, numOfChars); // And now remove newline at the end of input
EDIT
Your CODE
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
void removeNewLine (char * userName, int charLenght)
{
int i=0;
do {
if (userName [i]=='\n')
{
userName [i]='\0';
}
i++;
} while (i<charLenght);
}
int main ()
{
printf("Enter your first and last name\n");
char name [250]={'\0'};
char * space;
char *first=NULL, *last = NULL, *firstspace;
int numOfChars=0;
//Prevents the potential problem of an overflow = (sizeof(name)-1)
fgets(name,(sizeof(name)-1),stdin);
//This is what is actually doing the dirty work of removing the extra chars
numOfChars = strlen(name); // first find the length of input.
removeNewLine(name, numOfChars); // And now remove newline at the end of input
printf("You Entered: %s \n", name);
printf("There are %zu characters in your name including the space. \n", strlen(name));
char end;
int i;
end = strlen(name) -1;
printf("Your name backwards is");
for (i = end; i >= 0; --i)
{
printf("%c", name [i]);
}
printf("\nLooking for the space in your name \n", name);
firstspace=space=strchr(name, ' ');
*firstspace='\0';
while (space!=NULL)
{
printf("The space was found at character %ld\n", space-name+1);
last = space+1;
space=strchr(space+1, ' ');
}
printf("%s %s", last, name);
*firstspace=' ';
//This is just to tell the user how many "real" characters were in there name
printf("\n There are %d actual characters in your name including the space", numOfChars);
}
Output
Enter your first and last name
John Doe
You Entered: John Doe
There are 8 characters in your name including the space.
Your name backwards iseoD nhoJ
Looking for the space in your name
The space was found at character 5
Doe John
There are 9 actual characters in your name including the space

Answer 2

The best way is to use fgets() with a couple of helper functions:
/*Removes remaining characters from keyboard input buffer until next newline*/
/*Returns 0 if OK, a negative value if EOF.*/
int fpurge(FILE *f)
{
int c;
while((c=fgetc(f))!=EOF && c!='\n')
{ }
return (c==EOF ? -1 : 0);
}
/*Find and remove newline from string*/
/* Returns a nonzero value if found, zero if not. */
int truncate_newline(char *str)
{
int bRet=0;
if(str!=NULL)
{
char *pNewline = strchr(str, '\n');
if(pNewLine!=NULL)
{
bRet = 1;
*pNewLine = '\0';
}
}
return bRet;
}
/*Remove newline from string or excess characters from input buffer,
where appropriate.*/
/* Returns 0 if buffer is full, a positive value if line is complete,
a negative value if EOF (implies buffer full). */
int fclean(char *str, FILE *f)
{
int ret = 1;
if(!truncate_newline(str))
ret = fpurge(f);
return ret;
}
It's used this way:
char buf[42];
fgets(buf, sizeof buf, stdin);
fclean(buf);
Now you have a NULL-terminated, newlineless buf, and nothing in the input buffer to corrupt your next fgets call.

Answer 3

Like to offer an "after accepted" solution.
void *removeNewLineAfter_fgets(char *s) {
if (s) {
size_t l = strlen(s);
if ((l > 0) && (s[l-1] == '\n')) {
s[l-1] = '\0';
}
}
return s;
}
// Usage:
if (removeNewLineAfter_fgets(fgets(name,sizeof(name),stdin)) == NULL) { handle EOF }
BTW: OP does not need -1 in fgets(name,(sizeof(name)-1),stdin).