Why wont my input from scanf print correctly? - c

My program scans from input and prints all the capital letters used.
Im trying to print the original input from stdin at the end of my program too.
But when i use printf, it seems to skip the first part of the input expression, printing the remaining stuff in my character array. Please help me see where the problem lies. -comments in code-
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
char input[81];
int letters[91];
int i;
//initialize arrays input and letters
for (i = 0; i < 90; i++) letters[i] = 2;
for (i = 0 ; i < 80; i++) input[i] = 'a';
i = 0;
//reads into input array until EOF
while((scanf("%c",input)!= EOF)){
//checks input for characters A-Z
if((input[i]>= 'A' && input[i]<= 'Z'))
letters[input[i]] = 1;
}
//prints capital letters from input that occur at least once
for(i = 'A'; i < 'Z'; i++){
if (letters[i]==1)
printf("%c", i);} // this output works fine, the scan worked??
//print blank line
printf("\n\n");
// print input
printf("%s\n", input); //This is where the incorrect output comes from.
return 0;}
does my original input change? why?
did my input not get scanned correctly in the first place?
please respond quickly!

Here:
while((scanf("%c",input)!= EOF)){
you're only ever reading characters into input[0]. This is fine for what you're doing for letters, but obviously when you try to print out input, it's not going to work as you expect.
When you fix it, you'll also need to remember to add a terminating \0 after the last input character.

The scanf loop reads your input one character at a time, and stores that one character in input[0]. When the scanf loop is completely finished, input[0] contains the last character read, and the rest of input is untouched.
To repair, you need to include i++ at the end of the scanf loop.
By the way, it would be clearer (and more efficient) to fill the input buffer with a single call to fgets then loop through the input buffer with: for (i=0; buf[i]!='\0'; i++) { ... }

You must do
while((scanf("%c",&input[i])!= EOF))
{i++;}
instead of this
while((scanf("%c",&input)!= EOF))
{}
What you are doing is scan the character into the address of the first element int the array everytime, hence it gets overwritten again and again. Remaining part of the input[] array is not being accessed, and hence does not change

Related

Why is the first value of my char array 10?

I'm new to programming but I wanted to make a program that gets as input a number, (length) and then stores a series of a's and b's of said length. Finally it should output the numbers as the ascii numbers. (so 97 and 98)
I thought I should malloc a char array of the size length and then do a for-loop over it and print everything as an integer.
The problem is however that I get a value 10 as the value of the first letter.
Thanks a lot for any help!
int main()
{
int length;
scanf("%d", &length);
char *matrix = malloc((length + 1 ) * sizeof(char));
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
scanf("%c", &matrix[i]);
}
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
printf("\n%d", matrix[i]);
}
return 0;
}
When inputting 3 on the first line and aba on the next line, I get 10 97 98.
However I expected it to be 97 98 97. Why do I get a value of 10 in the first place of the array?
Use
scanf(" %c", &matrix[i]);
^^^^
instead of
scanf("%c", &matrix[i]);
^^
When the format starts with a blank all white spaces are skipped.
From the C Standard (7.21.6.2 The fscanf function)
5 A directive composed of white-space character(s) is executed by
reading input up to the first non-white-space character (which remains
unread), or until no more characters can be read.
10 is the ASCII code of the (white space) new line character '\n' that was present in the input buffer after you entered the length of the array.
The first scanf() with the format string %d leaves a newline in the input buffer.
What happens here, is that your terminal collects input one full line at a time, passing it to the program, and then the scanf() only reads the digits from the buffer, leaving the newline character there for the next scanf() to see. The same would happen if you entered 10 abc: the space, abc and the newline would be left there.
This mismatch is not something people usually expect, and it's one of the things that makes scanf() annoying. I would suggest using fgets() instead to first read a full line, matching what the terminal gives, and then parse the number from it with sscanf() or strtol() (or atoi()).
This cleans up the issue at the point where the first line is read, instead of passing it on to the next input function to handle. Otherwise all your input functions are tied together, if the next input would be for a whole line with possible white space, you'd need to know if you expect to clear a pre-existing newline or not. (You could also replace the later scanf("%c") with getchar(), not that that matters with buffering though.)
That said, the scanf("%c")/getchar() loop may still see newlines if you enter lines that don't have as many characters as the loop expects, so if you don't want to see them at all, filter them out.
So, something like this:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
int length;
char linebuf[100];
fgets(linebuf, 100, stdin);
length = strtol(linebuf, NULL, 10);
char *matrix = malloc(length + 1);
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
matrix[i] = getchar();
}
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
printf("\n%d", matrix[i]);
}
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
(The obvious downside of fgets() is that you have to decide on a maximum length for the input line, allocate a buffer and call another function in addition to it.)

C multidimensional array pointing problem?

Trying to take strings as input and place it in 2d array. Why is this given code showing different behavior. The last for loop "arr[i][j]" is not printing the string.It is not even printing a character also.
Why this code does not work.only this code.Not a new way to write it
This code takes input just fine(or at least the way needed.each row a single string no white space)And when a short string is stored remaining are filled with null after carriage return. When the arr[] is passed in last for loop everything seems fine only when arr[][] is passed ,the problem arises.But again arr[][] is initialized as arr[1][0] then arr[2][0] so should not it work!
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
int main(void){
int i,j,m;
scanf("%d",&m);
char arr[m][50];
for(i=0;i<m;i++){
for(j=0;j<50;j++){
printf("please enter a string");
scanf("%s",&arr[i][j]);
/*j is always 0. arr[i] takes string without space and store ending with null*/
break;
}
}
//Everything fine upto this,including storing a small continuous string in arr[i](where i<50) and null terminating*/
for(i=0;i<m;i++){
for(j=0;j<50;j++){
printf("%s\n",arr[i][j]);
break;
}
}
}
You program has several issues, like using wrong format specifier:
scanf("%s",&arr[i][j]);
arr[i][j] is a character and you are using %s format specifier. If you want your program should take string as input, you just need to do:
scanf("%s",arr[i]);
Since, you have given the size 50 characters, put a restriction in scanf() to not to read more than 49 characters (the remain one character space is for null terminating character) like this:
scanf("%49s",arr[i]);
^^
Beware with this, it does not discard the remaining input from input stream when the input characters are more than 49 and the remaining characters will be consumed by consecutive scanf() call.
If you want to drop the extra input which wasn't consumed by scanf(), one way of doing it is to read and discard the extra input using a loop, like this:
int c;
while((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF)
/* discard the character */;
In case if you have any doubt on how this will discard the extra input, I would suggest first go through getchar().
Putting all these together, you can do:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
int i,m;
scanf("%d",&m);
char arr[m][50];
for(i=0;i<m;i++){
printf("please enter a string");
scanf("%49s",arr[i]);
int c;
while((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF) // <=== This loop read the extra input characters and discard them
/* discard the character */;
}
for(i=0;i<m;i++){
printf("%s\n",arr[i]);
}
return 0;
}
EDIT
The below edit is because OP updated question and added - Why this code does not work.only this code.Not a new way to write it
Above in my answer, I have already stated that you are using wrong format specifier in the scanf(). In this part of your code:
for(i=0;i<m;i++){
for(j=0;j<50;j++){ // <====== Nested for loop
printf("please enter a string");
scanf("%s",&arr[i][j]);
// since the nested loop is supposed to run 50 times, assuming you are trying to read character by character and using %s format specifier
break;
// the nested loop will break in the first iteration itself unconditionally, do you really need nested loop here!
}
}
Check the inline comments. Hope this might give an idea of the mistakes you are doing.
Seems that you want to read string character by character using scanf(). If this is the case than make sure to take care of null terminating character because, in C, strings are actually one-dimensional array of characters terminated by a null character '\0'.
You can do:
#include <stdio.h>
void discard_extra_input() {
int c;
while((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF)
/* discard the character */;
}
int main(void){
int i,j,m;
printf ("Enter number of strings: ");
scanf("%d",&m);
discard_extra_input();
char arr[m][50];
for(i=0;i<m;i++){
printf("please enter string number %d: ", i+1);
for(j=0;j<49;j++){
scanf("%c",&arr[i][j]);
if (arr[i][j] == '\n') {
//need to add null terminating character manually
arr[i][j] = '\0';
break;
}
}
if (j==49) {
// In case where the input from user is more than 50 characters,
// need to add null terminating character manually.
arr[i][j] = '\0';
// discard the extra input when input from user is more than 50 characters.
discard_extra_input();
}
}
for(i=0;i<m;i++){
for(j=0;j<50 && arr[i][j]!='\0';j++){
printf("%c",arr[i][j]);
}
printf ("\n");
}
return 0;
}
The code is self explanatory except one thing - call to discard_extra_input() function after first input from user scanf("%d",&m);. Reason -
Look at the statement:
scanf("%c",&arr[i][j]);
the %c format specifier will consume the leftover newline character '\n' from the input stream due to the ENTER key pressed after first input by the user (number of strings input from user). Hence, in order to discard it, calling discard_extra_input() function. In the other place it has been used to discard the characters when user entered string of size more than 49.
Hope this helps.
I know the code. But looking for specific ans. Where the problem lies with the code
The problem is here:
scanf("%s",&arr[i][j]);
and here:
printf("%s", arr[i][j]);
This is the specific answer you are looking for.
%s won't do any bound checking. It adds the characters starting from the memory location arr + i * m + j to arr + i * m + j + (length of input) + 1 (one extra char for the additional null character that scanf appends). Take a sample input. Assume an arbitrary starting address for arr and do the maths.
Also consider any writes beyond the allocated space for arr leads to undefined behavior.
Similarly printf("%s", arr[i][j]); will try to start reading from the address arr[i][j] till it finds a null character. It would usually lead to crash of the code because if your string has ascii characters, the address would be too low to point to any valid user-mapped memory.
If your code is working, its mostly because you already have a UB in your scanf.
Get a pen and paper and do some dry runs
This is a pretty simple problem buddy. You've got the idea right actually, that you need to use 2d array to store strings. Just that the usage is slightly wrong.
First of all let me tell you how 2d arrays need to be used to store in c. In your 2-D array, you've got rows and columns. Say, row represented by i and columns by j, i.e, each row arr[i] contains j elements. So in your context, each row arr[i] contains each string of upto 50 chars. So scanf should be just for arr[i]. And you need to loop with for, m times to accept m strings.
Same applies to printing as well.
Here is the working code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
int main(void){
int i,j,m;
printf("\nenter m value:");
scanf("%d",&m);
char arr[m][50];
for(i=0;i<m;i++){
printf("\nplease enter a string no %d: ", (i+1));
scanf("%s",arr[i]);
}
printf("\nthe strings are: \n");
for(i=0;i<m;i++){
printf("\n%s\n",arr[i]);
}
}
And the output in case you want to cross check:
OUTPUT:
enter m value: 3
please enter a string no 1: qwerty
please enter a string no 2: asdfgh
please enter a string no 3: zxcvbn
the strings are:
qwerty
asdfgh
zxcvbn

Allocating Memory to String at runtime

I am writing a program to count the occurrence of '2' followed by '1' in a sting.
I dynamically allocated string
Code is:
#include <stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
int penalty_shoot(char* s){
int count=0,i=0;
while(s[i]!='\0'){
if(s[i]=='2')
if(s[i+1]=='1')
count++;
i++;
}
return count;
}
int main() {
int t;
int i=0;
scanf("%d",&t); //t is for number of test cases.
while(t--){
char *str, c;
str = (char*)malloc(1*sizeof(char));
while(c = getc(stdin),c!='\n')
{
str[i] = c;
i++;
str=realloc(str,i*sizeof(char));
}
str[i] ='\0';
printf("%s\n",str);
printf("%d\n",penalty_shoot(str));
free(str);
str=NULL;
i=0;
}
return 0;
}
Input is :
3
101201212110
10101
2120
I am facing 2 problems:
1) I feel the dynamic allocation is not working fine.I wrote the code for dynamic allocation seeing various codes on stackoverflow . (Can anyone suggest some changes.)
2) The code isn't reading '2120' as the 3rd input.
(why is it so ?)
Three errors:
Not checking for EOF:
Change while(c = getc(stdin),c!='\n') to while(c=getc(stdin),c!='\n'&&c!=EOF)
Reallocating with the wrong number of bytes:
Change str=realloc(str,i*sizeof(char)); to str=realloc(str,(i+1)*sizeof(char));
After taking one character input we increment i (i++), so the next character will be stored at the ith position. Now, in order to store the character at ith position, the length of the character array must be i+1. So, we realloc with i+1.
Just for the sake of brevity, as suggested by Basile, you
might as well do this:
Change str=realloc(str,(i+1)*sizeof(char)); to str=realloc(str,i+1);
Why? Because sizeof char is 1 byte
Not consuming the \n after inputting t:
Change scanf("%d",&t); to scanf("%d ",&t); or scanf("%d\n",&t);
scanf("%d ",&t); or scanf("%d\n",&t);.
Either of them works. Why, you ask? Read this explanation taken from another SO answer here:
An \n - or any whitespace character - in the format string consumes
an entire (possibly empty) sequence of whitespace characters in the
input. So the scanf only returns when it encounters the next
non-whitespace character, or the end of the input stream.
Tested here.
you can use scanf("%d ", &t); when user input to test
then just before second while loop, which condition should be c != '\n' write c = getchar();
and then make sure you create a char variable, i called mine clear, that receives 0 so when you loop after initiating your string you write c = clear; and under it c = getchar() again. and when you use realloc make sure you make it bigger by (i+1) since char is only the size of 1 byte.
we create the clear variable in order to clear the buffer.
it worked for me. make sure you insert the string all at once.

Putchar and Getchar in C

I'm reading K&R's The C Programming Language and have become confused on putchar and getchar. I made a program where you enter 10 chars and the program prints them back out to the screen.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int i;
int ch;
for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("Enter a single character >> ");
ch = getchar();
putchar(ch);
}
return 0;
}
I expected to get an output like this:
Enter a single character >> a
a
Enter a single character >> b
b
...and so on 10 times but this is the output I got: (I stopped after entering 2 chars)
Enter a single character >> a
aEnter a single character >>
Enter a single character >> b
bEnter a single character >>
Enter a single character >>
not sure why my input character is being combined with the fixed string and being output.
Also, I'm not too sure why ints are used to store characters.
putchar(ch);
just prints single character and the following printf continues within the same line. Simply add:
putchar('\n');
right after putchar(ch);, which will explicitly start the new line before the printf is executed. Additionally you should also take '\n' from the input which stays there after you enter the character:
for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("Enter a single character >> ");
ch = getchar();
getchar(); // <-- "eat" new-line character
putchar(ch);
putchar('\n'); // <-- start new line
}
You are not printing a new line. After putchar(ch); you should use putchar('\n'); to print a new line.
User terminal can operate in canonical and non-canonical modes. By default it operates in canonical mode and this means that standard input is available to a program line-by-line (not symbol-by-symbol). In question user inputs something (let it be letter 'a', 0x61 in hex) and pushes enter (new line character '0x0A' in hex). Ascii table is here. So this action gives a two symbols to a program. As mentioned in man getchar() reads it symbol-by-symbol. So loop iterates twice for one character. To see what is going on use the following program (+loop counter output, +character code output):
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main()
{
int i;
char ch;
for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("Enter a single character %d >>", i);
ch = getchar();
printf("Ch=0x%08X\n", ch);
/*putchar(ch);*/
}
return 0;
}
Output:
┌─(02:01:16)─(michael#lorry)─(~/tmp/getchar)
└─► gcc -o main main.c; ./main
Enter a single character 0 >>a
Ch=0x00000061
Enter a single character 1 >>Ch=0x0000000A
Enter a single character 2 >>b
Ch=0x00000062
Enter a single character 3 >>Ch=0x0000000A
Enter a single character 4 >>^C
So program gets two symbols and prints them. And new line symbol is not visible. So in the question user see one strange additional line.
Detailed description on different terminal modes and how to make its adjustments can be found here.
Also stty utility can be useful while working with terminal options ("icanon" tells if terminal use canonical mode or not).
And about storing chars as int in getchar() output - see my answer for similar topic.
The term on which our focus should be on, is "Stream".
A "Stream" is a like a bridge, responsible for flow of data in a sequential way. (The harmony of smooth streaming, both in and out of a program, is managed by libraries/header files, e.g. stdio.h)
Coming back to your question :
When you type input as 'a' and hit 'enter', you supply 2 values to input stream.
- a (ASCII Value : 97)
- enter (ASCII Value : 13)
/*This 'enter' as an input is the devil. To keep it simple, i will keep calling it
as Enter below, and the enter is usually not displayed on screen*/
NOTE/IMPORTANT/CAUTION before proceeding: Till the time your stream doesn't get completely empty, you can't write new characters from the console into the stream. (This scenario only implies for the use of getchar and putchar, as shown below)
HERE IS YOUR CODE:
for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("Enter a single character >> ");
ch = getchar();
putchar(ch);
}
Loop Pass 1 :
a) You ask user to enter a character. // printf statement
b) getchar reads only a single character from stream.
c) putchar renders/displays only a single character from stream.
d) At first pass you provide input as 'a' but you also hit 'Enter'
e) Now, your stream is like a ***QUEUE***, at first pass, and at 1st place of
the queue, you have 'a' and at 2nd place 'enter'.
f) Once you do putchar, the first character , i.e. 'a' from the stream/queue
gets displayed.
e) Loop ends.
g) Output of this pass:
Enter a single character >>a
Loop Pass 2 :
a) You ask user to enter a character. // printf() statement
b) Unfortunately your stream isn't empty. It has an "enter" value from the
previous pass.
c) So, getchar(), reads the next single character, i.e. 'enter' from stream.
(This is where you were expecting to manually enter the next character,
but the system did it for you. Read the NOTE/IMPORTANT/CAUTION section
mentioned above)
d) putchar() displays 'enter' on screen, but since 'enter' is no displayable
thing, nothing gets displayed.
e) Output of this pass:
Enter a single character >>
Loop Pass 3 :
Similar as loop 1, only input this time is 'b'.
Loop Pass 4:
Similar as loop 2
and so on till 10 passes. (So, last character you will be able to enter is 'e'.)
INFERENCE/CONCLUSION:
So, long story short, you were expecting to enter the next character,
so that getchar would pick your entered value, but since from your
previous pass,'enter' value was already waiting in the stream,
it got displayed first, giving you such an illusion.
Thank you.
Let me know if your thoughts are different.
Loop on the even number of time, getchar() is not taking input from keyboard, but it is taken from the previous entered hit, so you would have also noticed that loop is only executed 5 times. So you have to clear the buffer, i.e. pressed entered, so that new character can be entered in the ch.
for (i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
printf("\nEnter a single character >> "); // new line
ch = getchar();
while (getchar() != '\n'); //Clearung buffer.
putchar(ch);
}
Not sure if ideal, but this worked:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int i;
int ch;
for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("Enter a single character >> ");
getchar();
ch=getchar();
putchar(ch);
}
return 0;
}
I am a beginner . I tried this version of code and it gave the desired output.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int i;
int ch;
for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("Enter a single character >> ");
fflush(stdin);
ch = getchar();
putchar(ch);
printf("\n");
}
return 0;
}
Although getchar() gets a single character, control isn’t returned to your program until the user presses Enter. The getchar() function actually instructs C to accept input into a buffer, which is a memory area reserved for input. The buffer isn’t released until the user presses Enter, and then the buffer’s contents are released a character at a time. This means two things. One, the user can press the Backspace key to correct bad character input, as long as he or she hasn’t pressed Enter. Two, the Enter keypress is left on the input buffer if you don’t get rid of it.to Get rid of the Enter keypress insert an extra getchar() that captures the Enter but doesn’t do anything with it.so you just need an extra getchar() after ch = getchar();like this
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main()
{ int i;
int ch;
for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("Enter a single character >> ");
ch = getchar();
getchar();
putchar(ch);
}
return 0;
}
I managed to get the desired result. I added a newline character and getchar() which picks up the extra character.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int i;
char ch;
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("Enter a single character >> ");
ch = getchar();
putchar(ch);
putchar('\n');
getchar();
}
return 0;
}

Why are the Elements of array not printing right?

I'm just starting out with C. I wrote some very basic code for practice, its supposed to read keyboard input into an array, output the length of longest line and then print it.
Theres a function to read the input, I want it to print out each character as it is assigned to the array each time, but it does not work. It prints some strange looking characters.
I did look for "array print garbage" . but didn't find an answer.
int getline(char line[])
/*
This function 1) Reads a line of input until a '\n',
2) Returns the length of the line and
3) Saves the line in the array "line[]"
*/
{
int c,i;
i=0; // The character count
printf("Enter characters:\n");
while((c=getchar())!='\n') // Reads input until it hits a '\n'
{
line[i]=c;
i++;
printf("char %d = %c \n ",i,line[i]);//
Why doesn't this "printf" work right? It prints a strange character at the second placeholder
}
printf("you typed %d characters.\n",i); //Outputs the number of characters typed
return i;
}
You're printing line[i] after you've incremented i. So you're always printing the element after the one you've just set, which is usually garbage.
Put the line
i++;
at the end of your while loop.

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