print multiple lines by getchar and putchar - c

Question

Im a beginner learning The C Programming language and using Microsoft visual C++ to write and test code.
Below program in C from text(section 1.5.1) copy its input to its output through putchar() and getchar():
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{ int c;
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
putchar(c);
return 0;}
The program print characters entered by keyboard every time pressing ENTER.As a result,I can only enter one line before printing. I can't find a way to enter multi-line text by keyboard before printing.
Is there any way and how to let this program input and output multi-line text from keyboard?
Sorry if this is a basic and ignorant question.
Appreciate your attention and thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Some clever use of pointer arithmetic to do what you want:
#include <stdio.h> /* this is for printf and fgets */
#include <string.h> /* this is for strcpy and strlen */
#define SIZE 255 /* using something like SIZE is nicer than just magic numbers */
int main()
{
char input_buffer[SIZE]; /* this will take user input */
char output_buffer[SIZE * 4]; /* as we will be storing multiple lines let's make this big enough */
int offset = 0; /* we will be storing the input at different offsets in the output buffer */
/* NULL is for error checking, if user enters only a new line, input is terminated */
while(fgets(input_buffer, SIZE, stdin) != NULL && input_buffer[0] != '\n')
{
strcpy(output_buffer + offset, input_buffer); /* copy input at offset into output */
offset += strlen(input_buffer); /* advance the offset by the length of the string */
}
printf("%s", output_buffer); /* print our input */
return 0;
}
And this is how I use it:
$ ./a.out
adas
asdasdsa
adsa
adas
asdasdsa
adsa
Everything is parroted back :)
I've used fgets, strcpy and strlen. Do look those up as they are very useful functions (and fgets is the recommended way to take user input).

Answer 2

Here as soon as you type '+' and press enter all the data you entered till then is printed. You can increase the size of array more then 100
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{ int c='\0';
char ch[100];
int i=0;
while (c != EOF){
c = getchar();
ch[i]=c;
i++;
if(c=='+'){
for(int j=0;j<i;j++){
printf("%c",ch[j]);
}
}
}
return 0;
}
You can put a condition on '+' char or whatever character you would like to represent print action so that this character is not stored in the array ( I have not put any such condition on '+' right now)

Answer 3

Use setbuffer() to make stdout fully buffered (up to the size of the buffer).
#include <stdio.h>
#define BUFSIZE 8192
#define LINES 3
char buf[BUFSIZE];
int main(void)
{ int c;
int lines = 0;
setbuffer(stdout, buf, sizeof(buf));
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF) {
lines += (c == '\n');
putchar(c);
if (lines == LINES) {
fflush(stdout);
lines = 0;
}}
return 0;}

Answer 4

Could you use the GetKeyState function to check if the SHIFT key is held down as you press enter? That was you could enter multiple lines by using SHIFT/ENTER and send the whole thing using the plain ENTER key. Something like:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{ int c;
while (true){
c = getChar();
if (c == EOF && GetKeyState(VK_LSHIFT) {
putchar("\n");
continue;
else if(c == EOF) break;
else {
putchar(c);
}
}