Creating text file in C, using VC++ Express - c

Question

Okay this is kind of an odd question, but I have no idea why this doesn't work...
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#define MAX_NAME 15
#define MAX_SUBSEC 3
#define N 128
struct student{
int term;
int id;
char lastname[MAX_NAME];
char firstname[MAX_NAME];
char subjectnam[MAX_SUBSEC];
int subject;
int catalog;
char section[MAX_SUBSEC];
}students[10];
int main(){
int i;
char poop[10];
char fname[128];
printf("Enter the name of the text file: ");
scanf("%123s",fname);
strcat(fname,".txt");
FILE *inputf;
inputf = fopen(fname,"w");
if (inputf == NULL){
printf("I couldn't open results.dat for writing.\n");
exit(0);
}
printf("Enter first name: "); scanf("%s", poop);
fprintf(inputf, "%s\n", poop);
for (i=0; i<=10; ++i)
fprintf(inputf, "%d, %d\n", i, i*i);
fclose(inputf);
return 0;
}
Now the end of this code is just me practicing creating the file and writing to it and all that good stuff. When I coded this and ran it on my Mac using NetBeans it worked fine, I'm doing this all in C by the way, NOT C++. Now I want to do it here on my desktop and Visual wont have it, doesnt do anything but open the cmd window, take in the first line where it says to enter the file name, I do and press enter and the program closes down and terminates. I have added the source file item and named it with the proper *.c extension, and I have coded *.c in this IDE before but never had to create a file til now, which I can guarantee is the issue. Anyone have any idea why this all happens?
EDIT: I've broken up some code to try and pinpoint the issues and it seems as though these lines are the cause...
FILE *inputf;
inputf = fopen(fname,"w");
When I attempt to build and run I get some typical VC error message and this in my output about these "indiscretions"
"error C2275: 'FILE' : illegal use of this type as an expression"
"error C2065: 'inputf' : undeclared identifier"
"warning C4047: '=' : 'int' differs in levels of indirection from 'FILE *'"
So why is it that these lines work totally fine on NetBeans on my Mac, but not here on Windows? Some sort of portability issue I imagine?

Answer 1

This is happening because CL.exe(Microsoft Compiler) does not allow declaration of variables in code. It requires you define variables at the start of a function or a block.
Sadly, even though it is C99 standard, Even CL.exe for MSVC++ 2010 does not support it!
Change your code to:
int main(){
int i;
char poop[10];
char fname[128];
FILE *inputf;
printf("Enter the name of the text file: ");
scanf("%123s",fname);
strcat(fname,".txt");
inputf = fopen(fname,"w");
if (inputf == NULL){
printf("I couldn't open results.dat for writing.\n");
exit(0);
}
printf("Enter first name: "); scanf("%s", poop);
fprintf(inputf, "%s\n", poop);
for (i=0; i<=10; ++i)
fprintf(inputf, "%d, %d\n", i, i*i);
fclose(inputf);
return 0;
}