Echo All Palindromes, in C - c

I love the ideas presented in Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike's book, "The UNIX Programming Environment," where they focus on the point of working within an environment where you can put together many (small, precise, well understood) programs on the command line to accomplish many programming tasks.
I'm brushing up on strict ANSI C conventions and trying to stick to this philosophy. Somewhere in this book (I can get an exact page number if needed) they suggest that all programs in this environment should adhere to the following principles:
If input is presented on the command line, as an argument to the program itself, process that input.
If no input is presented on the command line, process input from stdin.
Here's a C program I wrote that will echo any input (numeric or alphabetic) that is a palindrome. My question specifically:
Is this a well behaved C program? In other words, is this what Kernighan and Pike were suggesting is the optimal behavior for a command line application like this?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h> /* for strlen */
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
char r_string[100];
if (argc > 1) {
int length = (int)strlen(argv[1]);
int i = 0;
int j = length;
r_string[j] = (char)NULL;
j--;
for (i = 0; i < length; i++, j--) {
r_string[j] = argv[1][i];
}
if (strcmp(argv[1], r_string) == 0) {
printf("%s\n", argv[1]);
}
} else {
char* i_string;
while (scanf("%s", i_string) != EOF) {
int length = (int)strlen(i_string);
int i = 0;
int j = length;
r_string[j] = (char)NULL;
j--;
for (i = 0; i < length; i++, j--) {
r_string[j] = i_string[i];
}
if (strcmp(i_string, r_string) == 0) {
printf("%s\n", i_string);
}
}
}
return 0;
}

Yes, I think that you are following the R&K advice. As Hugo said, you could take the argumentas a filename, bu,t IMHO, for this simple program, I'd say that taking the parameter as the palindrome itself may make more sense.
Also, if you allow me extra advice, I would separate the functionality of reading a string from checking whether it is a palindrome or not, because you have that code duplicated right now.
int ispalindrome(const char* c) {
size_t len = strlen(c);
size_t limit = len/2;
size_t i;
for (i = 0; i < limit; i++) {
if(c[i]!=c[len-i-1]) break; /* Different character found */
}
return i==limit; /* If we reached limit, it's a palyndrome */
}
Of course, I am pretty sure this can be improved (it may even have a bug, I am typping quite fast), but once that you have your string, be either from command line or user input, you can call this function or a functiom like this.
NOTE: Edited to reflect comment from Mark, thanks a lot, Mark!

One problem that you have is a potential buffer overflow because you are writing an input of arbitrary length into a buffer with a fixed size. You can fix this by rejecting too long inputs or creating an array of the correct size dynamically. I would avoid using scanf.
Regarding the actual algorithm, you don't need to copy the string reversed and then compare the two strings. You could do the check using only a single copy of the string and a pointer at both ends, both moving in towards the middle.
Here is some code to show the principle:
char* a = /* pointer to first character in string */;
char* b = /* pointer to last character in string (excluding the null terminator) */;
while (a < b && *a == *b)
{
a++;
b--;
}
if (a >= b)
{
// Is palindrome.
}
I agree with Javier that you factor the palindrome checking code out into a separate function.

Regarding the principles you specified, I believe that these tools usually take their arguments as filenames whose content is to be processed. Instead, you are treating them like the input itself.
Take sort, for example. If you don't specify any arguments, the contents from stdin will be sorted. Otherwise, the contents in the file whose filename you specified will be sorted. It is not the arguments themselves that are processed.
The code for this would be something along these lines:
FILE * input = stdin;
if (argc > 1)
{
input = fopen(argv[1], "r");
// handle possible errors from the fopen
}
while (fscanf(input, "%s", i_string) != EOF)
// check if i_string is a palindrome and output to stdout
Also, you should be careful with the buffer overflow specified by Mark Byers.
You're not handling the string reading correctly. The i_string buffer is not initialized, and even if it were, you're should limit the number of bytes that scanf reads to avoid the mentioned overflow:
char i_string[1000];
while (scanf("999%s", i_string) != EOF)
if (is_palindrome(i_string)) /* Use any function defined in the other answers */
printf("%s\n", i_string);
You must always reserve one more byte (1000 vs 999) to account for the NULL string terminator. If you want to allow arbitrary length strings, I think you'll have to dinamically allocate the buffer, and resize it in case bigger strings are present. This would be slightly more complicated.

It is useful for text filters such as a program that prints only lines with palindromes to specify input files via command line arguments e.g., it allows:
$ palindromes input*.txt # file patterns
$ find -name '*.txt' -print0 | xargs -0 palindromes
It is common convention that is supported by many languages. Below are scripts in Perl, Python, C that has the same usage:
Usage: palindromes [FILE]
Print lines that are polindromes in each FILE.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
in Perl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
while (<>) { # read stdin or file(s) specified at command line
$line = $_;
s/^\s+//; # remove leading space
s/\s+$//; # remove trailing space
print $line if $_ eq reverse $_; # print line with a palindrome
}
in Python
#!/usr/bin/env python
import fileinput, sys
for line in fileinput.input(): # read stdin or file(s) specified at command line
s = line.strip() # strip whitespace characters
if s == s[::-1]: # is palindrome
sys.stdout.write(line)
in C
#!/usr/local/bin/tcc -run -Wall
#include <ctype.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
enum {
MATCH,
NO_MATCH,
ERROR
};
bool is_palindrome(char *first, char *last) {
/** Whether a line defined by range [first, last) is a palindrome.
`last` points either to '\0' or after the last byte if there is no '\0'.
Leading and trailing spaces are ignored.
All characters including '\0' are allowed
*/
--last; // '\0'
for ( ; first < last && isspace(*first); ++first); // skip leading space
for ( ; first < last && isspace(*last); --last); // skip trailing space
for ( ; first < last; ++first, --last)
if (*first != *last)
return false;
return true;
}
int palindromes(FILE *fp) {
/** Print lines that are palindromes from the file.
Return 0 if any line was selected, 1 otherwise;
if any error occurs return 2
*/
int ret = NO_MATCH;
char *line = NULL;
size_t line_size = 0; // line size including terminating '\0' if any
ssize_t len = -1; // number of characters read, including '\n' if any,
// . but not including the terminating '\0'
while ((len = getline(&line, &line_size, fp)) != -1) {
if (is_palindrome(line, line + len)) {
if (printf("%s", line) < 0) {
ret = ERROR;
break;
}
else
ret = MATCH;
}
}
if (line)
free(line);
else
ret = ERROR;
if (!feof(fp))
ret = ERROR;
return ret;
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
int exit_code = NO_MATCH;
if (argc == 1) // no input file; read stdin
exit_code = palindromes(stdin);
else {
// process each input file
FILE *fp = NULL;
int ret = 0;
int i;
for (i = 1; i < argc; i++) {
if (strcmp(argv[i], "-") == 0)
ret = palindromes(stdin);
else if ((fp = fopen(argv[i], "r")) != NULL) {
ret = palindromes(fp);
fclose(fp);
} else {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s: could not open: %s\n",
argv[0], argv[i], strerror(errno));
exit_code = ERROR;
}
if (ret == ERROR) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s: error: %s\n",
argv[0], argv[i], strerror(errno));
exit_code = ERROR;
} else if (ret == MATCH && exit_code != ERROR)
// return MATCH if at least one line is a MATCH, propogate error
exit_code = MATCH;
}
}
return exit_code;
}
Exit status is 0 if any line was selected, 1 otherwise;
if any error occurs, the exit status is 2. It uses GNU getline() that allows arbitrary large lines as an input.

Related

Strtok strange behaviour

I'm having some troubles using strtok function.
As an exercise I have to deal with a text file by ruling out white spaces, transforming initials into capital letters and printing no more than 20 characters in a line.
Here is a fragment of my code:
fgets(sentence, SIZE, f1_ptr);
char *tok_ptr = strtok(sentence, " \n"); //tokenazing each line read
tok_ptr[0] = toupper(tok_ptr[0]); //initials to capital letters
int num = 0, i;
while (!feof(f1_ptr)) {
while (tok_ptr != NULL) {
for (i = num; i < strlen(tok_ptr) + num; i++) {
if (i % 20 == 0 && i != 0) //maximum of 20 char per line
fputc('\n', stdout);
fputc(tok_ptr[i - num], stdout);
}
num = i;
tok_ptr = strtok(NULL, " \n");
if (tok_ptr != NULL)
tok_ptr[0] = toupper(tok_ptr[0]);
}
fgets(sentence, SIZE + 1, f1_ptr);
tok_ptr = strtok(sentence, " \n");
if (tok_ptr != NULL)
tok_ptr[0] = toupper(tok_ptr[0]);
}
The text is just a bunch of lines I just show as a reference:
Watch your thoughts ; they become words .
Watch your words ; they become actions .
Watch your actions ; they become habits .
Watch your habits ; they become character .
Watch your character ; it becomes your destiny .
Here is what I obtain in the end:
WatchYourThoughts;Th
eyBecomeWords.WatchY
ourWords;THeyBecomeA
ctions.WatchYourActi
ons;TheyBecomeHabits
.WatchYourHabits;The
yBecomeCharacteR.Wat
chYourCharacter;ItBe
comesYourDEstiny.Lao
-Tze
The final result is mostly correct, but sometimes (for example "they" in they become (and only in that case) or "destiny") words are not correctly tokenized. So for example "they" is split into "t" and "hey" resulting in THey (DEstiny in the other instance) after the manipulations I made.
Is it some bug or am I missing something? Probably my code is not that efficient and some condition may end up being critical...
Thank you for the help, it's not that big of a deal, I just don't understand why such a behaviour is occurring.
You have a large number of errors in your code and you are over-complicating the problem. The most pressing error is Why is while ( !feof (file) ) always wrong? Why? Trace the execution-path within your loop. You attempt to read with fgets(), and then you use sentence without knowing whether EOF was reached calling tok_ptr = strtok(sentence, " \n"); before you ever get around to checking feof(f1_ptr)
What happens when you actually reach EOF? That IS "Why while ( !feof (file) ) is always wrong?" Instead, you always want to control your read-loop with the return of the read function you are using, e.g. while (fgets(sentence, SIZE, f1_ptr) != NULL)
What is it you actually need your code to do?
The larger question is why are you over-complicating the problem with strtok, and arrays (and fgets() for that matter)? Think about what you need to do:
read each character in the file,
if it is whitespace, ignore it, set the in-word flag false,
if a non-whitespace, if 1st char in word, capitalize it, output the char, set the in-word flag true and increment the number of chars output to the current line, and finally
if it is the 20th character output, output a newline and reset the counter zero.
The bare-minimum tools you need from your C-toolbox are fgetc(), isspace() and toupper() from ctype.h, a counter for the number of characters output, and a flag to know if the character is the first non-whitespace character after a whitespace.
Implementing the logic
That makes the problem very simple. Read a character, is it whitespace?, set your in-word flag false, otherwise if your in-word flag is false, capitalize it, output the character, set your in-word flag true, increment your word count. Last thing you need to do is check if your character-count has reached the limit, if so output a '\n' and reset your character-count zero. Repeat until you run out of characters.
You can turn that into a code with something similar to the following:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#define CPL 20 /* chars per-line, if you need a constant, #define one (or more) */
int main (int argc, char **argv) {
int c, in = 0, n = 0; /* char, in-word flag, no. of chars output in line */
/* use filename provided as 1st argument (stdin by default) */
FILE *fp = argc > 1 ? fopen (argv[1], "r") : stdin;
if (!fp) { /* validate file open for reading */
perror ("file open failed");
return 1;
}
while ((c = fgetc(fp)) != EOF) { /* read / validate each char in file */
if (isspace(c)) /* char is whitespace? */
in = 0; /* set in-word flag false */
else { /* otherwise, not whitespace */
putchar (in ? c : toupper(c)); /* output char, capitalize 1st in word */
in = 1; /* set in-word flag true */
n++; /* increment character count */
}
if (n == CPL) { /* CPL limit reached? */
putchar ('\n'); /* output newline */
n = 0; /* reset cpl counter */
}
}
putchar ('\n'); /* tidy up with newline */
if (fp != stdin) /* close file if not stdin */
fclose (fp);
}
Example Use/Output
Given your input file stored on my computer in dat/text220.txt, you can produce the output you are looking for with:
$ ./bin/text220 dat/text220.txt
WatchYourThoughts;Th
eyBecomeWords.WatchY
ourWords;TheyBecomeA
ctions.WatchYourActi
ons;TheyBecomeHabits
.WatchYourHabits;The
yBecomeCharacter.Wat
chYourCharacter;ItBe
comesYourDestiny.
(the executable for the code was compiled to bin/text220, I usually keep separate dat, obj, and bin directories for data, object files and executables to keep by source code directory clean)
note: by reading from stdin by default if no filename is provided as the first argument to the program, you can use your program to read input directly, e.g.
$ echo "my dog has fleas - bummer!" | ./bin/text220
MyDogHasFleas-Bummer
!
No fancy string functions required, just a loop, a character, a flag and a counter -- the rest is just arithmetic. It's always worth trying to boils your programming problems down to basic steps and then look around your C-toolbox and find the right tool for each basic step.
Using strtok
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with using strtok and it makes a fairly simple solution in this case -- the point I was making is that for simple character-oriented string-processing, it's often just a simple to loop over the characters in the line. You don't gain any efficiencies using fgets() with an array and strtok(), the read from the file is already placed into a buffer of BUFSIZ1.
If you did want to use strtok(), you should control you read-loop your with the return from fgets()and then you can tokenize with strtok() also checking its return at each point. A read-loop with fgets() and a tokenization loop with strtok(). Then you handle first-character capitalization and then limiting your output to 20-chars per-line.
You could do something like the following:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#define CPL 20 /* chars per-line, if you need a constant, #define one (or more) */
#define MAXC 1024
#define DELIM " \t\r\n"
void putcharCPL (int c, int *n)
{
if (*n == CPL) { /* if n == limit */
putchar ('\n'); /* output '\n' */
*n = 0; /* reset value at mem address 0 */
}
putchar (c); /* output character */
(*n)++; /* increment value at mem address */
}
int main (int argc, char **argv) {
char line[MAXC]; /* buffer to hold each line */
int n = 0; /* no. of chars ouput in line */
/* use filename provided as 1st argument (stdin by default) */
FILE *fp = argc > 1 ? fopen (argv[1], "r") : stdin;
if (!fp) { /* validate file open for reading */
perror ("file open failed");
return 1;
}
while (fgets (line, MAXC, fp)) /* read each line and tokenize line */
for (char *tok = strtok (line, DELIM); tok; tok = strtok (NULL, DELIM)) {
putcharCPL (toupper(*tok), &n); /* convert 1st char to upper */
for (int i = 1; tok[i]; i++) /* output rest unchanged */
putcharCPL (tok[i], &n);
}
putchar ('\n'); /* tidy up with newline */
if (fp != stdin) /* close file if not stdin */
fclose (fp);
}
(same output)
The putcharCPL() function is just a helper that checks if 20 characters have been output and if so outputs a '\n' and resets the counter. It then outputs the current character and increments the counter by one. A pointer to the counter is passed so it can be updated within the function making the updated value available back in main().
Look things over and let me know if you have further questions.
footnotes:
1. Depending on your version of gcc, the constant in the source setting the read-buffer size may be _IO_BUFSIZ. _IO_BUFSIZ was changed to BUFSIZ here: glibc commit 9964a14579e5eef9 For Linux BUFSIZE is defined as 8192 (512 on Windows).
This is actually a much more interesting OP from a professional point of view than some of the comments may suggest, despite the 'newcomer' aspect of the question, which may sometimes raise fairly deep, underestimated issues.
The fun thing is that on my platform (W10, MSYS2, gcc v.10.2), your code runs fine with correct results:
WatchYourThoughts;Th
eyBecomeWords.WatchY
ourWords;TheyBecomeA
ctions.WatchYourActi
ons;TheyBecomeHabits
.WatchYourHabits;The
yBecomeCharacter.Wat
chYourCharacter;ItBe
comesYourDestiny.
So first, congratulations, newcomer: your coding is not that bad.
This points to how different compilers may or may not protect against limited inappropriate coding or specification misuse, may or may not protect stacks or heaps.
This said, the comment by #Andrew Henle pointing to an illuminating answer about feof is quite relevant.
If you follow it and retrieve your feof test, just moving it down after read checks, not before (as below). Your code should yield better results (note: I will just alter your code minimally, deliberately ignoring lesser issues):
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#define SIZE 100 // add some leeway to avoid off-by-one issues
int main()
{
FILE* f1_ptr = fopen("C:\\Users\\Public\\Dev\\test_strtok", "r");
if (! f1_ptr)
{
perror("Open issue");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
char sentence[SIZE] = {0};
if (NULL == fgets(sentence, SIZE, f1_ptr))
{
perror("fgets issue"); // implementation-dependent
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
errno = 0;
char *tok_ptr = strtok(sentence, " \n"); //tokenizing each line read
if (tok_ptr == NULL || errno)
{
perror("first strtok parse issue");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
tok_ptr[0] = toupper(tok_ptr[0]); //initials to capital letters
int num = 0;
size_t i = 0;
while (1) {
while (1) {
for (i = num; i < strlen(tok_ptr) + num; i++) {
if (i % 20 == 0 && i != 0) //maximum of 20 char per line
fputc('\n', stdout);
fputc(tok_ptr[i - num], stdout);
}
num = i;
tok_ptr = strtok(NULL, " \n");
if (tok_ptr == NULL) break;
tok_ptr[0] = toupper(tok_ptr[0]);
}
if (NULL == fgets(sentence, SIZE, f1_ptr)) // let's get away whith annoying +1,
// we have enough headroom
{
if (feof(f1_ptr))
{
fprintf(stderr, "\n%s\n", "Found EOF");
break;
}
else
{
perror("Unexpected fgets issue in loop"); // implementation-dependent
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
}
errno = 0;
tok_ptr = strtok(sentence, " \n");
if (tok_ptr == NULL)
{
if (errno)
{
perror("strtok issue in loop");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
break;
}
tok_ptr[0] = toupper(tok_ptr[0]);
}
return 0;
}
$ ./test
WatchYourThoughts;Th
eyBecomeWords.WatchY
ourWords;TheyBecomeA
ctions.WatchYourActi
ons;TheyBecomeHabits
.WatchYourHabits;The
yBecomeCharacter.Wat
chYourCharacter;ItBe
comesYourDestiny.
Found EOF

How to fscanf word by word in a file?

I have a file with a series of words separated by a white space. For example file.txt contains this: "this is the file". How can I use fscanf to take word by word and put each word in an array of strings?
Then I did this but I don't know if it's correct:
char *words[100];
int i=0;
while(!feof(file)){
fscanf(file, "%s", words[i]);
i++;
fscanf(file, " ");
}
When reading repeated input, you control the input loop with the input function itself (fscanf in your case). While you can also loop continually (e.g. for (;;) { ... }) and check independently whether the return is EOF, whether a matching failure occurred, or whether the return matches the number of conversion specifiers (success), in your case simply checking that the return matches the single "%s" conversion specifier is fine (e.g. that the return is 1).
Storing each word in an array, you have several options. The most simple is using a 2D array of char with automatic storage. Since the longest non-medical word in the Unabridged Dictionary is 29-characters (requiring a total of 30-characters with the nul-terminating character), a 2D array with a fixed number of rows and fixed number of columns of at least 30 is fine. (dynamically allocating allows you to read and allocate memory for as many words as may be required -- but that is left for later.)
So to set up storage for 128 words, you could do something similar to the following:
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAXW 32 /* if you need a constant, #define one (or more) */
#define MAXA 128
int main (int argc, char **argv) {
char array[MAXA][MAXW] = {{""}}; /* array to store up to 128 words */
size_t n = 0; /* word index */
Now simply open your filename provided as the first argument to the program (or read from stdin by default if no argument is given), and then validate that your file is open for reading, e.g.
/* use filename provided as 1st argument (stdin by default) */
FILE *fp = argc > 1 ? fopen (argv[1], "r") : stdin;
if (!fp) { /* validate file open for reading */
perror ("file open failed");
return 1;
}
Now to the crux of your read-loop. Simply loop checking the return of fscanf to determine success/failure of the read, adding words to your array and incrementing your index on each successful read. You must also include in your loop-control a check of your index against your array bounds to ensure you do not attempt to write more words to your array than it can hold, e.g.
while (n < MAXA && fscanf (fp, "%s", array[n]) == 1)
n++;
That's it, now just close the file and use your words stored in your array as needed. For example just printing the stored words you could do:
if (fp != stdin) fclose (fp); /* close file if not stdin */
for (size_t i = 0; i < n; i++)
printf ("array[%3zu] : %s\n", i, array[i]);
return 0;
}
Now just compile it, With Warnings Enabled (e.g. -Wall -Wextra -pedantic for gcc/clang, or /W3 on (VS, cl.exe) and then test on your file. The full code is:
#include <stdio.h>
#define MAXW 32 /* if you need a constant, #define one (or more) */
#define MAXA 128
int main (int argc, char **argv) {
char array[MAXA][MAXW] = {{""}}; /* array to store up to 128 words */
size_t n = 0; /* word index */
/* use filename provided as 1st argument (stdin by default) */
FILE *fp = argc > 1 ? fopen (argv[1], "r") : stdin;
if (!fp) { /* validate file open for reading */
perror ("file open failed");
return 1;
}
while (n < MAXA && fscanf (fp, "%s", array[n]) == 1)
n++;
if (fp != stdin) fclose (fp); /* close file if not stdin */
for (size_t i = 0; i < n; i++)
printf ("array[%3zu] : %s\n", i, array[i]);
return 0;
}
Example Input File
$ cat dat/thefile.txt
this is the file
Example Use/Output
$ ./bin/fscanfsimple dat/thefile.txt
array[ 0] : this
array[ 1] : is
array[ 2] : the
array[ 3] : file
Look things over and let me know if you have further questions.
strtok() might be a function that can help you here.
If you know that the words will be separated by whitespace, then calling strtok will return the char pointer to the start of the next word.
Sample code from https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/3p-strtok/
#include <string.h>
...
char *token;
char *line = "LINE TO BE SEPARATED";
char *search = " ";
/* Token will point to "LINE". */
token = strtok(line, search);
/* Token will point to "TO". */
token = strtok(NULL, search);
In your case, the space character would also act as a delimiter in the line.
Note that strtok might modify the string passed in, so if you need to you should make a deep copy using something like malloc.
It might also be easier to use fread() to read a block from a file
As mentioned in comments, using feof() does not work as would be expected. And, as described in this answer unless the content of the file is formatted with very predictable content, using any of the scanf family to parse out the words is overly complicated. I do not recommend using it for that purpose.
There are many other, better ways to read content of a file, word by word. My preference is to read each line into a buffer, then parse the buffer to extract the words. This requires determining those characters that may be in the file, but would not be considered part of a word. Characters such as \n,\t, (space), -, etc. should be considered delimiters, and can be used to extract the words. The following is a recipe for extracting words from a file: (example code for a few of the items is included below these steps.)
Read file to count words, and get the length of the longest word.
Use count, and longest values from 1st step to allocate memory for words.
Rewind the file.
Read file line by line into a line buffer using while(fgets(line, size, fp))
Parse each new line into words using delimiters and store each word into arrays of step 2.
Use resulting array of words as necessary.
free all memory allocated when finished with arrays
Some example of code to do some of these tasks:
// Get count of words, and longest word in file
int longestWord(char *file, int *nWords)
{
FILE *fp=0;
int cnt=0, longest=0, numWords=0;
int c;
fp = fopen(file, "r");
if(fp)
{
// if((strlen(buf) > 0) && (buf[0] != '\t') && (buf[0] != '\n') && (buf[0] != '\0')&& (buf[0] > 0))
while ( (c = fgetc(fp) ) != EOF )
{
if ( isalnum (c) ) cnt++;
else if ( ( ispunct (c) ) || ( isspace(c) ) || (c == '\0' ))
{
(cnt > longest) ? (longest = cnt, cnt=0) : (cnt=0);
numWords++;
}
}
*nWords = numWords;
fclose(fp);
}
else return -1;
return longest;
}
// Create indexable memory for word arrays
char ** Create2DStr(ssize_t numStrings, ssize_t maxStrLen)
{
int i;
char **a = {0};
a = calloc(numStrings, sizeof(char *));
for(i=0;i<numStrings; i++)
{
a[i] = calloc(maxStrLen + 1, 1);
}
return a;
}
Usage: For a file with 25 words, the longest being 80 bytes:
char **strArray = Create2DStr(25, 80+1);//creates 25 array locations
//each 80+1 characters long
//(+1 is room for null terminator.)
int i=0;
char words[50][50];
while(fscanf(file, " %s ", words[i]) != EOF)
i++;
I wouldn't entirely recommend doing it this way, because of the unknown amount of words in the file, and the unknown length of a "word". Either can be over the size of '50'. Just do it dynamically, instead. Still, this should show you how it works.
How can I use fscanf to take word by word and put each word in an array of strings?
Read each word twice: first to find length via "%n". 2nd time, save it. (Inefficient yet simple)
Re-size strings as you go. Again inefficient, yet simple.
// Rough untested sample code - still need to add error checking.
size_t string_count = 0;
char **strings = NULL;
for (;;) {
long pos = ftell(file);
int n = 0;
fscanf(file, "%*s%n", &n); // record where scanning a "word" stopped
if (n == 0) break;
fseek(file, pos, SEEK_SET); // go back;
strings = realloc(strings, sizeof *strings * (string_count+1));// increase array size
strings[string_count] = malloc(n + 1u); // Get enough memory for the word
fscanf(file, "%s ", strings[string_count] ); // read/save word
}
// use strings[], string_count
// When done, free each strings[] and then strings

How to get the strings from a file and store in a 2D char array and compare that 2D char array with a string in C?

I have a text file, it has values(I usually call them as upc_values) of
01080006210
69685932764
40000114485
40000114724
07410855329
72908100004
66484101000
04000049163
43701256600
99999909001
07726009493
78732510053
78732510063
78732510073
78732510093
02842010109
02842010132
78732510213
02410011035
73999911110
char *UPC_val = "99999909001";
char upcbuf[100][12];
char buf[12];
memset(buf,0,sizeof(buf));
memset(upcbuf,0,sizeof(upcbuf));
When I tried to fgets, I stored that in a 2D buffer.
while ( fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), f) != NULL ) {
strncpy(upcbuf[i], buf, 11);
i++;
}
I tried to print the data in the buffer.
puts(upcbuf[0]);
upcbuf[0] has the whole data in a continues stream,
0108000621069685932764400001144854000011472407410855329729081000046648410100004000049163437012566009999990900107726009493787325100537873251006378732510073787325100930284201010902842010132787325102130241001103573999911110
and I want to compare this upc values(11 digit) with another string(11 digit). I used,
if(strncmp(UPC_Val,upcbuf[i],11) == 0)
{
//do stuff here
}
It didn't work properly, I used strstr() too like,
if(strstr(upcbuf[0],UPC_val) != NULL)
{
//do stuff here
}
I am totally unaware of what it is doing, am I doing the comparison properly?
How to do this, any help please?
Thanks in advance.
To read a line of text of 11 digits and a '\n' into a string needs an array of at least 13 to store the string. There is little reason to be so tight. Suggest 2x expected max size
char upcbuf[100][12]; // large enough for 100 * (11 digits and a \0)
...
#define BUF_SIZE (13*2)
char buf[BUF_SIZE];
while (i < 100 && fgets(buf, sizeof buf, f) != NULL ) {
Lop off the potential tailing '\n'
size_t len = strlen(buf);
if (len && buf[len-1] == '\n') buf[--len] = '\0';
Check length and handle that somehow.
if (len != 11) exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
Save/print the data
// strncpy(upcbuf[i], buf, 11); // fails to insure a null character at the end
strcpy(upcbuf[i], buf);
i++;
puts(upcbuf[i]);
To compare strings
if(strcmp(UPC_Val,upcbuf[i]) == 0) {
// strings match
}
If you are still having trouble getting the logic to work after #chux's answer, then here is a short example implementing his suggestions that takes the filename to read as the first argument, and optionally the upc to search for as the second argument (it will search for "99999909001" by default [and it that case you can just read the file in on stdin]).
Note the use of an enum to define global constants for your row and column values. (you can use independent #define ROW 128 and #define COL 32 if you like) If you need constants in your code, define them once, at the top, so if they ever need to change, you have a single convenient place to change the values, rather than having to pick through your code, or perform a global search/replace to change them.
For example, you could put the logic together as follows:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
enum { COL = 32, ROW = 128 }; /* an enum is convenient for constants */
int main (int argc, char **argv) {
char buf[COL] = "", /* buffer to read each line */
upcbuf[ROW][COL] = { "" }, /* 2D array of ROW x COL chars */
*upcval = argc > 2 ? argv[2] : "99999909001";
size_t n = 0; /* index/counter */
FILE *fp = argc > 1 ? fopen (argv[1], "r") : stdin; /* file */
if (!fp) { /* validate file open for reading */
fprintf (stderr, "error: file open failed '%s'.\n", argv[1]);
return 1;
}
/* fill upcbuf (you could search at same time, but let's fill) */
while (n < ROW && fgets (buf, COL, fp)) {
size_t len = strlen (buf); /* get length */
/* test last char '\n', overwrite w/nul-terminating char */
if (len && buf[len - 1] == '\n')
buf[--len] = 0;
strcpy (upcbuf[n++], buf); /* copy to upcbuf */
}
if (fp != stdin) fclose (fp); /* close file if not stdin */
/* step through upcbuf - search for upcval */
for (size_t i = 0; i < n; i++)
if (strcmp (upcbuf[i], upcval) == 0) {
printf ("upcval: '%s' found at line '%zu'.\n", upcval, i + 1);
return 0;
}
printf ("upcval: '%s' not found in file.\n", upcval);
return 0;
}
Example Use/Output
$ ./bin/upcbuf dat/upcfile.txt
upcval: '99999909001' found at line '10'.
$ ./bin/upcbuf dat/upcfile.txt 01080006210
upcval: '01080006210' found at line '1'.
$ ./bin/upcbuf dat/upcfile.txt 02410011035
upcval: '02410011035' found at line '19'.
$ ./bin/upcbuf dat/upcfile.txt "not there!"
upcval: 'not there!' not found in file.
Also note that if you were simply searching for a single upc, then you could combine read and search in a single loop, but since you often read as a separate function, and then operate on the data elsewhere in your code, this example simply reads all upc values from the file into your array, and then searches though the array in a separate loop. Look things over, look at all answers, and let us know if you have any further questions.
As a final note, you have checked if the last char is '\n', but what happens if it isn't? You should check if the length is COL-1 indicating that additional characters remain unread in that line and handle the error (or just read and discard the remaining chars). You can do that with an addition similar to the following:
/* test last char '\n', overwrite w/nul-terminating char */
if (len && buf[len - 1] == '\n')
buf[--len] = 0;
else if (len == COL - 1) { /* if no '\n' & len == COL - 1 */
fprintf (stderr, "error: line excces %d chars.\n", COL - 1);
return 1;
}
And, you need to use the else if and check the COL - 1 and not simply use an else there because you may be reading from a file that does not have a POSIX end-of-line (e.g. a new-line character) after the final line of the file. fgets properly reads the final line, even without a POSIX line ending, but there will be no '\n' in buf. So even without the POSIX line ending, the line can be a valid line, and you are guaranteed to have a complete read, so long as the number of characters read (+ the nul-terminating char) does not equal your buffer size.

counting the number of strings in a text file containing numbers as well

I wanted to only count the number of strings in a text file, containing numbers as well. But the code below, counts even the numbers in the file as strings. How do I rectify the problem?
int count;
char *temp;
FILE *fp;
fp = fopen("multiplexyz.txt" ,"r" );
while(fscanf(fp,"%s",temp) != EOF )
{
count++;
}
printf("%d ",count);
return 0;
}
Well, first up, using the temp pointer without having backing storage for it is going to cause you a world of pain.
I'd suggest, as a start, using something like char temp[1000] instead, keeping in mind that's still a bit risky if you have words more than a thousand or so characters long (that's a different issue to the one you're asking about so I'll mention it but not spend too much time on fixing it).
Secondly, it appears you want to count words with numbers (like alpha7 or pi/2). If that's the case, you simply need to check temp after reading the "word" and increment count only if it matches a "non-numeric" pattern.
That could be as simple as just not incrementing if the word consists only of digits, or it could be complicated if you want to handle decimals, exponential formats and so on.
But the bottom line remains the same:
while(fscanf(fp,"%s",temp) != EOF )
{
if (! isANumber(temp))
count++;
}
with a suitable definition of isANumber. For example, for unsigned integers only, something like this would be a good start:
int isANumber (char *str) {
// Empty string is not a number.
if (*str == '\0')
return 0;
// Check every character.
while (*str != '\0') {
// If non-digit, it's not a number.
if (! isdigit (*str))
return 0;
str++;
}
// If all characters were digits, it was a number.
return 1;
}
For more complex checking, you can use the strto* calls in C, giving them the temp buffer and ensuring you use the endptr method to ensure the entire string is scanned. Off the top of my head, so not well tested, that would go something like:
int isANumber (char *str) {
// Empty string is not a number.
if (*str == '\0')
return 0;
// Use strtod to get a double.
char *endPtr;
long double d = strtold (str, &endPtr);
// Characters unconsumed, not number (things like 42b).
if (*endPtr != '\0')
return 0;
// Was a long double, so number.
return 1;
}
The only thing you need to watch out for there is that certain strings like NaN or +Inf are considered a number by strtold so you may need extra checks for that.
inside your while loop, loop through the string to check if any of its characters are digits. Something like:
while(*temp != '\0'){
if(isnumber(*temp))
break;
}
[dont copy exact same code]
I find strpbrk to be one of the most helpful function to search for several needles in a haystack. Your set of needles being the numeric characters "0123456789" which if present in a line read from your file will count as a line. I also prefer POSIX getline for a line count do to its proper handling of files with non-POSIX line endings for the last line (both fgets and wc -l omit text (and a count) of the last line if it does not contain a POSIX line end ('\n'). That said, a small function that searches a line for characters contained in a trm passed as a parameter could be written as:
/** open and read each line in 'fn' returning the number of lines
* continaing any of the characters in 'trm'.
*/
size_t nlines (char *fn, char *trm)
{
if (!fn) return 0;
size_t lines = 0, n = 0;
char *buf = NULL;
FILE *fp = fopen (fn, "r");
if (!fp) return 0;
while (getline (&buf, &n, fp) != -1)
if (strpbrk (buf, trm))
lines++;
fclose (fp);
free (buf);
return lines;
}
Simply pass the filename of interest and the terms to search for in each line. A short test code with a default term of "0123456789" that takes the filename as the first parameter and the term as the second could be written as follows:
#include <stdio.h> /* printf */
#include <stdlib.h> /* free */
#include <string.h> /* strlen, strrchr */
size_t nlines (char *fn, char *trm);
int main (int argc, char **argv) {
char *fn = argc > 1 ? argv[1] : NULL;
char *srch = argc > 2 ? argv[2] : "0123456789";
if (!fn) return 1;
printf ("%zu %s\n", nlines (fn, srch), fn);
return 0;
}
/** open and read each line in 'fn' returning the number of lines
* continaing any of the characters in 'trm'.
*/
size_t nlines (char *fn, char *trm)
{
if (!fn) return 0;
size_t lines = 0, n = 0;
char *buf = NULL;
FILE *fp = fopen (fn, "r");
if (!fp) return 0;
while (getline (&buf, &n, fp) != -1)
if (strpbrk (buf, trm))
lines++;
fclose (fp);
free (buf);
return lines;
}
Give it a try and see if this is what you are expecting, if not, just let me know and I am glad to help further.
Example Input File
$ cat dat/linewno.txt
The quick brown fox
jumps over 3 lazy dogs
who sleep in the sun
with a temp of 101
Example Use/Output
$ ./bin/getline_nlines_nums dat/linewno.txt
2 dat/linewno.txt
$ wc -l dat/linewno.txt
4 dat/linewno.txt

Loop crashing in C

I'm very new to C and I'm still learning the basics. I'm creating an application that reads in a text file and breaks down the words individually. My intention will be to count the amount of times each word occurs.
Anyway, the last do-while loop in the code below executes fine, and then crashes. This loop prints memory address to this word (pointer) and then prints the word. It accomplishes this fine, and then crashes on the last iteration. My intention is to push this memory address into a singly linked list, albeit once it's stopped crashing.
Also, just a quick mention regarding the array sizes below; I yet figured out how to set the correct size needed to hold the word character array etc because you must define the size before the array is filled, and I don't know how to do this. Hence why I've set them to 1024.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main (int argc, char **argv) {
FILE * pFile;
int c;
int n = 0;
char *wp;
char wordArray[1024];
char delims[] = " "; // delims spaces in the word array.
char *result = NULL;
result = strtok(wordArray, delims);
char holder[1024];
pFile=fopen (argv[1],"r");
if (pFile == NULL) perror ("Error opening file");
else {
do {
c = fgetc (pFile);
wordArray[n] = c;
n++;
} while (c != EOF);
n = 0;
fclose (pFile);
do {
result = strtok(NULL, delims);
holder[n] = *result; // holder stores the value of 'result', which should be a word.
wp = &holder[n]; // wp points to the address of 'holder' which holds the 'result'.
n++;
printf("Pointer value = %d\n", wp); // Prints the address of holder.
printf("Result is \"%s\"\n", result); // Prints the 'result' which is a word from the array.
//sl_push_front(&wp); // Push address onto stack.
} while (result != NULL);
}
return 0;
}
Please ignore the bad program structure, as I mentioned, I'm new to this!
Thanks
As others have pointed out, your second loop attempts to dereference result before you check for it being NULL. Restructure your code as follows:
result = strtok( wordArray, delims ); // do this *after* you have read data into
// wordArray
while( result != NULL )
{
holder[n] = *result;
...
result = strtok( NULL, delims );
}
Although...
You're attempting to read the entire contents of the file into memory before breaking it up into words; that's not going to work for files bigger than the size of your buffer (currently 1K). If I may make a suggestion, change your code such that you're reading individual words as you go. Here's an example that breaks the input stream up into words delimited by whitespace (blanks, newlines, tabs, etc.) and punctuation (period, comma, etc.):
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
char buffer[1024];
int c;
size_t n = 0;
FILE *input = stdin;
if( argc > 1 )
{
input = fopen( argv[1], "r");
if (!input)
input = stdin;
}
while(( c = fgetc(input)) != EOF )
{
if (isspace(c) || ispunct(c))
{
if (n > 0)
{
buffer[n] = 0;
printf("read word %s\n", buffer);
n = 0;
}
}
else
{
buffer[n++] = c;
}
}
if (n > 0)
{
buffer[n] = 0;
printf("read word %s\n", buffer);
}
fclose(input);
return 0;
}
No warranties express or implied (having pounded this out before 7:00 a.m.). But it should give you a flavor of how to parse a file as you go. If nothing else, it avoids using strtok, which is not the greatest of tools for parsing input. You should be able to adapt this general structure to your code. For best results, you should abstract that out into its own function:
int getNextWord(FILE *stream, char *buf, size_t bufsize)
{
int c;
size_t n = 0;
while(( c = fgetc(input)) != EOF && n < bufsize)
{
if (isspace(c) || ispunct(c))
{
if (n > 0)
{
buf[n] = 0;
n = 0;
}
}
else
{
buffer[n++] = c;
}
}
if (n > 0)
{
buffer[n] = 0;
printf("read word %s\n", buffer);
}
if (n == 0)
return 0;
else
return 1;
}
and you would call it like
void foo(void)
{
char word[SOME_SIZE];
...
while (getNextWord(inFile, word, sizeof word))
{
do_something_with(word);
}
...
}
If you expect in your do...while code, that result could be null (this is the condition for loop break), how do you think this code-line:
holder[n] = *result;
must work? It seems to me, that it is the reason for crashing in your program.
Change do while loop to while
use
while (condition)
{
}
instead of
do {
}while(condition)
It is crashing because you are trying to derefrance a NULL pointer result in do while loop.
I work mostly with Objective-C and was just looking at your question for fun, but I may have a solution.
Before setting n=0; after your first do-while loop, create another variable called totalWords and set it equal to n, totalWords can be declared anywhere within the file (except within one of the do-while loops), but can be defined at the top to the else block since its lifetime is short:
totalWords = n;
then you can set n back to zero:
n = 0;
Your conditional for the final do-while loop should then say:
...
} while (n <= ++totalWords);
The logic behind the application will thus say, count the words in the file (there are n words, which is the totalWords in the file). When program prints the results to the console, it will run the second do-while loop, which will run until n is one result past the value of totalWords (this ensures that you print the final word).
Alternately, it is better practice and clearer for other programmers to use a loop and a half:
do {
result = strtok(NULL, delims);
holder[n] = *result;
wp = &holder[n];
printf("Pointer value = %d\n", wp);
printf("Result is \"%s\"\n", result);
//sl_push_front(&wp); // Push address onto stack.
if (n == totalWords) break; // This forces the program to exit the do-while after we have printed the last word
n++; // We only need to increment if we have not reached the last word
// if our logic is bad, we will enter an infinite loop, which will tell us while testing that our logic is bad.
} while (true);

Resources