using gets in c programming is wrong

Question

I am trying to read a string of characters in C: If I use gets, the compiler doesnt read my word, because it considers ENTER as being my string, I guess. I tried using

scanf("%*c")

but then if i do that and type "flower", the variable stores the string "lower". If I use

scanf("%s",s)

then the compiler doesn`t store anything after I hit space. If I use

fgets(s,20,stdin)

I have the exact same problem as if I used gets. What should I do?

Please mind that it's not the compiler which reads your words. It's your program. — Stefano Sanfilippo
– Stefano Sanfilippo, Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 11:09
@GrijeshChauhan : the %*c will read and discard the character , which don't have to pass any arguments — Mostafa 36a2
– Mostafa 36a2, Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 11:14

Some programmer dude · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-19 11:15:56Z

1

Simply "remove" the newline if it's in the end of the string:

if (fgets(s, 20, stdin) != NULL)
{
    while (strlen(s) > 0 && s[strlen(s) - 1] == '\n')
        s[strlen(s) - 1] = '\0';
}

answered Jan 19, 2014 at 11:15

Some programmer dude

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1 Comment

chux Over a year ago

+1 but I'd size_t len = strlen(s) rather than call strlen() 3x.

Mostafa 36a2 · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-19 11:13:12Z

0

You can use getchar() and ungetchar() to solve this problem , Like this :

char c;   
while((c=getchar())<=' ');
ungetchar(c);

the code above will remove any unwanted spaces or enters before the string , then you can gets as you want

answered Jan 19, 2014 at 11:13

Mostafa 36a2

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2 Comments

chux Over a year ago

This code will also consume any char in the range CHAR_MIN to ' '. Maybe instead int c; while(isspace(c = getchar()));

Mostafa 36a2 Over a year ago

There is : tab = 9 , line feed and carriage return = 10,13 and space = 32 , the others are control chars

Fahad Naeem · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-19 12:10:46Z

0

scanf() does not read the string after space. In short, it reads continuous string but fgets() is defined to read characters(space also). In my compiler Dev-C++ & 64-bit operating system, fgets() is reading characters including space. Note space is also a character defined with ASCII value.

answered Jan 19, 2014 at 12:10

Fahad Naeem

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