Store & display user input in an array in C

Question

I am trying to display and print a word from the user and store it into my array which is called

char word[20]

But I am having trouble. I know we use a "for loop" to scan it into the array but I keep going in circles and I believe the problem is with the i < 20. I researched this and found that the answers to this are extremely experienced and I need a really basic way of doing it without the extra stuff. So all I want is to get word from the user, store it and print it onto the screen.

Can someone help without experienced code?

Code in C

char getWord(char word[]);
int main()
{   
    char word[20];  
    getWord(word);

    return 0;
}

char getWord(char word[])
{ 
    int i;
    printf("Enter a word: ");
    for (i = 0; i < 20; i++) 
    { 
        scanf(" %c", &word[i]);
    }

    return word;
}

Shreevardhan · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-22 07:00:43Z

6

All you want is

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    char word[20];
    scanf("%s", word);    // Read and store
    printf("%s\n", word);    // Print
    return 0;
}

answered Nov 22, 2017 at 7:00

Shreevardhan

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5 Comments

Jagr Over a year ago

is this the other way instead of using a for loop?

Jay Joshi Over a year ago

scanf with %s scans a string (without any whitespace or new line) to a char array. so you need not to scan each character using for loop. Yeah, this is perfect way instead of for loop.

n. m. could be an AI Over a year ago

But wait, there's more. You also get a buffer overflow, absolutely free!

wallyk Over a year ago

Actually, you want to protect from buffer overrun with scanf("%20s", word)

David C. Rankin Over a year ago

You should always validate the return of scanf, e.g. if (scanf ("%19s", word) != 1) { /* handle error */ }. Otherwise you can have no confidence printf("%s\n", word); won't invoke Undefined Behavior. (@wallyk -- it's "%19s" instead of "%20s" -- that can exceed the array bounds by 1)

Verma Aman · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-23 13:53:41Z

0

You can use fgets and puts to read and write a string.

#include<stdio.h>
#define MAX 20

int main()
{
    int ar[MAX], i, count;
    fgets(ar, MAX, stdin);  //it will accept whitespaces as well
    puts(ar);            //displaying entered string
    return;
}

answered Nov 23, 2017 at 13:53

Verma Aman

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Comments

WedaPashi · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-22 07:59:30Z

-3

if you want to read via characters, ending character should be set to null character for it to be string.

char getWord(char word[]);
int main() 
{
    char word[20]
    getWord(word);

    printf("%s\n", word);
    return 0;
}

char getWord(char word[]) 
{
    int i;
    char c;
    printf("Enter a word: ");
    for (i = 0; i < 19; i++)
    {
        scanf("%c", &c);
        if ( c == '\n' )
            break;
        word[i]=c;
    }

    word[i]='\0';
    return word;
}

edited Nov 22, 2017 at 7:59

WedaPashi

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answered Nov 22, 2017 at 7:03

Abubaker Siddique

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