How to get specific part of the string using sscanf function?

Question

I have a problem reading users input correctly.

User types "A Smaug 23 fire 10" and I need to get the all the information to my code except the first letter 'A'.

char buffer[80];
char *ret = fgets(buffer, 80, stdin)
if (ret == NULL){
     break;
}
char name[10],weapon[10];
int attackpoints, hitpoints;
int x = sscanf(ret," %s %d %s %d", name, &attackpoints,weapon,&hitpoints);

This won't work.

How can I skip the A and store users input to the right variables like name = Smaug, attackpoints = 23, weapon = fire, etc?

Like this int x = sscanf(ret," %*s %s %d %s %d", name, &attackpoints, weapon, &hitpoints); where the first specifier with a * reads but ignores (several) chars. — Weather Vane
– Weather Vane, Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 13:45

Hitokiri · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-08 13:57:10Z

1

You just need to add the string A[2] for the first letter. Read all string and print all of value expect A:

char A[2], name[10],weapon[10];
int x = sscanf(ret,"%s %s %d %s %d", A, name, &attackpoints,weapon,&hitpoints);

The complete code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    char buffer[80];
    char *ret = fgets(buffer, 80, stdin);
    if (ret == NULL)
         exit(-1);
    char A[2], name[10],weapon[10];
    int attackpoints, hitpoints;
    int x = sscanf(ret,"%s %s %d %s %d", A, name, &attackpoints,weapon,&hitpoints);
    if (x != 5)
        exit(-1);
    printf("name = %s, attackpoints = %d, weapon = %s, hitpoints = %d\n", name, attackpoints, weapon, hitpoints);
    return 0;
}

The input and ouput:

./test 
A Smaug 23 fire 10
name = Smaug, attackpoints = 23, weapon = fire, hitpoints = 10

answered Apr 8, 2020 at 13:57

Hitokiri

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2 Comments

konde020202 Over a year ago

Okay, I thought it could be done some other way but that is good also.

Peter Cordes Over a year ago

@konde020202: It could be done another way, e.g. by having a literal "A " at the start of your scanf format string that the input has to match before scanf will move on to later conversions. See the docs, e.g. en.cppreference.com/w/c/io/fscanf which mention literal non-whitespace characters.

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