Getting input for character arrays

Question

I was coding a program to find the longest common sub-sequence today and I was getting the elements of the each sequence into a character array. but I ran into a little problem. I used a for loop to get the elements but not matter how high I set the number of iterations the loop should execute it always terminated after 5 iterations. The array into which the data was being input was an array of size 10 so there were no issues with the array size. I coded a small test program to check and even in the test program the for loops that get data for a character array always terminate after 5 iterations . Why ?( I am forced to use turbo c++ in my lab)

#include<stdio.h>
void main()
{
     int i;
     char s[10];
     for(i=0;i<10;i++)
     scanf("%c",&a[i]);
 }

The above code was the test program.for loop terminated after 5 iterations here too !

sigh at least try to compile the code before you post it. also, the loop definitely doesn't terminate after 5 iterations, you should have put some trace message there to see it :/ — Karoly Horvath
– Karoly Horvath, Commented Sep 23, 2011 at 14:02
ok i did compile it. and i tried displaying i after ever scanf statement. but it just kept incrementing twice . — Srini
– Srini, Commented Sep 23, 2011 at 14:06

Oliver Charlesworth · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-23 14:02:45Z

2

Newline characters ('\n') are characters too. If you type H, <return>, e, <return>, l, <return>, l, <return>, o, <return>, they you've entered 10 characters.

answered Sep 23, 2011 at 14:02

Oliver Charlesworth

274k34 gold badges590 silver badges687 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

unwind · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-23 14:03:48Z

1

It's a much better idea to just read the entire "array" as a single string, all at once:

char s[10];
fgets(s, sizeof s, stdin);

answered Sep 23, 2011 at 14:03

unwind

402k64 gold badges491 silver badges619 bronze badges

Comments

Kusalananda · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-23 14:04:28Z

1

Let me guess, you're pressing return after each character? The scanf() call will read those too...

answered Sep 23, 2011 at 14:04

Kusalananda

15.8k3 gold badges47 silver badges54 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Getting input for character arrays

3 Answers 3

Comments

Comments

Comments

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

Comments

Comments

Related