Thread: Help- I'm new to this

Originally Posted by LuizCPFL

Hi, I just started teaching myself C programming.(today)
So I'm very new and never learned a language before.
I have several video tutorials that tought the basics.
But I'm having some trouble.
My goal-
Make a simple program that can tell:
1. How old someone half my age would be.
2. How many years its been since the age of 10.
3. What year was I born

I want to start off by asking the age of the user using the program
so this is how I started.
Please explain why it doesn't work lol thanks in advanced

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
      int    age; // How old the user is
      int    x; //How old someone half my age would be.
      int    y; //How many years its been since the age of 10
      int    z; // What year was I born in.
      
      printf("How old are you? ");
      scanf("&#37;d", &age);
      x = age / 2;
      y = age - 10;
      z = 2008 - age;
      printf("You are %d years old. It's been %d since you were 10. And you were born in %d\n", age, y, z);
      fflush(stdin);  //flushing an input stream is ill advised, now. Only output streams
      getchar();
      return 0;  
}

scanf() needs an address, main should be int main, with a return of zero in C, and input streams should
no longer be flushed - only output streams.

It's very helpful if you name your variables something meaningful - halfAge maybe, instead of x,
minus10 instead of y, yearMinusAge maybe, instead of z.

In a simple and short program like this, it's no problem of course. When the programs get long, and maybe you haven't seen the code in a year and now want to add something to it - THEN you'll be very glad you used descriptive variable names.

And welcome to the forum!

Also, don't use implicit main: http://cpwiki.sourceforge.net/Implicit_main

Also, realize that on computers, integer division is not the same math you learned in school.

In school, you learned 5/2 = 2.5

However, with integer division, 5/2 = 2, as the remainder is thrown away.

If you want fractions, use the "double" data type and it's formatting controls in printf / scanf.

Like this:

Code:

Right, just don't use the flush of stdin!

Do you mean your window that opens, when you run the program, closes right after you enter your value?

Use getchar() to pause the window closing.

Looks like a "segmentation fault" to me.