Need help flushing buffer

I think I am not flushing my buffer correctly. I'm trying to check two things in this function. I can get each piece to work independantly but throwing them together is giving me a headache. First I'm checking to make sure the char read is an alpha and second I'm checking to make sure it is less than STR_MAX.

Code:

void A_getOriginalString()
{
	int i = 0;
	char ch;
	
	printf("Enter a word, no more than 20 alpha characters only, or ? to quit: ");
	
	while ((ch = getchar()) && ch != '\n')
	{	
		if (isalpha(ch))
		{
			originalString[i] = ch;
			i++;
			if (i > 20)
			{
				printf("You entered more than 20 characters. Please try again.\n");
				printf("Enter a word, no more than 20 alpha characters only, or ? to quit: ");
				fflush(stdin);
				i = 0;
				ch = getchar();
			}
		}
		
		else
		{
			printf("You entered a non-alpha character.  Please try again.\n");
			printf("Enter a word, no more than 20 alpha characters only, or ? to quit: ");
			fflush(stdin);
			i = 0;
			ch = getchar();
		}
		
		originalString[i] = '\0';
	}
	
}

Code:

	int i = 0;
	char ch;
	
	printf("Enter a word, no more than 20 alpha characters only, or ? to quit: ");
	
	while ((ch = getchar()) && ch != '\n')
	{	
		if (isalpha(ch))
		{
			originalString[i] = ch;
			i++;
			if (i > 20)
			{
				printf("You entered more than 20 characters. Please try again.\n");
				printf("Enter a word, no more than 20 alpha characters only, or ? to quit: ");
				fflush(stdin);  //only outward buffers can be flushed, is the C Standard.
				i = 0;
				ch = getchar();
			}
		}
		
		else //this else goes with the *nearest unelsed if statement*
                //not the one you have it left justified for.              
		{
			printf("You entered a non-alpha character.  Please try again.\n");
			printf("Enter a word, no more than 20 alpha characters only, or ? to quit: ");
			fflush(stdin);
			i = 0;
			ch = getchar();
		}
		
		originalString[i] = '\0';
	}

I'll run it to be sure, but I believe that is your problem.

For reading characters, you're on the right track, but it should be done like this:

Code:

int ch;
while( (ch = getchar()) != EOF && ch != '\n' )

Your way continues as long as getchar() returns a value that is not zero and not '\n'. While this isn't technically illegal, it's likely not correct. Rather, you tend to want to check for EOF (which cannot be 0) to see if you've encountered end-of-file. For this to properly work, ch needs to be an int, not a char.