Thread: why I can't separate c=getchar() from while body

Yes, getchar() does return an int, which is important for detecting EOF (which is typically set as -1).

In C, a function name without () after it is a pointer to the function. __cdecl just identifies how arguments get passed back and forth when the function is called - you can generally ignore this. So "int (__cdecl *)(void)" is a pointer to a function taking no arguments (void) and retuning an int, which is exactly what getchar() is.

Also, did I read correctly that you're calling getchar() twice per loop? Do you want to ignore every other character of input?

Originally Posted by KCfromNC

Also, did I read correctly that you're calling getchar() twice per loop? Do you want to ignore every other character of input?

Hey that's exactly what it happens sometimes... why does it ignores every other character? Shouldn't it print everything with getchar()? Sorry if the question seems silly but still I don't understand the underlying mechanics well...

Best regards and thanks in advance

when u input a number of chars then each call to getchar() pulls the subsequnt char from the keyboard buffer.

Originally Posted by fsx

Hey that's exactly what it happens sometimes... why does it ignores every other character? Shouldn't it print everything with getchar()? Sorry if the question seems silly but still I don't understand the underlying mechanics well...

Best regards and thanks in advance

Look at it this way :

Code:

	
while((c2 = getchar()) != EOF)
{	
	c = getchar();
	if((c == ' ') && (pc != c))
		putchar(c);
	else if (c != ' ')
		putchar(c);
	pc = c;
}

See how the code never does anything with c2? This is exactly what your code is doing, you're just not explicitly assigning the result of the first getchar() to a variable. The getchar() call still reads a character from the input and tries to return it to you - your code just ignores it other than to check for EOF. But just because you don't save it doesn't mean that the compiler somehow knows to put the character back and wait for you to call the function again to get the character, and that this time you mean it.

You'll need to take one of these calls to getchar() out of the loop to make things work.