counting distinct characters in string using pointers

Hi all,
I am trying to write a function that uses pointers to count the chars 'a', 'b', and 'c' in an input string.

heres my code. Thanks in advance

Code:

void count_abc(char *str, int *a, int *b, int *c) // a, b, c represents count for each letter
{
        while (*str != '\0')
        {
                if (*str == 'a')
                        a++;
                if (*str == 'b')
                        b++;
                if (*str == 'c')
                        c++;
        }
}

the main function is below

Code:

int main()
{
        char str[MAX_STR];
        int count_table[3] = {0,0,0};
        int *a_count=&count_table[0],*b_count=&count_table[1],*c_count=&count_table[2];

        printf("Enter a string of less than 50 characters:\n");
        scanf("%s",str);
        count_abc(str,a_count,b_count,c_count);
        printf("number of a = %d , number of b = %d , number of c = %d\n",count_table[0],count_table[1],count_table[2]);
}

I think you mean to to this

Code:

(*a)++;

And so on for the other ones.

You'll also want to advance your pointer (str++) in the loop, or else you'll have an infinite loop checking the first character over and over again. Unless, of course, you pass in an empty string, but that doesn't seem too useful.

You also don't need to create new variables for passing in pointers. Your function call can look like:

Code:

count_abc(str, &count_table[0], &count_table[1], &count_table[2]);