While statement

What I want to do is to go into a while loop that uses fgets, and has the criteria that the string read by fgets isn't NULL or the fullstop character "."

What I have is

Code:

---

#define LINELENGTH 100
#define EQUAL 0
while ((retval = fgets(buf, LINELENGTH, stdin)) != NULL
                    && strcmp(retval, ".") != EQUAL) {
            }

---

Which isn't working. I would've though retval is given its value when fgets is called, so then it will be successfully implemented it into the strcmp, but it doesn't seem so.
All it does at the moment is keep asking me for more strings (even if I enter the fullstop character) and once I press ctrl-D it seg faults.

I think you wanted to strcmp(buf, ".") rather than retval.

EDIT:
Oh wait, that's dumb: retval is fine. Actually, it looks like your code is correct.

By the way, I suggest that you just write 0 instead of EQUAL, since EQUAL makes no sense here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by laserlight

I think you wanted to strcmp(buf, ".") rather than retval.

EDIT:
Oh wait, that's dumb: retval is fine. Actually, it looks like your code is correct.

---

Actually no, you're right! I realized the problem now is the same problem I was having a little while back, fgets is including \n into buf so the strcmp isn't breaking the loop because of that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by laserlight

By the way, I suggest that you just write 0 instead of EQUAL, since EQUAL makes no sense here.

---

I'd agree with you, but it's the best I can do given our professor is very picky about magic numbers.

My removeNewLine function doesn't work in this case :(

Code:

---

while ((retval = fgets(buf, LINELENGTH, stdin)) != NULL
                    && strcmp(removeNewLine(buf), ".") != EQUAL) {
}

void removeNewLine(char *command) {
    int length = strlen(command);
   
    if (length > 1 && command[length-1] == '\n') {
        command[length-1]='\0';
    }
}

---

Guess I'm gonna have to include that newline character in the strcmp.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mentallic

I'd agree with you, but it's the best I can do given our professor is very picky about magic numbers.

---

In this case 0 is not a magic number that should be replaced with a named constant because it is well known that return value of strcmp is to be compared with respect to 0. Instead, EQUAL is a "magic constant". For example, strcmp(x, y) > 0 is a test for whether x is > y: the ">" indicates the intended comparison. strcmp(x, y) > EQUAL is a test for whether... huh? As such, if I were your professor, I would mark you down for using EQUAL. And no, ZERO does no better as it does not provide any additional information, and it is extremely implausible (and misleading if it were so) that ZERO might be defined to something else. In this case, 0 is correct.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mentallic

My removeNewLine function doesn't work in this case

---

Then change it to return a char*, or break up your expressions into different statements.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by laserlight

In this case 0 is not a magic number that should be replaced with a named constant because it is well known that return value of strcmp is to be compared with respect to 0. Instead, EQUAL is a "magic constant". For example, strcmp(x, y) > 0 is a test for whether x is > y: the ">" indicates the intended comparison. strcmp(x, y) > EQUAL is a test for whether... huh? As such, if I were your professor, I would mark you down for using EQUAL. And no, ZERO does no better as it does not provide any additional information, and it is extremely implausible (and misleading if it were so) that ZERO might be defined to something else. In this case, 0 is correct.

---

I've caught him on numerous occassions writing out his code in a very unorthodox manner (at least with respect to our style guide), and he has thrown #define's all over the place. When I saw him
#define x "x"
#define y "y"
because we were going to do a few strcmp's in the program, I think it was at this point I felt like I needed to define basically everything. But I haven't seen him explicitly #define the return value of strcmp and you do make a good point, so I'll change it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by laserlight

Then change it to return a char*, or break up your expressions into different statements.

---

I'd have thought of that if I didn't already run into the mess between pointers and arrays in a previous thread.