Remove Signs & Whitespace (w/pointer)

Hey!

Could you by any chance give me some hints why the following function does not work the way it should?

Code:

---

void removeSign(char *str)
{
    char *ptr = str;
    while (*ptr != '\0') {
        while(!(*ptr > 64 && *ptr < 91) && !(*ptr > 96 && *ptr < 123))
        {
            ptr++;
        }
        *str = *ptr;
        str++;
        ptr++;
    }
}

---

all it should do is remove every sign which isn't a character (a-z, A-Z).

Edit: it only works on some inputs...

I'm especially confused because my similar "remove all whitespace" function seems to work just fine:

Code:

---

void removeWhitespace(char *str)
{
    char *ptr = str;

    while (*ptr != '\0')
    {
        while (isspace(*ptr))
        {
            ptr++;
        }
        *str = *ptr;
        str++;
        ptr++;
    }
}

---

> all it should do is remove every sign which isn't a character (a-z, A-Z).
Perhaps replace the test in the code which works
while ( isspace

With say
while ( !isalpha

Add final
*str = '\0';

check out the 'isalpha' function and others in ctype.h

its because in the last iteration of the loop, if it is a non-alpha, you increment ptr. then you increment ptr again which skips over the '\0' and runs off the end of the string.
i think you got lucky on the removeWhitespace function. it has the same problem.

Thanks alot for the suggestion, I did not know of "isalpha", handy :)

It didn't do the trick though, the issue remains the same =/

As said I also don't get why whitespace function would work like a charm while Alpha one doesn't for some reason hm

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <String.h>
#define ZEICHEN 40

int s_length, i, j = 0;
char sentence[ZEICHEN];
char *poscheck;

void removeWhitespace(char *str)
{
    char *ptr = str;

    while (*ptr != '\0')
    {
        while (isspace(*ptr))
        {
            ptr++;
        }
        *str = *ptr;
        str++;
        ptr++;
    }
}

void makeLower(char *str)
{
    while (*str != '\0')
    {
        *str = tolower(*str);
        str++;
    }
}

void removeSign(char *str)
{
    char *ptr = str;
    while (*ptr != '\0') {
        while (!isalpha(*ptr))
        {
            ptr++;
        }
        *str = *ptr;
        printf("%c", *ptr);
        str++;
        ptr++;
    }
}

int main()
{

    while(1)
    {
        printf("palindrome\n");
        printf("Enter a message: ");
        fgets(sentence,ZEICHEN,stdin);
        removeWhitespace(sentence);
        makeLower(sentence);
        removeSign(sentence);

        s_length = strlen(sentence);
        poscheck = sentence;

        for (i = 0; i < s_length/2; i++)
        {
            if(!(*(sentence+i) == *(poscheck+s_length-1-i)) || (strchr(sentence, '\n')))
            {
                printf ("Not a palindrome");
                exit(1);
            }
        }
        printf ("Palindrome\n");
    }
    return 0;
}

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shurik

Add final
*str = '\0';

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dmh2000

check out the 'isalpha' function and others in ctype.h

its because in the last iteration of the loop, if it is a non-alpha, you increment ptr. then you increment ptr again which skips over the '\0' and runs off the end of the string.
i think you got lucky on the removeWhitespace function. it has the same problem.

---

Ah thanks will look into that brb ^^

Add '\0' in the end of str and after that if again it's not working properly, provide the input and corresponding output.

thanks once again!

ok two changes:
1) added && (*ptr != '\0') to inner while loop to prevent incrementation on \0
2) added *str = '\0'; as proposed

Code:

---

void removeSign(char *str)
{
    char *ptr = str;
    while (*ptr != '\0') {
        while (!isalpha(*ptr) && (*ptr != '\0'))
        {
            ptr++;
        }
        *str = *ptr;
        str++;
        ptr++;
    }
    *str = '\0';
}

---

it now seems to work. I however don't get what *str = '\0'; really does in this case. Could you enlighten me by any chance? Why is it needed?

At this point, 'str' holds the address of the end of the string (specifically, the element after the last character in the string). This line is assigning a null-character (really just a byte that is 0) to the address it points to. Strings in C don't store the length of the string, so the end is marked with a null character. Without doing this step, string-handling functions in C would run right through the end of the string and keep operating on memory that is allocated for something else.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sean

At this point, 'str' holds the address of the end of the string (specifically, the element after the last character in the string). This line is assigning a null-character (really just a byte that is 0) to the address it points to. Strings in C don't store the length of the string, so the end is marked with a null character. Without doing this step, string-handling functions in C would run right through the end of the string and keep operating on memory that is allocated for something else.

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but why isn't the \0 at the right position already? my while loop reads until a \0 is found. with *str = *ptr; why wouldn't \0 be covered too?

thanks in advance!

Quote:

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my while loop reads until a \0 is found.

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Exactly. When it sees that character, the loop terminates and this bit of code inside the loop is not executed:

Quote:

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*str = *ptr

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ahhh kk finally got it, thanks every1! :)