question on visual c++ (C) 6.0 - help

Consider the simple following example:

do
{
scanf("%d", &number);

if ((number != 1) && (number != 2) && (number != 3) && (number != 4) && (number != 5))
printf("Your number is out of range\n ");

} while ((number != 1) && (number != 2) && (number != 3) && (number != 4) && (number != 5));

- ommit the syntax mistakes --

Basically you are validating the input of a number which is correct if in range 1 to 5 (inclusive). When a number such as -12 or 15 is entered, an error message is printed and loop repeats.

The problem is when you input a character (e.g. a) - visual c++ goes into an endless loop and never stops!

Does anybody know how to correct this - simplest answer please

It works if number is declared as char, scanf changed to scanf %c and ' ' single quotation marks are used around the numbers.

Is there any other way ? - if u know sort me out

This is a very weird case and it only happeneds to me in visual c++ 6.0

Any suggestions ?

>This is a very weird case and it only happeneds to me in visual c++ 6.0
This is a common and predictable problem with scanf. The reason it occurs is because if scanf fails to convert input it leaves it in the buffer. The next iteration of the loop reads the same invalid input and an infinite loop is created. The best solution is to avoid scanf, but you asked for the simplest, so you can write a function to clean up the mess in the input stream. It's also a good practice to check the return value of scanf just to be safe:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

static void discard ( FILE *in )
{
  int c;

  while ( ( c = fgetc ( in ) ) != '\n' && c != EOF )
    ;
}

int main ( void )
{
  int number;

  do {
    if ( scanf ( "%d", &number ) != 1 || number < 1 || 5 < number ) {
      /* Clean up */
      discard ( stdin );
      printf ( "Your number is out of range\n" );
    }
    
  } while ( number < 1 || 5 < number );

  printf ( "Your number was %d\n", number );

  return 0;
}

-Prelude