Thread: Please explain this to me

I was working on a white space compacting program, and I came up with this code which seems to work nicely:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

/* replace_blanks.c - September 29, 2003
 * by Rob Somers
 * An answer to exercise 1-9 in K&R II
 * If the character is a space, print it, then
 * check the next character, and if it is a space,
 * delete the previous space, and print the new one
 */

int main(void)
{
         int c;
    
         while( ( c = getchar() ) != EOF ) {
	        if( ( c == ' ' ) ){
		         putchar( c );
	                 while( ( c = getchar() ) == ' ' ){
			      printf( "\b " );
	  }		   
      
      }
      putchar( c );
	 
    }
    return 0;
}

However, I was flipping through K&R2 and I saw another way which I tried and it works:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

/* replace_blanks_2.c - September 29, 2003
 * by Rob Somers
 * An answer to exercise 1-9 in K&R II
 */

int main(void)
{
         int c;
    
         while( ( c = getchar() ) != EOF ) {
	        if( ( c == ' ' ) ){
		         putchar( c );
	                 while( ( c = getchar() ) == ' ' ){
			      ;
	  }		   
      
      }
      putchar( c );
	 
    }
    return 0;
}

Now why does the semi-colon work? (The semi-colon replaces the line in red on the first version) Is the while loop saying in effect, "If this condition, do nothing" ? So that way it prints no space after the initial space? The second version looks to be a better solution, not?

~/kermit

Actually, there was no code given (all the code given here is mine), just an exercise:

Write a program to copy its input to its output, replacing each string of one or more blanks by a single blank.

In light of this instruction, I think my original program makes enough sense, even if it is perhaps a little crude. Keep in mind that I did also come up with the second solution which is probably a better one. The first solution was the first one I could get to work.

There is much learning value in an exercise such as this one, as far as I am concerned. I learned a couple of things the hard way, and such knowledge so hard won will not be easily forgotten.

I will keep my eyes peeled for the isspace() function...

Originally posted by Zainny
Absolutely. Sorry if I appeared to be bagging you out, it certainly wasn't my intention.

As for isspace, it is in <ctype.h> and will return a non-zero value for any non-space character (0x09 - 0x0D or 0x20)

Cheers,
Neil.

Hey, no worries. Thanks for the info on isspace. I have heard that writing your own functions to replace standard library functions is not exactly time well spent. The exercises in K&R get more advanced as they go on, but I think the beginning ones are more for learning the rudiments of the language, even if they replace standard library functions. Its helpful for guys like me who need things to be rudimentary.

~/kermit