Thread: Line Counting Program

I'm learning the C Programming Language, and I'm using the book "The C Programming Language, Second Edition" by Kernighan and Ritchie.

I was using Miracle C for my compiler and everything was working okay, until i got to the Line Counting Program they had there:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

/*count lines in input */
main()
{
    int c, nl;
    
    nl = 0;
    while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
        if (c == '\n')
                ++nl;
    printf("%d\n", nl);
}

It makes perfect sense to me and it should work, but instead, when you type something and press enter, it just moves onto the next line for you to type-- the line count variable (nl) is never printed to the output.

I thought it might be the compiler... I tried it with compiler "Dev-C++" (its both a C++ and C compiler) and got the same problem. Is it a problem with the code? Is this book flawed?

Thanks.

Oh I see. I'm using Window XP, with the "Command Prompt", and Ctrl+d doesn't work for me (it just inputs "^D"). It's pretty hard for me to believe that there's no way to simply input the EOF statement so that the program can continue and print the value.

In addition, I had no problem with the following code:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

/* copy input to output; 1st version */
main()
{
	int c;
	
	c = getchar();
	while ((c = getchar()) != EOF) {
		putchar(c);
	}
}

Why is the Line Counting program working and the File Copying program above does work? What can I do to fix the Line Counting program?

I'm using Window XP, with the "Command Prompt", and Ctrl+d doesn't work for me (it just inputs "^D").

a Windows console you can generate an EOF with ctrl-z;

Bolding mine

Aaah. I tried Ctrl+Z before, but now I tried pressing enter and putting it alone in a line. That did the trick. Thanks guys.