Need some help with a compiler error.

[suprropmp]

First off, let me say hi to everybody here. I am trying to learn C but I am finding it a little cryptic compared to java.

anwyay, I am getting an error saying warning: assignment makes integer from pointer without a cast

on this line: buff = gets(character);

and heres the code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main( int argc, char * argv[] ){

	int i, j = 0;
	char buff, p[2];
	char character[256] = {0};

	if( pipe(p)==-1 ){
		printf("pipe failed");
		exit(-1);
	}

	printf("Enter two chars to compare: ");
	for(i; i<2; i++) {
		switch( fork() ){
		case 0: 
			buff = gets(character);
			printf("PID of child &#37;d is %d\n", j+1, getpid() );
			write( p[1], &buff, sizeof(char) );
			return 0;
			break; 
		case -1:
			printf("A forking error has occurred\n");
			exit(-1);
			break;
		default:
			break;
		}
	}
}

Any idea what I am doing wrong?

[MacGyver]

1) Don't use gets().
2) You're using gets() wrong. It returns a char *, but you defined buff as a char.
3) If you're brand new to C, I wouldn't work on fork()ing and pipes and all of that stuff. That's kind of way over your head if you're just trying to get the basics down.

[suprropmp]

Ok, so if I am using gets() incorrectly, what is the correct usage in this case?

[MacGyver]

http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/c...tdio/gets.html

But with that said, you should be using fgets(). gets() allows your program to suffer from hard-to-track bugs as well as providing a means for malicious users to hijack your program.

[suprropmp]

ok so if I only want to read in one character can I do something like this:

buff = fgets(character, 1, STDIN);

[MacGyver]

If you want to read one char, use a function like getc().

int c;
c = getc();

fgets() incurrs way too much overhead for reading 1 char, and in addition, it tries to save what it reads as a string, which means it needs a spot to put the '\0' char. If you have only 1 byte in your buffer, guess where the '\0' char is going.

If you want to use fgets(), do something like this:

char *last;
char szBuffer[BUFSIZ];

if(fgets(szBuffer,sizeof(szBuffer),stdin))
{
	if((last = strchr(szBuffer, '\n')))
	{
		*last = '\0';;
	}
}

[suprropmp]

ok, I made buff an int and then did this:

buff=getc();

and I get the following errors:
parse error before ')' token
too few arguments to function '__filbuf'

sorry about the number of questions, but this is irritating me

[MacGyver]

Sorry, I messed that one up. Any of the following will work:

int c;
c = getchar();

int c;
c = getc(stdin);

int c;
c = fgetc(stdin);

Some details: http://man.he.net/man3/getc

[zacs7]

int getc(FILE * stream);

Where stream is the stream to read from, stdin in this case.

or use

int getchar(void); /* gets a char from stdin */

Note that it returns int not char

[edit]* crap I'm so slow *[/edit]

[suprropmp]

Cool, thank you so much for all your help. I came across another snag but I have to run to work.

Thanks again!