Thread: confused (switch help)

  1. #1
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    confused (switch help)

    Ok so I'm refreshing my C by going through an old Primer book before my upcoming classes this fall and I'm having trouble.

    The book is asking me to make a program that let's you choose what item your ordering, enter the pounds, then when you're done entering the various weights it will print out the totals, shipping, and what you ordered. Most of this is easy and I can handle all of the computations and such but for some reason my switch isn't working right.

    It seems like the breaks aren't working right or something. For some reason the overlying while loop wants to read the input given for the order function. I've been tweaking it and got it to appear to work right when you first choose an item and then enter the weight, but it breaks down to multiple reading again after that. I'm not even sure quite how my changes made it work better, and am even more confused that it only works once.

    Thanks for your help, and if this isn't the right forum please let me know of one I can go to for advice.

    Code:
    #include <stdio.h>
    #define ARTS 1.25
    #define BEETS 0.65
    #define CARROTS 0.89
    float order(float inp);
    void ship(float a, float b, float c);
    int main(void)
    {
    	char ch;
    	float pa =0, pb =0, pc =0;
    	
    	printf("Enter your selection.\n");
    	printf("a) Artichokes \t b) Beets\n");
    	printf("c) Carrots \t q) quit\n");
    
    //	while((ch = getchar()) != 'q')
    	while(scanf("&#37;ch", &ch) == 1 && ch != 'q' && ch != 'Q')
    //	if(scanf("%ch", &ch) == 1)
    		{
    		switch(ch)
    			{
    			case 'A':
    			case 'a':	pa = order(pa);
    						break;
    			case 'B':
    			case 'b':	pb = order(pb);
    						break;
    			case 'C':
    			case 'c':	pc = order(pc);
    						break;
    			case 'Q':
    			case 'q':
    						break;
    			default:
    				printf("Invalid input\n");
    			}
    		printf("Anything else?\n");
    		}
    	printf("Here is your order");
    //	ship(pa, pb, pc);
    	printf("\n%.2f %.2f %.2f\n", pa, pb, pc);
    
    	return 0;
    }						
    
    float order(float inp)
    	{
    	float pound;
    	
    	printf("Please enter how many pounds you would like\n");
    	
    	if(scanf("%f", &pound) == 1)
    		pound += inp;
    	else
    		printf("Please enter only numbers\n");
    		
    	return(pound);
    	}
    /*
    void ship(float a, float b, float c)
    	{
    	float total =0;
    	float tw;
    	
    	tw = a+b+c;
    // still finishing this part obviously
    	}
    */
    and here is a sample run
    Code:
    [Session started at 2007-07-15 13:25:40 -0400.]
    Enter your selection.
    a) Artichokes 	 b) Beets
    c) Carrots 	 q) quit
    a
    Please enter how many pounds you would like
    12
    Anything else?
    b
    Invalid input
    Anything else?
    Please enter how many pounds you would like
    12
    Anything else?
    
    Invalid input
    Anything else?
    q
    Invalid input
    Anything else?
    Here is your order
    12.00 12.00 0.00
    
    Prime has exited with status 0.

  2. #2
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    Code:
    while(scanf("%ch", &ch)
    do you really want to scan a char followed by an 'h' ?
    guess you want
    Code:
    while(scanf("%c", &ch)
    Kurt

  3. #3
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    ah true thanks, though as you can see with the // I originally was using a while loop with getchar(), and even tried an if statement. Of course far as I know I'll have to stick with While so it keeps going until the user quits.

    even with that fix here's another sample run

    Code:
    [Session started at 2007-07-15 14:19:15 -0400.]
    Enter your selection.
    a) Artichokes 	 b) Beets
    c) Carrots 	 q) quit
    a
    Please enter how many pounds you would like
    12
    Anything else?
    Invalid input
    Anything else?
    b
    Please enter how many pounds you would like
    12
    Anything else?
    Invalid input
    Anything else?
    12
    Invalid input
    Anything else?
    Invalid input
    Anything else?
    Invalid input
    Anything else?
    q
    Here is your order
    12.00 12.00 0.00
    
    Prime has exited with status 0.

  4. #4
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    Sorry I cannot reproduce your problem.
    Runs as expected for me ( even without the "fix" ).
    Kurt

    EDIT: How are you executing that program ? Could it be that you run it via a remote connection ?
    Last edited by ZuK; 07-15-2007 at 12:39 PM.

  5. #5
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    just compiling it in xcode (os X)

  6. #6
    Hurry Slowly vart's Avatar
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    &#37;c format leaves the white space in the input stream
    so - because you press <Enter> after you enter your char - it is read on the next iteration
    All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection,
    except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.
    – David J. Wheeler

  7. #7
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    > if(scanf("&#37;f", &pound) == 1)
    The scanf %c which follows this will read the '\n', which will go through the switch/case as unrecognised input.
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

  8. #8
    Dr Dipshi++ mike_g's Avatar
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    I think flushing the your problem was that you wernt flushing the new lines in the input buffer. When I teseted you code it screwed up after the first loop, I made a small change and now it works for me (in bold).
    Code:
    #include <stdio.h>
    #define ARTS 1.25
    #define BEETS 0.65
    #define CARROTS 0.89
    float order(float inp);
    void ship(float a, float b, float c);
    int main(void)
    {
    	char ch;
    	float pa =0, pb =0, pc =0;
    	
    	printf("Enter your selection.\n");
    	printf("a) Artichokes \t b) Beets\n");
    	printf("c) Carrots \t q) quit\n");
    
    
    	while(scanf("%c", &ch) == 1 && ch != 'q' && ch != 'Q')
    		{
    		switch(ch)
    			{
    			case 'A':
    			case 'a':	pa = order(pa);
    						break;
    			case 'B':
    			case 'b':	pb = order(pb);
    						break;
    			case 'C':
    			case 'c':	pc = order(pc);
    						break;
    			case 'Q':
    			case 'q':
    						break;
    			default:
    				printf("Invalid input\n");
    			}
    		printf("Anything else?\n");
    	    while ((ch = getchar()) != '\n');
    		}
    	printf("Here is your order");
    //	ship(pa, pb, pc);
    	printf("\n%.2f %.2f %.2f\n", pa, pb, pc);
    
    	return 0;
    }						
    
    float order(float inp)
    	{
    	float pound;
    	
    	printf("Please enter how many pounds you would like\n");
    	
    	if(scanf("%f", &pound) == 1)
    		pound += inp;
    	else
    		printf("Please enter only numbers\n");
    		
    	return(pound);
    	}

  9. #9
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    Just noticed that the program behaves like yours if I remove the 'h' from the format.
    With the 'h' it "works ".
    Kurt

  10. #10
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    thanks guys, and especially on the little addition. The book had a similar line in an example program but they use it to force it to only read the first character (i.e. someone inputs "dab" instead of "d") so I didn't think to use it. I forgot about the whitespace problem.

    Thanks again guys, hopefully I can get the shipping function working without any problems.

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