strncpy

Ok I'm trying to make a strncpy prototype, and it's sort of working but on the first go it eats up the first letter and it has trouble quitting the loop, you have to enter Q twice. I've tried different implementations of the While loop and this is the only one so far to even come close to working, but again it's eating things up so I'm guessing I'm not supposed to be using getchar as my check. But I just can't figure out what else to do. Thanks again for your help guys.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX 80
char ncpy(char * orig, char * add, int n);
int main(void)
{
        char ins[MAX+1], bee[MAX+1];
        int n, L=0;
       
        printf("Input a line [q to quit]\n");
        while(getchar() != 'q')
                {
                gets(bee);
                puts("Choose length to be copied");
                scanf("%d", &n);
//        printf("%s %d", bee, n);
                ins[L] = ncpy(ins + L, bee, n);
                printf("\n%s\n", ins);
                L += n;
                printf("Input a line [q to quit]\n");
                }

        return 0;
}                                               
       
char ncpy(char * orig, char * add, int n)
        {
        int i;
       
        for(i=0; i<n; i++)
                orig[i] = add[i];

        return (*orig);
        }

---

Why not just use gets(bee) [1], and then check if the string is "q"?


[1] Or better yet, use fgets(bee, sizeof(bee), stdin), which prevents someone who puts his elbow on the keyboard for five minutes from overflowing your buffer.

--
Mats

if you mean making it

while (gets(bee) && bee[0] != 'q') I tried that as well as
while (bee[0] != 'q')

and that resulted in it printing


"Input a line [q to quit]
Choose length to be copied"

in between new lines anytime you hit enter no matter what was input.

Yes, I suppose that is what you'd get from doing that.

How about:

Code:

---

...
int done = 0;
...

while(!done) {
    fgets(bee, sizeof bee, stdin);
    if (strcmp("q", bee) == 0)
        done = 1;
    else if (strlen(bee) != 0) {
        ... // the rest of your code to chose n and such
  }
}

---

--
Mats

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#define MAX 80
char ncpy(char * orig, char * add, int n);
int main(void)
{
        char ins[MAX+1], bee[MAX+1];
        int n, L=0;
        int done = 0;
       
        printf("Input a line [q to quit]\n");
        while(!done)
                {
                fgets(bee, sizeof bee, stdin);
    if (strcmp("q", bee) == 0)
        done = 1;
    else if (strlen(bee) != 0)
                        {
                        puts("Choose length to be copied");
                        scanf("&#37;d", &n);
//        printf("%s %d", bee, n);
                        ins[L] = ncpy(ins + L, bee, n);
                        printf("\n%s\n", ins);
                        L += n;
                        printf("Input a line [q to quit]\n");
                        }
                }

        return 0;
}                                               
       
char ncpy(char * orig, char * add, int n)
        {
        int i;
       
        for(i=0; i<n; i++)
                orig[i] = add[i];

        return (*orig);
        }

---

resulted in

[Session started at 2007-07-27 19:46:58 -0400.]
Input a line [q to quit]
bam
Choose length to be copied
3

bam$Ë$\303\377\377\377\377\377\377
Input a line [q to quit]
Choose length to be copied

forgot string.h first run but adding it didn't help

Well, the garbage at the end is that you're not terminating the string in your ncpy function.

You may also want to strip any carriage return and newlines from the fgets() functions input - that way the check for "empty string" will work.

--
Mats

Got the termination in but it's still just looping straight to "choose length" after the first run through. I just don't know how I get it to stop reading in an extra new line (since I'm assuming that's what's forcing the looping when it checks for an empty string. Before I made it a looping program I used a
getchar():
to remove the newline from the input before it read the input string. I hate to be a bother but I'm refreshing myself on C (never was too in depth in it, the logic is easy but the syntax always gets me.) So you might have to hint at how I can remove returns and newlines before fgets kicks in. Thanks again for your help


-edit- I'm going to just redo my loop entirely, I've changed some things and it's looping fine but I have to rethink how I'm passing my main array so that each input gets added on to the end. Thanks again mate


Hah! and just got it working, a little fix and bam, guess I just needed to step back for a bit and think about it. Here's the fixed version if anyone ever needs this (lord only knows why)

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define MAX 80
char ncpy(char * orig, char * add, int n);
int main(void)
{
        char ins[MAX+1], bee[MAX+1];
        int n, L=0;
        int done = 0;
       
        printf("Input a line [q to quit]\n");
        while(!done)
                {
                gets(bee);
    if (strcmp("q", bee) == 0)
        done = 1;
    else if (strlen(bee) != 0)
                        {
                        puts("Choose length to be copied");
                        scanf("%d", &n);
//        printf("%s %d", bee, n);
                        ins[0] = ncpy(ins + L, bee, n);
                        printf("\n%s\n", ins);
                        L += n;
                        printf("Input a line [q to quit]\n");
                        }
                }

        return 0;
}                                               
       
char ncpy(char * orig, char * add, int n)
        {
        int i;
       
        for(i=0; i<n; i++)
                orig[i] = add[i];
        orig[i] = '\0';

        return (*orig);
        }

---

I wouldn't be using gets() due to its limitations (ie. being unsafe). Consider using fgets() as a replacement.

> if (strcmp("q", bee) == 0)
Would have been OK had you read the FAQ and realised that fgets appends a newline.

So
- remove the newline as mentioned in the FAQ
- append the newline to the compare, as in strcmp("q\n", bee)

Ideally, the while loop should be
while ( !done && fgets(bee, sizeof bee, stdin) != NULL )
So the loop exits when the done flag becomes clear, or the user signals EOF to the input.

> scanf("%d", &n);
Having used fgets() to read one thing, you should use it to read everything. Mixing input functions leads only to pain and confusion.
Eg, replace the scanf with
fgets(line, sizeof line, stdin)
scanf( line, "%d", &n);
where line is a char array similar to bee

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Salem

> if (strcmp("q", bee) == 0)
Would have been OK had you read the FAQ and realised that fgets appends a newline.

---

Sorry, I should have thought of that! [Also, it seems that MS adds both \n and \r, so if that's the compiler being used, it's probably good to remove BOTH]"

Quote:

---

So
- remove the newline as mentioned in the FAQ
- append the newline to the compare, as in strcmp("q\n", bee)

---

Yes, me sloppy...

Quote:

---

Ideally, the while loop should be
while ( !done && fgets(bee, sizeof bee, stdin) != NULL )
So the loop exits when the done flag becomes clear, or the user signals EOF to the input.

> scanf("%d", &n);
Having used fgets() to read one thing, you should use it to read everything. Mixing input functions leads only to pain and confusion.
Eg, replace the scanf with
fgets(line, sizeof line, stdin)
scanf( line, "%d", &n);
where line is a char array similar to bee

---

That's a good solution.

--
Mats

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zmaker5

Code:

---

char ncpy(char * orig, char * add, int n)

...

        return (*orig);

---

---

What good is simply returning the first char?

> it seems that MS adds both \n and \r,
Unless you're reading from a text file opened in binary mode, this behaviour is broken IMO.

The C 'f' functions are supposed to convert the OS line termination to just '\n' on input, and convert '\n' to the OS line termination on output.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Salem

> it seems that MS adds both \n and \r,
Unless you're reading from a text file opened in binary mode, this behaviour is broken IMO.

The C 'f' functions are supposed to convert the OS line termination to just '\n' on input, and convert '\n' to the OS line termination on output.

---

Sorry, yes you are right - I confused myself by what I remember from last night - I removed the last char (by replacing it with a zero) in my test-case, not the last two!

--
Mats