populating a string only alpha characters

I am a C student (intermediate i think). I am having difficulties populating a string with only alpha characters. I have tried using a combination of gets() and isalpha() with no success. If this method is possible then I cant seem to nail down the logic. I have tried using isalpha(*str) in main and in the function definition itself with no success. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <string.h>
#define _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE
#define MAX 61

int isPalindrome(char* str);
void printResults(char* str, int answer);

int main()
{
        char str[MAX];
        int answer;       
        puts("Enter a string");               
        gets(str);
       
        answer = isPalindrome(str);
        printResults(str, answer);       
}

/*************************** FUNCTION ***************************
 * isPalindrome()
 * This takes only the alpha characters of a given string,
 * converts them into all upper case and returns 1 if
 * the string is a palindrome
 *************************** FUNCTION ***************************/
int isPalindrome(char* str)
{
        char* end = str + strlen(str);
        int i;
       
        for (i = 0; i < strlen(str); i++)
        {
               
                str[i] = toupper(str[i]);
        }
               
        while (end > str)
        {
                if (*str++ != *--end)
                {
                        return 0;
                }
        }
        return 1;
}

/*************************** FUNCTION ***************************
 * printResults()
 * This string prints the string entered by the user and the
 * awnswer to whether or not it is a palindrome
 *************************** FUNCTION ***************************/
void printResults(char* str, int answer)
{
        if (answer == 1)
        {
                printf("%s is a palindrome\n", str);
        }
        else
        {
                printf("%s is NOT a palindrome\n", str);
        }
}

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isalpha works on a character, so presumably you would do that at the same time you do toupper (which also works on a character). If you want to check reversal without the non-alphabetic characters, you will probably want to build a separate string, just inside the function, that contains all the letters and none of the other stuff.

you don't have to populate the string with only alphas, you just have to ignore the non-alphas in the palindrome test.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ctype.h>

int ispalindrome(char *s);

int main()
{
    char s[80];
    printf("enter a string> ");
    gets(s);
    printf("'%s' %s a palindrome\n", s, ispalindrome(s) ? "is" : "is not");
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

int ispalindrome(char *s)
{
    int i, j;
    for (i = 0, j = strlen(s)-1; i < j; i++, j--)
    {
        /* ignore non-alphas */
        while (!isalpha(s[i])) i++;
        while (!isalpha(s[j])) j--;
        /* case insensitive test the alphas */
        if (toupper(s[i]) != toupper(s[j])) return 0;
    }
    return 1;
}

---

Maybe something more like:

Code:

---

char *in = str;
char *out = str;
char *end = str + strlen(str);
while(in < end)
{
    if(isalpha(*in))
        *out++ = toupper(*in);
    in++;
}

---

The code which checks for the palindome looks okay.

And if this were commercial code, I'd add a comment noting that this function destroys its input (it alters the string which was passed to it) and that passing it a string literal is a no-no.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Meldreth

you don't have to populate the string with only alphas, you just have to ignore the non-alphas in the palindrome test.

Code:

---

int ispalindrome(char *s)
{
    int i, j;
    for (i = 0, j = strlen(s)-1; i < j; i++, j--)
    {
        /* ignore non-alphas */
        while (!isalpha(s[i])) i++;
        while (!isalpha(s[j])) j--;
        /* case insensitive test the alphas */
        if (toupper(s[i]) != toupper(s[j])) return 0;
    }
    return 1;
}

---

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Thanks! This works perfectly!
Question... I understand the while statements. Basically if there is a non-alpha character in either direction, the indexer jumps over it and initializes to the next value. But can you explain how the if() statement works?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MSF1981

Thanks! This works perfectly!
Question... I understand the while statements. Basically if there is a non-alpha character in either direction, the indexer jumps over it and initializes to the next value. But can you explain how the if() statement works?

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Have you tested this code with the string that contains only 2 spaces and nothing more?

Don't use gets.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vart

Have you tested this code with the string that contains only 2 spaces and nothing more?

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It works just fine using Xcode... However I haven't tested it in Visual Studio yet. I'll have to reboot into my windows partition to give that a shot... Stay tuned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MSF1981

But can you explain how the if() statement works?

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both of the characters are converted to upper case and if they're not equal, it's not a palindrome. as vart hinted, it's just an example and not perfect. use my code as a start for your code, not the full solution.

You could specify a scanset for scanf, that would simplify the problem. If you design the program cleverly enough it would make it resilient as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Meldreth

both of the characters are converted to upper case and if they're not equal, it's not a palindrome.

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palm/forehead Duh!