if then else - newbie question

Still learning C, playing with if, then, else. In the program below, the final ELSE statement executes in every WHILE loop. I'm not sure why. Program and output are below. I was thinking that at each getchar() in the WHILE loop, the program would pause, take in the input and then bounce back up to the WHILE evaluation. Thanks for your help.

Jim

Code:

---

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main (int argc, const char * argv[])
{
        char x;
       
        printf("Enter a, b or c (q to quit);\n");
        x = getchar();
       
        while (x != 'q') {
                if (x=='a') {
                        printf("Menu A\n");
                        x = getchar();
                }
                else if (x=='b'){
                        printf("Menu B\n");
                        x = getchar();
                }
                else if (x=='c'){
                        printf("Menu C\n");
                        x = getchar();
                }
                else {
                        printf("Not a valid option\n");
                        x = getchar();
                }
        }
       
        return(0);
}

---

And the output is:

Running…
Enter a, b or c (q to quit);
a
Menu A
Not a valid option
b
Menu B
Not a valid option
d
Not a valid option
Not a valid option
q

Debugger stopped.
Program exited with status value:0.

Because the enter-key is neither a, nor b, nor c; therefore, when enter-key is read in, the final else switch is done.

Yep. Read this:

STDIN pitfalls

Stuff about the "\n" newline from the enter key starts in the 4th paragraph.

Thanks! That now makes sense.