Need help with simple program that uses printf, scanf, and characters

Hello. I am writing a program that prompts the user to enter 5 characters and then prints them in a wedge shaped like ">". This is my code:

Code:

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#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char first, second, third, fourth, fifth;

printf("First character: ");
scanf("%c", &first);
printf("Second character: ");
scanf("%c", &second);
printf("Third character: ");
scanf("%c", &third);
printf("Fourth character: ");
scanf("%c", &fourth);
printf("Fifth character: ");
scanf("%c", &fifth);

printf("%c", first);
printf("%3c", second);
printf("%5c", third);
printf("%3c", fourth);
printf("%c\n", fifth);

return 0;
}

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When I compile and run the program, however, after inputting the first character and pressing enter, "Second character: Third character: " prints all at once, and then "Fourth character: Fifth character: " prints all at once, as well. Can someone help me understand why it is not going along one command at a time?

Thanks,
Steve

Yes. It's a little trick of scanf() ... scanf() leaves unprocessed characters in the input buffer... so the next scanf() sees them...

Think about what happens when you press in your first character ... you type A <enter> ... the enter key stays in the buffer.

There is a documented ( look up scanf() in your C Library Docs and/or help files ) trick; you can put a leading space in the formatter string for scanf() and it will ignore whitespace looking for the first visible character...

Code:

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scanf(" %c", &first); // etc.

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Thank you so much! I suspected something along those lines, but the leading space trick is great. Kudos

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Schank

Thank you so much! I suspected something along those lines, but the leading space trick is great. Kudos

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Now... did you actually look up scanf() and see the full detail of how it works? You will find that very helpful.