If statments for a struct w/ strings

Hello all! Trying to finish up my last programming assignment for the semester. In the beginning of the program I created a struct, and one of the individual elements of the struct is a character string called "action". What I want to do is IF action is ____, then do this. I'm getting all sorts of compiler errors. I'm only going to post the code from the function I wrote it in, but if you want to see the struct or main, let me know.

Code:

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int readfile(FILE *ifp, struct class student[]){
  int num, index;

  //Read in number of records.
  fscanf(ifp, "%d", &num);

  //Read in each record one by one.
  for (index=0; index<num; index++) {
    fscanf(ifp, "%s", student[index].last);
    fscanf(ifp, "%s", student[index].first);
    fscanf(ifp, "%s", student[index].action);

        //If they took a class or are doing grade forgiveness,
        // only scan in hours and grade.

      if(student[index].action == 'TOOK_CLASS' ||
          student[index].action == 'GRADE_FORGIVE'){
              fscanf(ifp, "%d", &student[index].hours);
              fscanf(ifp, "%s", student[index].grade);
                                                  }

        //If they are changing their grade, scan in hours, old grade, and new grade.
      if(student[index].action[] == 'CHANGE_GRADE'){
              fscanf(ifp, "%d", &student[index].hours);
              fscanf(ifp, "%s", student[index].grade);
              fscanf(ifp, "%s", student[index].newgrade);
                                                  }
  }

 return num;

}

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Thanks!

Things like this:

Code:

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'TOOK_CLASS'

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...seem to be your problem. Are they a global variable or a string literal?

If they're a string use double quotes:

Code:

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"TOOK_CLASS"

---

If they're a variable, no quotes:

Code:

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TOOK_CLASS

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Another thing worth mentioning is a bit of a logical error. No matter what "action" the student has, the first two things you read in are hours and grade. So there is no need for that first if statement.

Code:

---

fscanf(ifp, "%d", &student[index].hours);
fscanf(ifp, "%s", student[index].grade);

if(student[index].action[] == 'CHANGE_GRADE')
      fscanf(ifp, "%s", student[index].newgrade);

---

In C language you don't test equality of strings using the == operator like you do in c++. you have to use strcmp() for case-sensitive comparisons. I don't think there is a standard C function for case-insensive comparisons, some compilers have stricmp() while others have something like comparenocase().

So an if statement might look like this (assuming action is a char array).

Code:

---

if( strcmp(student[index].action, "CHANGE_GRADE") == 0)
{
  // do something when true
}

---

If only string comparisons were that easy in C... :rolleyes:

Most string operations will require that you call some kind of string function. The if-else arrangement you have shown would require the use of strcmp(), such as:

Code:

---

if ( strcmp(student[index].action, "CHANGE_GRADE") == 0 )
{
    // take CHANGE_GRADE action here
}

---

While this will work, using a string for this type of logic is inefficient both in terms of RAM requirements and performance. A better alternative is to use a simple enumeration and branch on its value, such as:

Code:

---

typedef enum
{
    CHANGE_GRADE = 0
    ,TOOK_CLASS
    ,GRADE_FORGIVE
} ACTIONS;

---

...declare the action member of your structure to be of this type and then write your comparisons like this:

Code:

---

if ( student[index].action == CHANGE_GRADE )
{
    // take CHANGE_GRADE action here
}

---

Hope this helps...

Edit: Or what Dragon said...slipped in there while I was typing this :)

Thank you for your help.... the strcmp worked perfect. I knew that I had to use strcmp somewhere, but I was not sure where or how.

I understand the logical error I have, but in the second if statement (for CHANGE_GRADE), technically student[index].grade is really the old grade for the class, (in University terms) so, I did it the way I did for code readability, and compatibility w/ the problem and my comments throughout the code.

Well as long as you have a reason! ;)

I wasn't intending to call what you've done a "logical error", because it's not - it's a valid way to approach the problem. I just tend to restrict my use of strings in C whenever possible because they are awkward to work with...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KidA

I wasn't intending to call what you've done a "logical error",

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He was talking about what I said, with the extra if statement.

It's fine to have the two if statements. It does make it clearer for people that don't understand code too well. As you become more experienced, you'll find that you don't have to sacrifice "performance" (though unnoticable in this case) for readability.