Help discarding a space in char array

I applied that to my code shown below. I need to do some tuning.. not working yet. Anything stick out as problem? The only drawback is I will have to reinitialize the variable prior to each while loop right? Any shortcuts I can take on that? Thanks again.

Code:

---

    char hardness[256];
    char *first_nonblank;
    double hardness2;
    int num_spaces = 0;

    strcpy(hardness," 23.345");
    first_nonblank = hardness;

    while (isspace(*first_nonblank))
    {
            first_nonblank++;
            num_spaces++;
    }

    if (num_spaces==0)
    {
    hardness2 = atof(first_nonblank);
    printf("%1f\n", hardness2);
    }

    else
    {
    hardness2 = 0.0;
    printf("Error:Hardness test value invalid - not recorded!");
    }

/*Next while loop I will have to remember to do num_spaces=0;*/

---

I just seen your feedback laserlight - Thanks. I will give that a shot. I will just use an if statement right?

Code:

---

    char hardness[256];
    char *first_nonblank;
    double hardness2;
    /* int num_spaces = 0; */

    strcpy(hardness," 23.345");
    first_nonblank = hardness;

    if (isspace(*first_nonblank) && isspace(*first_nonblank + 1))

        -error-

    else if (isspace(*first_nonblank) && !isspace(first_nonblank + 1))

        -convert-

    else


    hardness2 = atof(first_nonblank);
    printf("%1f\n", hardness2);

---

If you can only allow a single blank, then you could do something like this:

Code:

---

if (hardness[0]!=' ') hardness2 = atof(hardness) ;
else if (hardness[0]==' ' && hardness[1] != ' ') then hardness2 = atof(hardness+1) ;
else ...handle the error

---

As always...

Thanks Todd!!