Thread: Remove ASCII and Newline Characters

I have some simple code. Within the code I have two strings which I use strcat() to combine. In my output I have two ASCII special characters appearing that I would like to get rid of. Does anyone know how to get rid of these characters?

I would also like to get rid of the newline character between the strings.

Here is the code if you would like to take a look:

Code:

 
 */

#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>

int main()
{
	char string[10], string2[15], string3[25];
	int(age);

	printf("Please enter your first name.\n");
	fgets(string, 10, stdin);

	printf("Please enter your last name. \n");
	fgets(string2, 15, stdin);

	printf("How old are you? \n");
	scanf("%d", &age);

	strcat(string3, string);
	strcat(string3, " ");
	strcat(string3, string2);

	printf( "Your name is %s. \n", string3);

	printf( "You are %d years old.", age);

	getchar();
	return 0;
}

Thank you Salem. Starting with strcpy() worked wonders for getting rid of the ASCII characters. Any recommendations for getting rid of the newline character?

1) 'string3' is uninitialized, so the first character may not be '\0', which will cause strcat to work improperly.
2) 'fgets' may append a newline. You need to search for it and strip it out, if present.
3) 'strcat', along with any other function that doesn't take the size of the buffer into consideration, is unsafe. Unfortunately, strncat doesn't guarantee a null termination, so it is unsafe as well!
4) Don't use 'magic constants'. Define a standard buffer size, or pass variables.

Suggestion:

Code:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>

/*
	Reads a line from standard input, and discards the newline, if present
*/
char* getline( char* buf, size_t max )
{
	char
		* nln,
		* ret = fgets( buf, max, stdin );
	if( ret )
	{
		nln = strchr( ret, '\n' );
		if( nln )
			*nln = '\0';
	}
	return ret;
}

/*
	A safe strncat alternative
*/
char* concat( char* buf, const char* end, size_t max )
{
	size_t
		len = strlen( buf );
	char
		ch, 
		* ptr = buf + len;
	for( ;; )
	{
		if( ++len >= max )
			break;
		ch = *end++;	
		if( ch == '\0' )
			break;
		*ptr++ = ch;	
	}
	*ptr = 0;
	return buf;
}

/*
	Sets the first character in a buffer to '\0'
*/
char* reset( char* buf )
{
	*buf = '\0';
	return buf;
}

#define MAX_BUF 64

int main()
{
	char string[MAX_BUF], string2[MAX_BUF], string3[MAX_BUF];

	printf("Please enter your first name.\n");
	getline(string, sizeof( string ));

	printf("Please enter your last name. \n");
	getline(string2, MAX_BUF);

	reset( string3 );
	
	concat(string3, string, MAX_BUF);
	concat(string3, " ", MAX_BUF);
	concat(string3, string2, MAX_BUF);

	printf( "Your name is %s. \n", string3);

	getchar();
	return 0;
}