Thread: Printing words to console screen

I knocked off a couple or so struct members, and changed the print out a bit, but you get the idea. Contents of the payroll.txt file, is at the bottom of the program.

Code:

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


struct employee1 {
    int num; 
    char first_name[8];
    char last_name[8];
    int id_number; 
    int year;
    double pay_rate;
    double sthours; 
    double ot_hour;
    double double_hour;
    double gross_pay;
};     
    


int main() {
  int i, n ; 
  struct employee1 emp; 
  char junk[200];
  FILE *writeptr = fopen("payroll.txt", "rt");
  fgets(junk,200, writeptr);

		//printf("Enter record number to be edited\n");
		//scanf("%d", &employee.num);

		//moving file pointer to position of record user requested
//		fseek(writeptr, (employee.num-1) * sizeof(struct employee_data), SEEK_CUR);
		
		fscanf(writeptr, "%d %s %s %d %lf %d %lf %lf %lf %lf" , &emp.num, 
    emp.first_name, emp.last_name, &emp.id_number, &emp.pay_rate, &emp.year, 
    &emp.sthours, &emp.ot_hour, &emp.double_hour, &emp.gross_pay);
		
		printf("\n Number: %6d  First Name: %-15s  Last Name: %-15s \
    \n ID No: %-8d Pay Rate: %-10.2lf         Year: %-10d \
    \n ST Hours: %-.2lf  1.5 Hours: %-.2lf              2x hours: %-.2lf  Gross Pay: %-.2lf ", 
    emp.num, emp.first_name, emp.last_name, emp.id_number, emp.pay_rate, 
    emp.year, emp.sthours, emp.ot_hour, emp.double_hour, emp.gross_pay);

        

  printf("\n\n\t\t\t     press enter when ready");

  fclose(writeptr);
  getchar();
  return 0;
}
/*
Contents of the payroll.txt file:

number    First name     Last name      id no.      pay rate  year      sthours     1.5 hours   2x hours    

Gross pay        
1         p              w              1           1.00        1       1.00        1.00        1.00        

4.50
*/

It isn't necessary.

fgets pulls off the header line, but needs a char array to hold it. "junk" seemed like a good name, since I knew I wouldn't be using it later (it was too wide for my editor to fit in one screen). It just gets rid of the entire header line. If you use fscanf(), it will pull off only enough letters until it hits the blank space between words. Then fscanf() stops. (and it doesn't restart itself or look for other data further on). You could have an "%s" for every word in the header, but there were many, and I didn't want to do that, at that point.

Printing to the screen is independent of how you input the data. You don't have to use fgets(), at all. You just have to use "something" so the data can be reached. Both fgets() and fscanf() need the file pointer, but the file pointer has nothing to say about output to the screen (although the screen is a file stream in C, it is handled by it's own built-in file pointer).

I think i got what you meant with that explanation. I finally got my program to work how i want it to atlast, it doesnt seem to happen very often
You are the man!
thanks for your help and time.

Thanks for the kind words, and just stop by when you have problems with your code. I know I've learned a lot here.