Thread: Can someone please help deadline tomorow

Originally Posted by scott1990

Is tmp some sort of function? MK27

No, it's an instance of this datatype:

Code:

typedef struct
{
  char ISBN[20];
  char Author[SIZE];
  char Title[SIZE];
}record_structure;

You only need one, you are going to overwrite it at each iteration of the while loop. However, there is a mistake in that code I posted [corrected] -- since tmp is not a pointer you need to use the & address of operator:

Code:

while (fread(&tmp, sizeof(record_structure), 1, record_file)) {

You picked kind of an unfortunate day to look for advice here -- everyone is probably out enjoying the holiday and totally gorgeous weather on the eastern seaboard.

On the bright side, as Adak says, presuming the rest of your code compiles and works, you are perhaps not far from being done. I'll probably be in and out all night, don't give up. The more information and explanation you can provide in this case the better.

If your existing code does not compile and work -- well, this is going to be a "learning the hard way" kind of lesson, which you should take to heart because to err is human, but learning the hard way is human too and don't miss out on that.

Originally Posted by scott1990

I've compiled this but all it does is ask me to enter the title and nothing else

Unfortunately, while using a non-human readable data file is easier in some ways, debugging it's use is probably harder. But don't worry, we can probably figure out if that is the complication (if the rest of your code works, it probably isn't so serious).

Originally Posted by whiteflags

I can think of one thing.

>> scanf("%s", &searchtitle);

Aren't most real book titles more than one word? That will be a problem if your user intends to find, The Old Man and the Sea, and the computer only looks for The book title!

I always forget this point until I notice the outcome. @scott: this could have significant consequences for the way your original data is inputted -- scanf's %s reads up to whitespace -- and relates to what I just said about the difficulties debugging a non-human readable data file.

_______

I think you have fundamentally misunderstood some of the basic logic too, hopefully we can work that out. Here's more what the search should look like:

Code:

void search_by_title() {
	record_array tmp;

	printf ("Please enter the title of the book you are searching for: ");
	scanf("%[^\n]%*c", &searchtitle);

	record_file = fopen("C:\\bookfile.bin","rb");

	while (fread(&tmp,sizeof(record_structure),1,record_file)) {
		fprintf(stderr, "---> %s ||||| %s ||||| %s <---\n", tmp.Title, tmp.Author, tmp.ISBN);
		if (strcmp(searchtitle,tmp.Title) == 0)
			printf("Title: %s Author %s ISBN %s\n", tmp.Title, tmp.Author, tmp.ISBN);
	}
	fclose(record_file);
}

Have a look at the red parts and try and think about why I think these are important for you to consider, they involve some critical changes involving that "basic logic" (fclose is kind of a style point but a very important one).

The green line is a "debugging" line that you'll want to remove later. The point is to make sure your data is okay.

The purple bit is a solution to the problem whiteflags pointed out.

I think there are a number of possible problems you're about to run into but don't panic, just ask questions, I can't really go into depth on everything...

Originally Posted by scott1990

The only thing i had to change was record_array tmp; as it wouldnt compile with that so i changed it to record_structure tmp; which succesfully compiled, i dont know if i should have changed it or not probably not my bad.

Yeah, whoops again. Post your entire code as it exist now.

It's because of that newline issue pointed out by whiteflags. Because you use fgets to store read the data in, the scanf %s whitespace thing is not an issue. However, fgets will include the newline, so it's still there.

You might notice that your "Show details off all books stored" data displays with an odd stagger to it:

Code:

 ID NO		ISBN			Author			Title
  0                    1
                                            jan
                                                                      title one
 
  1                    2
                                           hula
                                                                      title two
 
  2                    3
                                            oct
                                                                    title three

See the newlines? "jan\n" != "jan" for strcmp.

I added this function to remove those:

Code:

void remove_newline (char *str) {
	char *p = strrchr(str,'\n');
	*p = '\0';
}

and used it in add_book() like this:

Code:

    for(num_records=0;num_records<=2; num_records++)
         {
           printf( "\n\nISBN: ");
           fflush(stdin);
           fgets(record_array[num_records].ISBN, 20, stdin);
		   remove_newline(record_array[num_records].ISBN);
           printf( "\n\nAuthor: ");
           fflush(stdin);
           fgets(record_array[num_records].Author, SIZE, stdin);
		   remove_newline(record_array[num_records].Author);
           printf( "\n\nTitle: ");
           fflush(stdin);
           fgets(record_array[num_records].Title, SIZE, stdin);
		   remove_newline(record_array[num_records].Title);

Now, the display is more like this:

Code:

 ID NO		ISBN			Author			Title
  0 		1 			jan 			title one 
  1 		2 			hula 			title two 
  2 		3 			oct 			title three

Altho I had to change some formatting in display_all_records too:

Code:

    printf("\n\t\t\tDetails of all books");
	printf("\n\n\n ID NO\t\tISBN\t\t\tAuthor\t\t\tTitle");

Now, when I do the search I get:

Code:

Please enter the title of the book you are searching for: title two
1 ---> title one ||||| jan ||||| 1 <---
1 ---> title two ||||| hula ||||| 2 <---
Title: title two Author hula ISBN 2
1 ---> title three ||||| oct ||||| 3 <---

Notice the newlines are gone so both "|||||"s appear on the same line in the debugging output? More importantly, the search finds a target.

So: you have some far from perfect code but it does work...

No, it's still the same. I notice there is one small mistake in it tho*; it does not make a difference for me, but it is still a mistake and might lead to "undefined behavior" meaning your compiler might handle this mistake differently:

Code:

void search_by_title()
{
    
    record_structure tmp;
	
	printf ("Please enter the title of the book you are searching for: ");
	scanf("%[^\n]%*c", &searchtitle);

	record_file = fopen("bookfile.bin","rb");

	while ((fread(&tmp,sizeof(record_structure),1,record_file))) {
//		fprintf(stderr, "%d ---> %s ||||| %s ||||| %s <---\n", tmp.Title, tmp.Author, tmp.ISBN);
		if (strcmp(searchtitle,tmp.Title) == 0)
			printf("Title: %s Author %s ISBN %s\n", tmp.Title, tmp.Author, tmp.ISBN);
	}
	fclose(record_file);

}

You should remove the & -- searchtitle is pointer all by itself. A style point here would be that if this is the only place you use it, searchtitle should be local to search_by_title() not global.

* I think your compiler would have warned you about that one if you had warnings enabled -- I didn't before which is why I just noticed this now...

Originally Posted by whiteflags

I'm posting it again - for the OP's benefit 'cause apparently it didn't sink in - and cause being ignored by your peers is a real kick in the balls I'm not prepared to deal with maturely this morning.

Tch, nobody's ignoring you, this has been dealt with (witness the OP's last posted code uses %[^n]):

Originally Posted by MK27

It's because of that newline issue pointed out by whiteflags.

Have some coffee.

Originally Posted by scott1990

The search option isnt letting me type in any input, it produces the 8 records instead.

Here's what it looks like:

http://i45.tinypic.com/14iisep.jpg

Oh and i spoke to my lecturer today and he says he'll give me to Thursday to do it

Well, that's good.

I just noticed I did add something in order to get that to work the first time, but forgot about it by the time I got to that last long post. In menu():

Code:

    printf("\n\nEnter your choice ");
    scanf("%d%*c", &choice);

This is to clear the \n, which otherwise will be there waiting. I notice some places you use fflush(stdin) to deal with that. That's an undefined behaviour risk again, and unless you've actually seen your prof use it (s/he shouldn't be, either) s/he won't like it! Read this, it will take you 10 minutes:

STDIN pitfalls