Thread: simple scanf() problem

[tag]
Dear Experts-
Here is my very simple code where I am trying to input each lettre of user's name and then finally display the name:-

Code:

void main()
{
char a, b, c;
clrscr();

printf("Entre the first letter: ");
scanf("%c", &a);
printf("\n Entre the sec letter: ");
scanf("%c", &b);
printf("\n Entre the third letter: ");
scanf("%c", &c);

printf("\n Name: %c%c%c", a,b ,c);

getch();

}

// so when this prog. is executed then it asks for first lettre [first printf statement is executed.]
// Then after entering the first lettre rather than just asking for the second letter it directly displays the second and third printf() statements.[two printf() statements are being displayed simulteniously, without getting any input]
// Rather it should display the second printf() first then after getting the second input it should display the third printf() statement.
//
// Help please.
[/tag]

Try putting a space in between the " and the % symbol...

Originally Posted by CommonTater

Try putting a space in between the " and the % symbol...

Hey Tater;
thanx buddy, that worked.....but would you be king enough in explaining the reason behind this ?? plzzz.

The leading space tells it to ignore nonprinting characters in the input buffer.

When you're doing letter by letter (or word by word with %s) the newline character from pressing Enter doesn't get consumed by the %c so it's still in the keyboard buffer when the next scanf() comes up... and it thinks you sent it a blank line. If you add a space first you're telling it to ignore whatever's left in the buffer before waiting for new input.

Yeah... I know, way less than optimal, but that's how it works.