Thread: trouble counting characters.

You are calling scanf two times, so you are reading two different characters.
= assigns a value to a variable
== compares values


Quzah.

You missed one:

Code:

     if (thisChar = 't')

If you had compiled with warnings turned on, you wouldn't have.

Quzah.

If you are able to specify what compiler options you use, try adding -Wall


Quzah.

You probably want something like this: How to: Enable or Disable Compiler Warnings


Quzah.

Originally Posted by christianB

ok so this is what I changed it to. everything compiles and it runs, but my count is 0 no matter what I type.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
int numThs = 0;
   char thisChar, lastChar = ' ';
   
  while (scanf("%c", &thisChar) == 1){
     if (thisChar = 't')
		lastChar = thisChar;
     else if (thisChar == 'h' && lastChar == 't')
		numThs++;
	 
  }
  printf("There were %d th's.\n", numThs);
}

i'm telling it to do the if statement as long as scanf successfully reads a character. In the if statement, I want thisChar copied to lastChar if thisChar is a 't'. I am doing this because I need to hold onto that 't', so the loop can go again and read another character. If this character is an 'h', while lastChar is 't', then it'll add 1 to numThs. Is my logic wrong?

Ok... climb into your compiler settings and turn the warning levels up to maximum. Then actually read the report it gives while trying to compile your code... treat each reported warning and error as a problem to be fixed. Get it to compile without warnings or errors.... see what happens.

Right off the top your program "skeleton" is incorrect. The minimum C program is...

Code:

int main (void)
  {

     // your code here

    return 0; }

Also with your present logic it will catch "this" ... "to his" ... and "top of hot stove"... as th combos.

is there a way to do this to account for capital letters ?

the ctype.h functions are available

i've got:

while (scanf("%c", &thisChar) == 1) {
if (thisChar == 'h' || thisChar == 'H' && lastChar == 't' || lastChar == 'T')
numThs++;
lastChar = thisChar;
}

but is there a better way to re-do that if() statement?

Originally Posted by ps2fats

is there a way to do this to account for capital letters ?

the ctype.h functions are available

You could always go look at the ctype.h functions (you know, in your book, on the internet) so that you could have seen isupper or tolower etc.


Quzah.

Originally Posted by ps2fats

right, i am aware of those functions, but on how to incorporate it so that I am able to reduce that if() statement to fewer characters.

Maybe programming isn't your thing then. Turn the small letters into big ones, or the big ones into small ones, and then only check for one or the other.


Quzah.

Originally Posted by ps2fats

is there a way to do that within the if statement?

Sure.


Quzah.