Thread: Help with formatting text

Code:

void formattingText()
{
    int maxNoChars;
    char inputSentence[maxFormattingTextSize];
        
    printf("Formatting Text\n");
    printf("-------------------------\n\n");
    printf("Enter an integer (maximal no of chars per line) :\n");
    
    scanf("%d", &maxNoChars)/
    printf("Enter some sentences (between 150 - 200 chars) :\n\n");
    inputSentence == fgets(inputSentence,maxFormattingTextSize,stdin);
inputSentence == fgets(inputSentence,maxFormattingTextSize,stdin);
    /*gets(inputSentence);*/
    printf("Formatted text:\n");
    /*printf("%5d", inputSentence);*/
    printf("%s", inputSentence);
    
    
}

What do I have to add to this code to restrict the maximum number of characters per line? Any help would be appreciated.

Whoops, thanks xD

Yeah I want to set the maximum width of the block of text to the integer the user inputs. So if it's say 20:

This :
Hello this is a sample paragraph well I'll just type some more words

Will become something like this:

Hello this is a samp
le paragraph well I'
ll just type some m
ore words

Code:

void formattingText()
{
    int maxNoChars;
    char inputSentence[maxFormattingTextSize];
        
    printf("Formatting Text\n");
    printf("-------------------------\n\n");
    printf("Enter an integer (maximal no of chars per line) :\n");
    
    scanf("%d", &maxNoChars);
    printf("Enter some sentences (between 150 - 200 chars) :\n\n");
    inputSentence == fgets(inputSentence,maxFormattingTextSize,stdin);
    
    printf("Formatted text:\n");
    printf("%s", inputSentence);
    
}

There's my weird typos fixed and now I'll try and solve this. Do I need to somehow put the int next to the s in "%s"? I don't really understand.

Code:

void formattingText()
{
    int maxNoChars;
    char inputSentence[maxFormattingTextSize];
        
    printf("Formatting Text\n");
    printf("-------------------------\n\n");
    printf("Enter an integer (maximal no of chars per line) :\n");
    
    scanf("%d", &maxNoChars);
    printf("Enter some sentences (between 150 - 200 chars) :\n\n");
    gets(inputSentence);
    
    printf("Formatted text:\n");
    printf("%s", inputSentence);
    
}

Originally Posted by laserlight

Oh. That is something of a chicken and egg scenario: you need to know what the user has entered in order to size the array to accommodate exactly that, but you need to have an array in order to read what the user has entered. Variable length arrays won't quite help here since you cannot resize them (i.e., they are variable length at compile time, but once created at run time, the length is fixed).

However, I note that this function is about formatting text, according to the name. Perhaps you really should be giving it parameters for the string to be formatted, and then you limit the output to the given max number of characters., rather than the input.

Ok, I understand conceptually what I have to do now but I am unsure of the syntax I will require. Thank you for your time.

Originally Posted by C89

Do I need to somehow put the int next to the s in "%s"?

You would need something like "%.20s"!!! But since this 20chars per line is not fixed every time and you can't use any variable (maxNoChars) in the formatting string you need to think otherwise. Like, printing char by char till you print maxNoChars per line or you have already printed all the chars.