removing punktuation from a string with while loop

**marthinker** · 05-13-2012

Hi there,

this code should remove spaces and commas from the string , but I am wondering why the if condition fails to detect the comma and spaces .

Code:

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

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    char txt[100];
    int i = 0;
    strcpy(txt,"the postman, barely made it to the front door.");
    
    while(txt[i] != '.')
    {
        if(txt[i] != ','|| txt[i] != ' '){
        printf("%c",txt[i]);
    }
    i++;
    }
    return 0;
}

Result:

the postman, barely made it to the front door

but the output must be like this:

thepostmanbarelymadeittothefrontdoor

but when I try to remove just the comma or spaces it works fine. It must be somthing with the multiple condition in the if statment.

**jimblumberg** · 05-13-2012

If the character is not equal to a comma you print the character, a space is not a comma. You will need to change your logic. Try something like:

Code:

if(!(txt[i] == ',' || txt[i] == ' '))

Jim

**Subsonics** · 05-13-2012

It seems that the most straight forward thing you can do is to use a && instead of ||, because you want both conditions to be true before you print.

Code:

if(txt[i] != ',' && txt[i] != ' ')

**memcpy** · 05-13-2012

Read the "if" statement out loud: "if the character is not a comma or if the character is not a space".

A space is not a comma, and a comma is not a space, hence, it always works.

**marthinker** · 05-13-2012

it's working now, thanks guys for your help.

**ZuK** · 05-13-2012

I guess the closest you can get to natural spoken language is

Code:

if( ! ( txt[i] == ',' ||  txt[i] == ' ' ) )

Kurt

**Subsonics** · 05-13-2012

"If the character isn't a comma and the character isn't a space, print the character."

**ZuK** · 05-13-2012

I noticed just after posting that it is possibly only in my language/dialect where you would say it this way.
Kurt

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