number of times number appears in array

[wake]

Hi everyone. I am trying to write a simple function that counts the number of times a number appears in a given string. The function keep returning a very large negative number. Am I perhaps making a mistake with where I am declaring variables?

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
char line[100];
int count(int number, char array[], int length);
int search_num;
int array_length;
int main()
{
    printf("Enter a series of numbers: ");
    fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin);
    printf("Enter a number to check occurence of: ");
    scanf("%d", &search_num);
    array_length = strlen(line);
    printf("The number %d appeared %d times in this array\n",
        search_num, count(search_num, line, array_length));
    return 0;
}
int count(int number, char array[], int length)
{
    int i;
    int number_count;
    for (i = 0; i < length; i++)
    {
        if (array[i] == number)
            number_count++;
        else
            continue;
    }
    return (number_count);
}

[rags_to_riches]

What is the value of number_count the first time you increment it?

[dariyoosh]

... I am trying to write a simple function that counts the number of times a number appears in a given string ...

I think you may want to change the way you search for the specific number in your string value, at the lines 24, 25 in your code

if (array[i] == number)
     number_count++;

allows to compare only one digit each time as each digit in this context being represented as a char. So for example if I want to search 87, inside a loop, I detect 8 with i as the value of the loop counter and I will detect 7 at the next iteration (i + 1). In other words, two digits (or more) numbers cannot be detected as a whole, in the way you're comparing and searching inside the string. A more appropriate solution consist of providing a for example comma delimited string, where numbers are separated by a delimiters. Then define a function which splits the string into several tokens (therefore each token a number), putting those tokens converted to number inside an array of integers and then search inside that array for the specific number.


Regards,
Dariyoosh

[Adak]

Take the number you want to search for, as a string instead of a number. Then search for it in the text string with strstr(). That's what strstr() was made to do.

You already have the included file you need for this.

[wake]

Thank you for all the help. My first time posting here and the responses were great.