I cant figure out why my simple program is not working!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tomwa

Your primary issues were:
1) Failed to initialize your variables, when you create a variable memory is allocated for that variable by the operating system, there is however no guarantee that the value in that memory is 0 (Thus why you have to initialize your variables to zero) this ensures you don't get crazy numbers from your arithmetic.

2) Indentation, remember that you indent when you enter a new code block and when you have to much to fit on one line. You also dropped a space between return and 0.

3) Arithmetic, you had some botched arithmetic, you didn't need to use the modulus operator at all (thats the % sign).

4) Botched printf (I use linux man to lookup most function definitions:
printf(3): formatted output conversion - Linux man page

5) Unnecessary scanf, after entering all of your monetary values you accidentally read new values in to sum and r.

Hopefully I've been concise in my explanations, if you need any further clarification I'll be glad to assist.

Best of luck!

Here's the fixed code:

Code:

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#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    /* Remember to initialize variables to zero
    * as you cannot depend on having zero-ed memory */
    int p = 0,n = 0,d = 0,q = 0;
    double sum = 0;
    /* You didn't need the additional variables,
    * everything you wanted to do can be done with the variables
    * you already made */

    printf("enter number of pennies:");
    scanf("%d",&p);
   
    printf("enter number of nickels:");
    scanf("%d",&n);
    /* Multiply number of nickels by 5,
    * Note: n*=5 is the same thing as n = n * 5 */
    n *= 5;

    printf("enter number of dimes:");
    scanf("%d",&d);
    /* Multiply number of dimes by 10,
    * Note: d*=10 is the same thing as d = d * 5 */
    d *= 10;

    printf("enter number of quarters:");
    scanf("%d",&q);
    // Do the same thing for quarters
    q *= 25;

    /* Because money has decimal points we need more precision
    * This means we need to cast our integers to doubles (or floats)
    * to ensure we don't lose the decimal points
    * (An integer divided by an integer is an integer) */                                     
    sum=(double)(n+d+q+p)/100;

    // Print the value of sum;
    // Note: .2f is a format specifiers it tells printf you print
    // 2 decimal places.
    printf("you have %.2f dollars",sum);

    return 0;
}

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Thanks a lot for very useful info :) I am very novice on programming and I thought "float" represent only decimal values between 0 and 1. And thats why I needed to calculate cents and dollars separately and get them together at the end. I created kind of complex formula to make the "sum" an integer. I know I should have read more before programming this.

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Originally Posted by Lesshardtofind

And I guess that is why Grumpy and Laser seem to lean towards initializing or declaring based upon its nearest usage point because it encourages understanding of the need for the variable.

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In my case, definitely.

There is only one sure-fire way to eliminate bugs from a program. That involves hard work. To give a precise description of requirements (and the problem to be addressed or the task that the software is to achieve). To understand what each code construct (whether it is a declaration/definition, an expression, or even a preprocessor directive) you use contributes to meeting those requirements. To define test cases that will fail unless the software meets the requirements, or - if the test cases are passed - can be used to provide a body of defendable evidence about how well the requirements are met.

Instead, what we have is a lot of rules of thumb, often based on a false premise that a few small simple tricks can eliminate bugs from a program. The thing is, if you dig into the places where many of those rules originate (journal articles, teacher guides, coding standards) their primary goal is to be easy to use, teach (it is easier to get a novice to add a "= 0" than it is to get them to think about how a variable contributes to the code working as required) and (in a lot of cases) be automatically enforced (eg by some software tool, such as a compiler, that enforces coding standards). The secondary goal (at best) of these rules is that they can, in some hopefully realistic scenarios, be demonstrated to reduce incidence of bugs in software.

In practice, some authors do express a wish that, by encouraging programmers to follow their chosen rules of thumb or coding guidelines, that they will encourage programmers to think more carefully about their code, and thereby reduce bug counts. In most cases, those authors wish in vain - most programmers learn to follow the "rules of thumb" without understanding, as a habit rather than something they think about, and therefore eventually run into the inconvenient pitfalls.

Code:

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#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    float p,n,dm,q;
    float sum_p,sum_n,sum_dm,sum_q;
    float total_sum;
    float dollars;

    printf("\nEnter the number of pennies:\n");
    scanf("%f",&p);
    sum_p=p*1.00;
   
    printf("\nEnter the number of nickels:\n");
    scanf("%f",&n);
    sum_n=n*5.00;
   
    printf("\nEnter the number of dimes:\n");
    scanf("%f",&dm);
    sum_dm=dm*10.00;

    printf("\nEnter the number of quarters:\n");
    scanf("%f",&q);
    sum_q=q*25.00;

    total_sum=(sum_p)+(sum_n)+(sum_dm)+(sum_q);
    dollars=total_sum/100.00;

    printf("\nYou have $%.2f dollars\n",dollars);

return(0);
}

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ozlem Kayra

Thanks a lot for very useful info :) I am very novice on programming and I thought "float" represent only decimal values between 0 and 1. And thats why I needed to calculate cents and dollars separately and get them together at the end. I created kind of complex formula to make the "sum" an integer. I know I should have read more before programming this.

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The best way to learn is through practice, I'm glad you learned from this as that's without a doubt the best thing you could've gotten from posting on here. There are plenty of great tutorials on the site if you'd like to read more about programming in C.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LTA85

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    float p,n,dm,q;
    float sum_p,sum_n,sum_dm,sum_q;
    float total_sum;
    float dollars;

    printf("\nEnter the number of pennies:\n");
    scanf("%f",&p);
    sum_p=p*1.00;
   
    printf("\nEnter the number of nickels:\n");
    scanf("%f",&n);
    sum_n=n*5.00;
   
    printf("\nEnter the number of dimes:\n");
    scanf("%f",&dm);
    sum_dm=dm*10.00;

    printf("\nEnter the number of quarters:\n");
    scanf("%f",&q);
    sum_q=q*25.00;

    total_sum=(sum_p)+(sum_n)+(sum_dm)+(sum_q);
    dollars=total_sum/100.00;

    printf("\nYou have $%.2f dollars\n",dollars);

return(0);
}

---

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Thank you very much!

> Thank you very much!
Yes, you got a spoon-fed answer from some overly enthusiastic newbie poster.

The real question is, have you learnt anything from this exercise (except perhaps that there's a sucker to answer your question somewhere).

Will you feel as confident with next weeks assignment (which will be harder)?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Salem

> Thank you very much!
Yes, you got a spoon-fed answer from some overly enthusiastic newbie poster.

The real question is, have you learnt anything from this exercise (except perhaps that there's a sucker to answer your question somewhere).

Will you feel as confident with next weeks assignment (which will be harder)?

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I don't know what did u mean exactly, but I learned a lot from these answers. Tomwa and LTA85 gave me good idea how to do program something similar to what I did. I know there is still a lot to learn, but I am not in a hurry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by laserlight

If there is no correct initial value at that point, then there is no correct initialisation.

Consider this code:

Code:

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int i = 0;
scanf("%d", &i);
printf("%d\n", i);

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When run with certain user input, the program prints "2". Was the initialisation of i with 0 a bug or was it intentional? If it was intentional, why was i not used before the scanf?

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In this example, the initialization to 0 is arbitrary but useful: if scanf() fails to find a valid integer, then the output is defined to be 0. Without an initilization, the output is undefined in the case that scanf fails to find an integer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by c99tutorial

In this example, the initialization to 0 is arbitrary but useful: if scanf() fails to find a valid integer, then the output is defined to be 0. Without an initilization, the output is undefined in the case that scanf fails to find an integer.

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Nonetheless, it is still arbitrary, and it is probably a mistake to use i without further assignment if scanf fails. The correct approach to handling such an input error is not to check if i still has a value of 0 after the scanf call since indeed 0 is a valid input; rather, it would be to check the return value of scanf.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Salem

Yes, you got a spoon-fed answer from some overly enthusiastic newbie poster.

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i was going to make the comment after reading page 1, "since when do we DO the coding for someone?"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Salem

> Thank you very much!
Yes, you got a spoon-fed answer from some overly enthusiastic newbie poster.

The real question is, have you learnt anything from this exercise (except perhaps that there's a sucker to answer your question somewhere).

Will you feel as confident with next weeks assignment (which will be harder)?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crossfire

i was going to make the comment after reading page 1, "since when do we DO the coding for someone?"

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I love how hostile people are on here, you act as though the OP said "Write me a program that gets the value of money from the number of coins" and I just did it, in reality a user posted his NEARLY complete code with errors (caused by his misunderstanding of floats) and asked how to fix a problem, I posted repaired code (Using comments to explain WHY things were changed) and posted a detailed post explaining what was broken (Initialization aside), I especially love how Salem isn't even addressing the fact that the OP blatantly stated how it cleared up the concept of floats for him.

But hey go ahead and be hostile.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tomwa

I love how hostile people are on here, you act as though the OP said "Write me a program that gets the value of money from the number of coins" and I just did it, in reality a user posted his NEARLY complete code with errors (caused by his misunderstanding of floats) and asked how to fix a problem, I posted repaired code (Using comments to explain WHY things were changed) and posted a detailed post explaining what was broken (Initialization aside), I especially love how Salem isn't even addressing the fact that the OP blatantly stated how it cleared up the concept of floats for him.

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I'm not Salem but my reading of this thread is that Salem answered to the post of Ozlem Kayra in which he answered to the post of LTA85 who just dumped a complete solution without any further comments.

Thus I don't think Salem had you in mind when he talks about an "overly enthusiastic newbie poster"

Bye, Andreas

I liked your post, Tomwa - LTA's also. You gave plenty of info, and LTA's code was so clear that there was no need to explain anything further.

The forum does have a problem, that if the OP posts no code, we quickly become a "please give me the codez" gathering spot, for lazy students.

Clearly, that was NOT the case here. The OP's code was "close", imo.

Well done, both of you.