Thread: Word counting [1.5.4 The C programming language book ]

I have just started learning programming myself referring "The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie". In the following program

Code:

#include <stdio.h>


int main ()
{
    int c , n , state , nc , nw , nl ;
    state = 0 ;
    nc = nw = nl = 0 ;
    while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
    {
        ++nc ;
        if (c == '\n')
            ++nl ;
        if (c == ' ' || c == '\n')
            state = 0 ;
        else if (state == 0 )
        {
            state = 1 ;
            ++nw ;
        }
        printf("%2d%2d%2d%2d\n" , state ,nc , nw , nl ) ;
    }
    }

i modified a bit by putting printf() in the loop but i cant understand how its working as getchar() reads character by character when it encounters "abc" after reading 'a' the state should be changed to 1 and it would not read b and c .
I may be wrong but that what I understood . Sorry if the question is pretty basic but i don't wanna move forward with broken concepts.

Thanks in advance

But the value of the state variable will be one , how it will read the upcoming characters?

Thanks for the replies I understood the concept , it is counting word only.

Thanks for the replies