Thread: Problems with struct members and for loop

Hi,
Could you help me to figure out what is wrong with this chunk of code?

Code:

 int i,j;

    struct office
    {
        char name;
        int desk_num;
    };


    struct office workers[3];


    for(i=0; i<3; i++)
    {
        printf("Enter the name for office worker %d: \n", i);
        scanf("%s", workers[i].name);
        printf("Enter the desk number for %s \n", workers[i].name);
        scanf("%d", workers[i].desk_num);
    }


    for(j=0; j<3; j++)
    {
        printf("%s \t %d \n", workers[j].name, workers[j].desk_num);
    }

Part of the problem is that you are trying to use a single char to hold the name. Perhaps you should think about using a C-string instead?


Jim

Would call that a solution..

Code:

    struct office
    {
        char name[32];
        int desk;
    };
    struct office worker[3];
    int i;


    for(i=0; i<3; i++)
    {
        printf("Enter the name for office worker %d: \n", i+1);
        scanf("%s", worker[i].name);
        printf("Enter the desk number:\n"); //%s \n", worker[i].name);
        scanf("%d", &worker[i].desk);
    }


    printf("\n#\tName\tDesk\n");
    for(i=0; i<3; i++)
    {
        printf("%d\t %s\t %d\n", i+1, worker[i].name, worker[i].desk);
    }

A few general comments:

• You should post a simplified yet complete program that can be compiled and run, and that demonstrates the problem.
• scanf() is not the best way to read strings, for several reasons. Try using fgets().
• rogster001 already mentioned not using magic numbers, so I'll just second that advice here.
• The extra spaces in your final output (after the tabs) are causing your output to be misaligned.

Code:

printf("%d\t %s\t %d\n", i+1, worker[i].name, worker[i].desk);
//          ^    ^

Code:

Enter the name for office worker 1:
Alex
Enter the desk number:
2
Enter the name for office worker 2:
George
Enter the desk number:
4
Enter the name for office worker 3:
Dim
Enter the desk number:
6

#       Name    Desk
1        Alex    2
2        George  4
3        Dim     6

Also note longer names will also throw off the formatting of the final output. Consider using field widths to print aligned output.

Yes. When I would run my first program, it was crushing after the first input from scanf(). Finally solved it by replacing a char name with char name[NUM].

I thought that fgets() is used to read from files or when reading input with spaces (John Smith, etc.). Tried to replace scanf() from my code with fgets(worker[i].name, NUM, stdin) to find out that it loops through it only once. The second time it skips it and asks to enter the desk number.

Code:

#define NUM 32
#define len 5




int main()
{


    struct office
    {
        char name[NUM];
        int desk;
    };
    struct office worker[len];
    int i;




        for(i=0; i<len; i++)
        {
            printf("Enter the name for office worker %d: \n", i+1);
            scanf("%s", worker[i].name);
            printf("Enter the desk number:\n");
            scanf("%d", &worker[i].desk);
        }


    printf("\n%8c\t%8s\t%8s\n",'#',"Name","Desk");
    for(i=0; i<len; i++)
    {
        printf("%8d\t%8s\t%8d\n", i+1, worker[i].name, worker[i].desk);
    }


    return 0;
}

Originally Posted by holler

I thought that fgets() is used to read from files or when reading input with spaces (John Smith, etc.).

It's used to read an entire line from a stream (assuming the buffer is large enough to contain the entire line). As you've already shown, it can be called using stdin as the stream.

It may be a good idea to read strings with the spaces; what if there's a John Smith and a John Higgins?

Be aware that fgets() stores the newline (if there's room), which must be removed if you don't need it in the string.

Originally Posted by holler

Tried to replace scanf() from my code with fgets(worker[i].name, NUM, stdin) to find out that it loops through it only once. The second time it skips it and asks to enter the desk number.

The newline left over from entering the number at the end of the first iteration is read by fgets() at the beginning of the second. This is one of the problems with mixing formatted- (e.g. scanf() ) and line-oriented (e.g. fgets() ) input.

If what you have is suitable for your purposes, then it should be okay. I'll just offer an example for your consideration:

Code:

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

#define STRLEN  64
#define WORKERS  3

struct office
{
    char name[STRLEN];
    int desk;
};

int main(void)
{
    struct office worker[WORKERS];
    char input[STRLEN];
    int i;

    for(i = 0; i < WORKERS; i++)
    {
        printf("Name %d: ", i + 1);
        fflush(stdout);
        fgets(worker[i].name, sizeof(worker[i].name), stdin);
        worker[i].name[strcspn(worker[i].name, "\n")] = '\0'; /* remove newline */

        printf("Desk Number: ");
        fflush(stdout);
        fgets(input, sizeof(input), stdin);
        if(sscanf(input, "%d", &worker[i].desk) != 1)
            worker[i].desk = -1;  /* error condition, handle however you'd like */
    }

    printf("\n\n");

    for(i = 0; i < WORKERS; i++)
    {
        printf("%s sits at desk %d\n", worker[i].name, worker[i].desk);
    }

    return 0;
}

Note that both inputs are read as strings. The second one (to read the desk number) uses sscanf() to parse the input string for the number. If a number is not found, it defaults to a value of -1.