Thread: Why is fgets not fully populating its buffer?

Any ideas? I can't execute the clear buffer instruction because fgets never fully populates its buffer. If I execute the clear buffer functions before fgets populates its buffer, the clear buffer will go into an infinite loop since null is in stdin. It can't find '\n' or EOF.

For example, if I place 10000 inside of the buffer, it's fully populated because of '\n' at the end.

This isn't happening though for whatever reason.

You're still trying to use the length of the string to determine whether to clear the input buffer, which will not work.

Check for the presence of the newline to determine if the entire input has been read. If the newline is present, everything has been read and no clearing is necessary. If no newline is present, there may be more input waiting on the buffer.

This approach also allows you to replace the newline (if present) with '\0', thus eliminating it from the string.

As I mentioned, this can be handled quite simply in its own function.

Got it.

Sorry, I'm difficult sometimes. :/

Code:

//
//  main.c
//  number_guess
//
//  Created by Joshua Ernzen on 12/20/17.
//  Copyright © 2017 Joshua Ernzen. All rights reserved.
//


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


static void stdinClear() {
    short int c;
    
    while((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF);
    
    return;
}


static int nonIntDetector(char *input, unsigned long stringLength, short int invalidInput) {
    short int inputCounter, intCounter, nonIntDetect, intDetect;
    char Numbers[10] = {'0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'};
    
    nonIntDetect = 0;
    intDetect = 0;
    
    if(invalidInput) {
        puts("Invalid input.");
        
        return 1;
    }
    
    for(inputCounter = 0; inputCounter < stringLength; inputCounter++)
        for(intCounter = 0; intCounter < 10; intCounter++) {
            if(input[inputCounter] == Numbers[intCounter]) {
                intDetect++;
                break;
            }
            if(intDetect != inputCounter) {
                puts("Numbers only, please.");
                
                return 1;
            }
        }
    return nonIntDetect;
}




int main() {
    short int playAgain, loopChecker, randomNumber, intInput, invalidInput;
    char userInput[5], anotherGame[3];
    
    loopChecker = 1;
    
    puts("Random number guessing game.");
    
    do {
        randomNumber = arc4random_uniform(101);
        do {
            do {
                invalidInput = 0;
                printf("Enter your guess: ");
                fgets(userInput, sizeof(userInput), stdin);
                
                if(strchr(userInput, '\n') == NULL) {
                    stdinClear();
                    invalidInput = 1;
                }
            }
            while(nonIntDetector(userInput, strlen(userInput), invalidInput));
            
            intInput = atoi(userInput);
            
            if(intInput > randomNumber)
                puts("Too High.");
            
            else if(intInput < randomNumber)
                puts("Too low.");
        }
        while(intInput != randomNumber);
        
        puts("You win!");
        
        do {
            do {
                invalidInput = 0;
                
                puts("Another game?");
                puts("1. Yes, 2. No");
                
                fgets(anotherGame, sizeof(anotherGame), stdin);
                
                if(strchr(anotherGame, '\n') == NULL) {
                    stdinClear();
                    invalidInput = 1;
                }
            }
            while(nonIntDetector(anotherGame, strlen(anotherGame), invalidInput));
            
            playAgain = atoi(anotherGame);
            
            if(playAgain == 2) {
                playAgain = 0;
                loopChecker = 0;
            }
            else if(playAgain == 1) {
                loopChecker = 0;
            }
            else
                loopChecker = 1;
        }
        while(loopChecker && puts("Invalid input."));
    }
    while(playAgain == 1);
    
    return 0;
}

Originally Posted by ImageJPEG

Got it.

Code:

static void stdinClear() {
    short int c;
    
    while((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF);
    
    return;
}

getchar() returns an int, not short int. It doesn't make any practical difference on most systems, but it's more correct to use int. It's also less typing to write "int" than "short int".