Thread: C program character count

Originally Posted by ArakelTheDragon

Code:

  return "0";

You return the literal string "0". So if you're printing out what the functions returns of course you're going to get "0". You probably want to return a pointer to the string you just wrote:

Code:

  return ReturnedString;

Originally Posted by ArakelTheDragon

Good day!

I am trying to build a C program for a character count, but it does not work for some reason. Can someone please tell me why?

character count:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>        /* Standard IN/OUT library. */
#include <stdint.h>        /* Standard extended....... library. */
/* #include <io.h> */         /* This library is not present in this compiler. */
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>

char *CharacterCount (char *InputFilename, char *ReturnedString)
{
                    // Local variables.
  int i, n, b, t, iAll;
  char sAll[5], sBlanks[5], sTabs[5], sNewLines[5];
  //char sC[5];
  char c;
  //char sStr[100];
  FILE *ifp;
  char *InMode = "r";

  ifp = fopen(InputFilename, InMode);

  if (ifp == NULL)
  {
            return "-1";
                                                                        /* MS DOS. */
            //fprintf(stderr, "Can't open input file %s!\n", InputFilename);
            exit(-1);                                   /* Maybe should be "1". */
  }

  for (i=0, n=0, b=0, t=0, iAll=0; ; i++)                       /* The use of "while" will lead to wrong reading of the characters(44141242145), */
  {                                                                /* probably counts the addresses not the characters. */
    c = fgetc(ifp);                                                /* Automatic incrementation, after every read the counter is set to the next element. */
    if (c == EOF)
        break;
    if (c == '\n')
        n++;
    if (c == ' ')
        b++;
    if (c == '\t')
        t++;
    iAll++;
  }

  fclose(ifp);                                                  /* All files must be closed. */


                                                                /* Convert int iAll to string sAll. */
    itoa (i, sAll, 10);
                                                                /* Convert int c to string sC. */
    //itoa(*c, sC, 10);
                                                                /* Convert int Blanks to string sBlanks. */
    itoa(b, sBlanks, 10);
                                                                /* Convert int Tabs to string sTabs. */
    itoa(t, sTabs, 10);
                                                                /* Convert int NewLines to string sNewLines. */
    itoa(n, sNewLines, 10);
                                                                /* Convert all the text and char variables into 1 string. */
    sprintf(&ReturnedString [0], "All == %s,\nCharacters == %s,\nBlanks == %s,\nTabs == %s,\nNewlines == %s.", sAll, sBlanks, sTabs, sNewLines);
    /* This is the only way that works, on the forums they say its not safe. */

  return "0";
}

You really need to learn to "separate concerns" in the organization of your code. Think of it like a machine. The more self-contained parts, the easier it is to write virtually bug-free code. So make a function that just counts ASCII. The function that returns the string in your example should probably be eliminated. Too specific, you might as well just put that code into main().

Another major problem is your failure to verify lengths before writing to strings. This is a very dangerous habit! Buffer overflows are like the #1 problem when it comes to system security. Always make a point of checking your code for these kinds of issues. You can calculate the exact number of bytes needed to represent any integer using a bit of maths, but the simplest thing to do is just pick some number that is guaranteed to be long enough. A choice of 32 bytes for example would cover all the integers up to 64-bits long.

One more thing, since you're working with ASCII you can make things more efficient using a lookup table.

Code:

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

void count_ascii(char* text, size_t counts[256])
{
 memset(counts, 0, sizeof(size_t) * 256);
 while(*text)
  ++counts[*text++];
}

/* Not thread-safe! */
size_t* count_ascii_static(char* text)
{
 static size_t counts[256];
 count_ascii(text, counts);
 return counts;
}

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
 puts("- Count Ascii -");
 printf("Usage: %s [TEXT]\n", *argv);
 while(*(++argv))
 {
  char* text = *argv;
  printf("\"%s\"\n", text);
  size_t* counts = count_ascii_static(text);
  for(size_t index = 0; index < 256; ++index)
   if(counts[index])
    printf("%c (%ld): %ld\n", (char)index, index, counts[index]);
 }
}

This may not be what you're looking for but strlen works well.

Code:

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

#define BUFFER_1024 1024


int main() {

FILE *fptr, *fptw;


     fptr=fopen("file/A.txt","r");
     fptw=fopen("file/B.txt","w");


    int len;
    char array[20]="myfile or mystring";


    len = strlen(array) ;


    printf ( "FileSize: %d\n" , len ) ;
    
    fclose(fptr);
    fclose(fptw);


     return 0;
}

No matter how I do it, it does not work. I even did it with DOS, it does not work .

main code:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <dos.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <windowsx.h>
#include <mmsystem.h>
#include <ctype.h>                          // getint ().
#include <conio.h>                          // getch (), ungetch ().
#include "Y:/Other/Library_OS/Functions.h"  // List of the functions.


                                            /* Definitions. */
#define SIZE 255

                                            /* Function declarations. */

int main()
{
    /* Local variables and initialization. */
    int a = 0;                              // Used to select which function should be activated.
    int TemporaryVariable = 0;              // Used in all functions.
    char TemporaryString [256] = "Y:\\Other\\OS.cmd.Toolbox\\Testing.c";
    //TemporaryString [35] = '\0';


    while (1)
    {
        printf ("Enter operation: \n");
        printf ("1. Encryption.\n");
        printf ("2. CharacterCount.\n");
        printf ("3. ")
         scanf("%i", &a);                             /*The scanf function  takes the address of a variable to put the result into.
                                                     Writing scanf("%d", &someVar) will pass the address of the someVar  variable (using the & unary operator). */

        switch (a)
        {
            case 1: Encryptmain ();
                break;
            case 2:
                TemporaryVariable = CharacterCount(TemporaryString);
                if (TemporaryVariable != -1)
                    printf ("Characters = %d\n", TemporaryVariable);
                else printf ("Can't open the file.\n");
                break;
            default: printf ("Operation or numbers are not supported.\n");
                break;
        }


    }

    return 0;
}
                                            /**** Core functions. ****/

Function code:

Code:

#include "Y:/Other/Library_OS/Functions.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>

/***********************************************  Character count  ********************************************************************************/
int CharacterCount (char *InputFilename)
{
                    // Local variables.
  unsigned int i = 0;                         // Counter.
  char c;                                     // Used to read 1 character at a time with fgetc ().
  int AlphaNumeric = 0;                       // Will store the alphanumeric characters' amount.
  //char ItoaBuffer;                            // Used in itoa () to convert int to string.
  FILE *fp;
  char *InMode = "r";

  fp = fopen(InputFilename, InMode);

  if (fp == NULL)
  {
      return -1;
  }

  else {
    printf ("DEBUG: ");
    AlphaNumeric = strlen(fp);

  fclose(fp);                                 /* All files must be closed. */

     //itoa (AlphaNumeric, ReturnedString,  10);                                                   /* Convert all  the text and char variables into 1 string. */
     //sprintf(&ReturnedString [0], "All == %s,\nCharacters ==  %s,\nBlanks == %s,\nTabs == %s,\nNewlines == %s.", sAll, sBlanks, sTabs,  sNewLines);                    /* This is the only way that works, on  the forums they say its not safe. */

  return AlphaNumeric;
    }
}

Like this the program bugs and freezes like its processing something, the cmd flashes the dash but no result is ever given:

Code:

    while (fgetc (fp) != feof (fp))
        AlphaNumeric++;

fgetc returns a character or EOF. feof returns 0 if not at end of file or a non-zero value if it has been reached. I don't understand how you got the idea to compare the two. The correct code would look like:

Code:

    while(fgetc(fp) != EOF)
         AlphaNumeric++; /* Not alphanumeric only, counts all bytes. */

Originally Posted by vlads

fgetc returns a character or EOF. feof returns 0 if not at end of file or a non-zero value if it has been reached. I don't understand how you got the idea to compare the two. The correct code would look like:

Code:

    while(fgetc(fp) != EOF)
         AlphaNumeric++; /* Not alphanumeric only, counts all bytes. */

I tried it like this a million times, but it did not work, now for some unknown reason it works .

But now when I compare for a blank, tab and newline it does not increment.

Code:

int CharacterCount (char *InputFilename, unsigned int *Blanks, unsigned int *Tabs, unsigned int *Newlines)
{
                    // Local variables.
  unsigned int i = 0;                         // Counter.
  char c;                                     // Used to read 1 character at a time with fgetc ().
  int AlphaNumeric = 0;                       // Will store the alphanumeric characters' amount.
  //char ItoaBuffer;                            // Used in itoa () to convert int to string.
  FILE *fp;
  char *InMode = "r";

  //printf ("DEBUG: %s\n", InputFilename);
  fp = fopen(InputFilename, InMode);

  if (fp == NULL)
  {
      return -1;
  }

  else {
    printf ("DEBUG: ");
    for (i=0; c = fgetc(fp) != EOF; i++)
    {

        AlphaNumeric++; /* Not alphanumeric only, counts all bytes. */
        if (c == ' ')
            *Blanks++;
        if (c == '\t')
            *Tabs++;
        if (c == '\n')
            *Newlines++;
    }

  fclose(fp);                                 /* All files must be closed. */

    //itoa (AlphaNumeric, ReturnedString, 10);                                                   /* Convert all the text and char variables into 1 string. */
    //sprintf(&ReturnedString [0], "All == %s,\nCharacters == %s,\nBlanks == %s,\nTabs == %s,\nNewlines == %s.", sAll, sBlanks, sTabs, sNewLines);                    /* This is the only way that works, on the forums they say its not safe. */

  return AlphaNumeric;
    }
}

Originally Posted by stahta01

I have no idea if this will help; but, I will add () to see if it works.

Code:

for (i=0; c = fgetc(fp) != EOF; i++)

Code:

for (i=0; (c = fgetc(fp)) != EOF; i++)

Tim S.

I already though of this and tried this, but it does not work. I think it might be Windows 10 which does not have a real DOS OS and is made to not work with C.