Thread: How does getchar work in this example?

Hi!

I'm working through K&R slowly and have encountered this example demonstrating getchar and putchar:

Code:

main()
{
    int c;

    c = getchar();
    while (c != EOF) {
        putchar(c);
        c = getchar();
    }
}

I am confused how, each time getchar is called in the loop, it "remembers" which character it's up to in the text stream; how does it not just go straight back to the beginning of the text stream? If somebody could clarify how this works in this case, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!