Thread: gets function is missed, not even given a chance to enter enything.

I have written function that allows a user to enter a long string of text into a file:

Code:

void menuoption3(void)
{
	FILE *textfile;
	char insertedtext[30];
	textfile=fopen(".\\textfiles\\temp.txt","w");

	printf("\n\nPlease enter in your text."
                "\nTo finish, please press enter.\n\n");
	gets(insertedtext);
	fputs(insertedtext,textfile);
	fclose(textfile);
}

If I put this function as a main one i.e. void main (void), is works fine, temp.txt is changed to whatever the user types.

However, when I use this function being called by another function (shown below), the "gets" function is missed, as in I'm not given a chance to write anything.

The menuoption3() function is called from the main function in a switch function like this:

Code:

void main (void)
....
switch(n)
...
	case 2: menuoption2();break;
	case 3: menuoption3();break;
	case 4: menuoption4();break;
....

So why doesn't the "gets" function allow me to type data at runtime?

Thanks in advance,
CookieMonster

Originally Posted by quzah

1) main does not return void. It returns an int. Always.

Okay I'll change it to an int.

Originally Posted by quzah

2) Let me guess, you're using scanf to read n, right? Well that's your problem. Don't mix scanf with any other type of input reading. For that matter, just don't use scanf.

What should I use instead? I have tried doing:

Code:

menuoption=getchar();

It doesn't work, the "cases" in the switch function do not recognise what number I entered.

Originally Posted by quzah

3) Read the FAQ, you should never use gets. What happens if I feel like typing 50 characters instead of the 29 you expect?

I'll use malloc to assign some memory at run time later.

What should I use instead of gets? An array of chars? What does work?

When I search "gets" in the FAQ, I get no results.

http://cboard.cprogramming.com/faq.p...y&titlesonly=0

Thanks for that.

CookieMonster has been thinking (<<<a dangerous thing ) a lot about streams.

Here's is what I did to solve my problem. Now this is only a small program, but I'd just like to know if this would work for bigger programs in the future:

Code:

int main ()
{
...
	scanf(" %i", &menuoption);
	
	switch(menuoption)
	{
	case 1: menuoption1();break;
	case 2: menuoption2();break;
	case 3: menuoption3();break;
...
}

Code:

void menuoption3(void)
{
	FILE *textfile;
	char insertedtext[30];
	textfile=fopen(".\\textfiles\\usertext.txt","w");

	printf("\n\nPlease enter in your text you wish to assess."
		   "\nYou have a limit of 3000 characters."
		   "\nTo finish, please press enter.\n\n");
	scanf(" %s",&insertedtext);
	fputs(insertedtext,textfile);
	fclose(textfile);
	statisticsoftextfile ("User Text",".\\textfiles\\usertext.txt");
}

The difference is the space that I put before the % in the scanf's in each of the two functions.

And another noob question: What is so bad about using void main (void), because I've been using it for the past 5 months or so.

I only ask after seeing Salem's avatar!

Why didn't someone inform me of the atrocity void main (void) committed?